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I guess there’s a tire shortage now
Posted: Tue May 17, 2022 9:04 pm
by Don ellis
I hear there’s plenty but there stuck on a ship. Has anyone ran Olympics before? How did they do?
Re: I guess there’s a tire shortage now
Posted: Tue May 17, 2022 10:00 pm
by Scott_Conger
I just ordered Riversides (5) from Lucas on a Thursday 5/5 and received them last Tuesday 5/9. I've found the Riversides to wear very well and so decided to put them on my newest T. No experience with Olympics...sorry.
Re: I guess there’s a tire shortage now
Posted: Tue May 17, 2022 10:35 pm
by Allan
Don, tell me more about Olympics. They stopped making them in Australia in the early 1970's in 30 x 3.5 BE. I believe the moulds ended up with Lucas. They made tyres with Lucas in the sidewall brand, and then with no brand.
When Olympic stopped making any tyres, the moulds went to India. We have Indian made Olympics on some of our farm machinery. If Olympic BE tyres have come back, I wonder who is making them.i
It would be too much to expect the usual suspects to realise there is competition from Blockley for a quality product, and this is their response.
Let's hope
Allan from down under7
Re: I guess there’s a tire shortage now
Posted: Wed May 18, 2022 7:38 am
by Don ellis
It’s the Lucas tire with the Olympic tread
Re: I guess there’s a tire shortage now
Posted: Wed May 18, 2022 10:12 am
by Allan
The Australian made 30 x 3.5 BE tyres are legendary for their longevity and high mileage. I have no idea how the Lucas made ones perform, or whether they have started to make them again
Allan from down under.
Re: I guess there’s a tire shortage now
Posted: Wed May 18, 2022 10:46 am
by Rich P. Bingham
It sure gets confusing. It would appear a brand name means absolutely nothing among the choices offered through the past 20 years or more ? Blockley seems to be the only source up front about place of manufacture and their specifications.
Re: I guess there’s a tire shortage now
Posted: Wed May 18, 2022 11:17 am
by catbol
I ran Olympics from Austrailia on my '25 touring until last year. The rear ones had finally worn out. The front ones still had many more miles on them left. Almost 50 + years old and only a couple side cracks. I don't know how many thousands of miles were on them.
Re: I guess there’s a tire shortage now
Posted: Wed May 18, 2022 2:55 pm
by NealW
I called Lucas today to order two 30 x 3 1/2 tubes for my 11T project. The guy said that the have 2000 of those tubes in stock now, so that was good to hear! As Scott said in an earlier post, the guy also mentioned that they had their brand of T tires in stock. Riverside and maybe others. There prices on those are higher than they used to be, but that is no surprise given inflation and soaring shipping container costs. I got some Blockley tires last fall for the project, but it is good to see that other tires are starting to be available stateside again.
Re: I guess there’s a tire shortage now
Posted: Thu May 19, 2022 9:48 am
by TXGOAT2
Re: "It would appear a brand name means absolutely nothing among the choices offered through the past 20 years or more ?"
/////// That seems to be true of just about everything these days. I always look, and it always says, "MADE IN CHINA", or "ANYWHERE BUT USA". I buy USA-made when I can. It's becoming difficult to find anything MADE IN USA. That's true for most anything you might want to buy, from food and fiber to any manufactured item, whether consumer, industrial, or agricultural.
Re: I guess there’s a tire shortage now
Posted: Thu May 19, 2022 10:49 am
by Original Smith
I was at Lucas a couple of weeks ago, and the brand of tubes they have is called Custom Classic. What I don't like is it says they fit 30 X 3, 30 X 3 1/2, and 31 X 4. Since those are two different rim sizes, I'm choosing to stay away from them. I would like to see the antique auto companies, and tire companies get together and import hundreds of tubes, so we don't have to order from England. Another issue I have is, no one has explained yet what style of valve stem the Blockley brand has. I'm not interested in the current style brass valves, because they are too big a diameter, therefore, I will have to buy rubber valve stems, and cut them off as I have been doing for dozens of years.
Re: I guess there’s a tire shortage now
Posted: Thu May 19, 2022 11:54 am
by Steve Jelf
It sure gets confusing. It would appear a brand name means absolutely nothing among the choices offered through the past 20 years or more ? Blockley seems to be the only source up front about place of manufacture and their specifications.
When it comes to tubes for clincher tires, the brand sure means something to me. After you buy the tubes, of course, you find the country of origin on them. I assume Blockleys are made in Vietnam like the tyres. Hartfords are made in China. Custom classics are made in India. Guess what. None of that matters. What matters are the standards the importers require the factories to meet, wherever they may be located. And if Made in USA was ever an indication of superior quality, it certainly isn't now. Have you bought a garden sprayer lately?
The reason I care about brands is that I have had different experiences with them. I was once mounting a tire and finding that it wouldn't hold air. Assuming I had pinched the tube in mounting, I patched it and tried again. Again, it wouldn't hold air. I'm a slow learner. After removing that tube and patching it half a dozen times, I looked closely and realized that I wasn't pinching the tube. It was splitting. I told my little tale of woe on the forum and Allan explained that there was a run of Custom Classic tubes which were prone to splitting. Since then I've avoided Custom Classics in case some of the bad ones may still be in the supply line.
By all reports Blockley tubes are of superior quality. But they are offered only with metal stems. Hartfords have been quite adequate for me, so I expect I will continue buying rubber-stemmed Hartfords and installing my own metal stems at considerably less cost. I haven't done the math on Blockleys, but the last time I looked the difference between metal stemmed Hartfords and the rubber stemmed version was about $15 a tube.
Re: I guess there’s a tire shortage now
Posted: Sat May 21, 2022 12:26 am
by Chris Haynes
Steve Jelf wrote: ↑Thu May 19, 2022 11:54 am
By all reports Blockley tubes are of superior quality. But they are offered only with metal stems. Hartfords have been quite adequate for me, so I expect I will continue buying rubber-stemmed Hartfords and installing my own metal stems at considerably less cost. I haven't done the math on Blockleys, but the last time I looked the difference between metal stemmed Hartfords and the rubber stemmed version was about $15 a tube.[/size]
Aren't the Bloxley metal stems the same size as the original Schraders?
Re: I guess there’s a tire shortage now
Posted: Sat May 21, 2022 9:27 am
by Steve Jelf
Aren't the Bloxley metal stems the same size as the original Schraders?
I've only seen a picture, but I expect they're the same size as all the other metal stems currently sold. That's the Schrader 724/725 width. Original Model T stems are the narrower 777/888 size. I use the wide ones because they fit the dust covers I happen to have.