Update - New Subscribers and visitors
Welcome new subscribers and hello again to everyone else!
This email is mostly for the new peeps to get them up to speed with the project. This started as a passion project about 8 months ago as the need for this particular tire was very high, but nothing affordable was available. Fast forward to now and we have a factory producing the tires for us. Available in 26" x2.1 white/tan only with no branding other than the black sausage, these tires are as simple as it comes. We chose not to brand the tires and allow the end user to go to town with some orange paints or get creative with stickers, we did this strategically to allow us not to be treading on anyone's IP.
Production got 'green-lighted' last night, however, once production is complete, then we have a waiting game of sea shipment, customs etc. Once I have physical stock, then I will launch them for sale (I don't want to take anyone's money if the ship sank.....) Selling them will be from our website, payment securely through PayPal, and they will be shipping from both Utah USA and Cambridgeshire England, yes I know there will be duties and taxes etc, but my hope is for $100usd a pair, those taxes and duties shouldn't be a deal breaker.
The tires themselves: super nice quality, not skinwall, more of a gumwall, nicely sized and I was able to install on 4 sets of rims without the use of tire levers, weighing 990grams each, not the lightest tire, but they seemed to ride really well on the short blast I took on the DOGS Bolx. They do have some flashing on the center ridgeline, which I made aware to the factory last night and they are going to see about removal., However I was able to peel the flashing off pretty easily by hand.
Well that's about all of todays ramblings, feel free to share far and wide, and any suggestions let me know (but please don't suggest a run of them in black, that's just not on the cards for now) Oh! And I still need someone to design a logo for us please!!!
Update 4-21-25 WE HAVE TIRES (Samples at least)
They finally came in. We're stoked. I think they look great, they seem well balanced and they were easy to mount. Color seems pretty accurate. A little bit of flashing on the center molding, however with a bit of patience it easily peels off.
I am going to green-light production tonight.
They're not the lightest in weight, the average of the 4 samples we got are 990g, but they look awesome, so weight shouldn't matter.
Update 3-19-25 WE HAVE A TIRE
Hey all, in the late hours of last night/early this morning, my phone pinged and this image popped up. Looks like they pulled the first tire from the mold. Yes there need to be some subtle changes, but I think for first draft, it's not too bad. The black 'sausage' as we call it needs to be closer to where the white and the tan interfaces, I'm pretty happy with the white, I'm not 100% stoked with the tan, but I'm not sure how much that can be changed. I've asked for more pictures, but for now this is good eye fodder.
Update 2-17-25
This might be an update, I'm not sure how to read the message I was sent correctly, anyway.....
I was talking with the factory and they mentioned that 'cast' into the tire sidewall it will say '26x2.10' as we did actually design the tire to be a little wider. I said please can you change that casting to '26x1.95' to be more inline with the original tire, and they said that it wasn't possible because the machining of the mold is underway!
Now, I'm reading that as both good and bad news, bad news because there was a miscommunication and now the tires will say 2.10 cast into it, good news because there's movement on our mold production.
So I want to apologize in advance for that.
As for the printing on the side, we are going with a plain black 'sausage' shaped print, feel free to pull out your orange paint and go to town on it, more on this in the coming weeks.
Update 2-10-25
I chatted with the factory towards the end of last week, it would appear that they are open and working away on the mold!
I'm excited to see what our mold looks like, and even more excited to see the sample tire they send through. Hopefully they can get the white and tan as close to original as possible, I've sent them multiple images, so fingers crossed!
Mold production is still promised by the end of this month so that's great news. I would love to promise an end date to this project, but that would be too premature of me at this point, so hang in there.
Thank you to everyone that reached out to us to 'up' their orders to two, three and even more pairs, its super appreciated.
Update 1-27-25
Morning all!
Not much to report on this week as the factory is closed, but I've been bugging my contact regardless, however nothing to show for it.
But we could use some some help!
If anyone has any pictures of these classic tires in white, or old photographs of their bikes with these awesome white tires, and you don't mind us using them, please send them our way!
We're tired of looking at the same 10 images on google and need some new content!
Email us at aidan@retrowhitetires.com
Update 1-20-25
Hey folks,
I've been talking daily to the factory to try and push for images of the physical mold production etc, but I guess that kind of stuff is all kept under wraps, but, they did say; "Now only the mold is just a whole piece of iron", so maybe that's progress? (I would of imagined it being aluminum, but I have no idea).
Now my contact is saying "Before March 1st" (for the mold production) so fingers crossed. As anything exciting is released to me, I will of course keep you in the loop.
Update 1-13-25
Yesterday I was talking to the tire factory and they said that the mold should be finished by March 1st, that's a few months ahead of schedule, which is awesome news.
It would probably be sooner but they have spring breaks and Chinese new year, so factories shut down a while over the next few months.
My contact also promised to head down to the factory to take photos and video of the mold being produced, hopefully nothing got lost in translation there, so fingers crossed.
As always, thank you for your support on this project, without your support, this project would not be happening.
Aidan and crew
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, everyone wants them
A truly iconic tire of the nineties, We are starting production of a very accurate homage to this tire.
But why this tire? Because I wanted a couple of sets for some vintage bikes that I have, and they demand a premium when they occasionally do come up for sale, so why not make an homage tire that is perfect for wall hangers and occasional rides, the perfect retro bike tire.
We are producing a 26" White with tan walled tire, wire bead - no frills or logos.
Hit the subscribe button for up to date information as we receive it.