Did some 1970's Road bikes have 26 inch tyres ?

[Ming the Merciless]

My 2014 Surly came with 26" tyres. It's a drop bar touring bike, does that count ?

No, unless 2014 was in the 1970s

 

[brommieinkorea]

Of course Huffy and Murray put out lots of "road bikes" with 26, even 24 inch tyres (late 70s) but it's a stretch calling them bikes.

 

[oldandslow]

By the 70’s essentially all adult “racing bikes with gears and dropped bars had 27 x 1/14 high Pressure (presta) wheels. Smaller racing bikes such as Raleigh Hustjer had 26 “ wheels but that was to fit in the smaller frames

Roadsters had 26” wheels (Raleigh Watferer etc) shrader valves as woods valves went out a few years before.

This summary matches my recollection. The strict answer to the question therefore is "No", because by the 70s road bikes had 27", although other bikes commonly used 26".

After that, of course, continental sizes such as 700C took over. They were already in use for racing wheels even in the 70s, I suspect because those were specialised and our market wasn't large enough to sustain sizes different from those on the Continent.

 

[Hover Fly]

By the 70’s essentially all adult “racing bikes with gears and dropped bars had 27 x 1/14 high Pressure (presta) wheels. Smaller racing bikes such as Raleigh Hustjer had 26 “ wheels but that was to fit in the smaller frames

Roadsters had 26” wheels (Raleigh Watferer etc) shrader valves as woods valves went out a few years before.

Surely in the ‘70s nearly all proper racing, and many serious touring, bikes had 700c sprint rims and tubular tyres, partly because the HP tyres available after Dunlop left cycle tyre making were nearly all crap, and for tourists visiting , say, the alps, there were spares available on the continent.

 

[midlife]

Surely in the ‘70s nearly all proper racing, and many serious touring, bikes had 700c sprint rims and tubular tyres, partly because the HP tyres available after Dunlop left cycle tyre making were nearly all crap, and for tourists visiting , say, the alps, there were spares available on the continent.

I put racing bikes in quotes ( sorry missed the second set) and meant the bread and butter bikes from Raleigh / Falcon / Dawes / etc.

Not “proper” bikes that were used for road, track, Kermesse / circuit racing.