At the bike shop again

[Wildcat]

I made up another wheelset for fun and went in for truing. As usual, they had them trued up while I waited for 15-20 minutes. And also just for a few dollars. I picked up a set of 26 x 1.38 tires and tubes also. Not 1 3/8ths, why they do tires in a confusing size is beyond me Why not a number like 1.35?
I was working toward a 32 spoke wheelset using my S2C hub, but these white rims arrived with 36 holes somehow. Advertised as "Rim Mavic 26 White with Eyelet 32 Holes Alloy". I knew they weren't Mavic for 5 bucks, so I'm waiting to see how the online seller handles it. I wound up scrounging through my hubs and going with a coaster hub and a somewhat matching hub for the front. I sure would like to find a red band Bendix hub.

I started in on these without counting the holes in the rim. Too many holes.

 

[Da Gas Man]

I love the way these guys work. The attire, the tools all over. The sparks!
It's like you looked in my garage and watched me for a little while and
said, "Hey, guys. No boots and no shirt, okay? That's it! Post it!" But
you know it's going to ride perfectly when they're done. Unlike my garage.
I'm a mess.

 

[rickpaulos]

26" tires.

7 different rim diameters!

all the decimal point sizes use the same size rim.
each fractional size has it's own rim diameter.
and there are 2 different rim diameters for 26 x 1 3/8" (The Brits & Schwinn)

1.38 would be a conversion from a metric width with a bit of math rounding error. But most metric labeled tires have both the width and diameter in metric. Mixing metric & English inches is sure to add even more confusion.

The great thing about standards is there are so many of them.

The first attempt at tire standards documentation was the ETRTO (European Tire Organization) in the 1970s. Before ETRTO, each tire and rim maker manufactured their products in what ever dimensions they thought was right. There were lots of battles during the bike boom trying to fit 27" tires on 27" rims. ETRTO was later superseded by ISO (International Standards Org). But creating new standards does zippo for backwards compatibility. Each tire size has it's own history, in some cases going back 100 years. Schwinn was famous for recycling old french sizes labeled with fractions for the metric fearing USA market. New tires are made to correct sizes now but old rims that weren't still are wrong. If you want decimal point tires, scrap those fractional rims and get new mtb rims. The tire selection for 26xdecimal point tires is amazing. Tire selection for fractional sizes ranges from very limited to "sorry, they don't make that size anymore"