26" Tan/Amber Wall Tires?

[Canuckbiker]

Hi RB community, I'm sure more than a few of us have asked this question before and some potentially already have a good go to amber or tan wall 26" modern tire.

On my latest build I'm fortunate to have some 30 year old MegaBites in decent shape but I don't see them lasting forever. The repro Smoke/Dart option seems to be the only real viable option I'm finding so far. On that note: would it be silly to run two Darts? Front & rear? I'm aware the Smoke was designed as a rear and it has one of the coolest side knob patterns ever to boot. I'd guess the Dart would be suitable for the less than technical riding as a rear tire? I like that it has a less square profile and I've always liked matching front and rear tires. It's also a bit lighter than the Smoke.

Thoughts?

The other reason I started this thread was to ask for other good recommendations that look the part of a vintage MTB and have a tan or amber walls, modern current offerings. I picked up some 2.0 Innova's from Aliexpress and they are no where near 2.0 in volume. Decent tires but not what I was hoping for.

I'm finding that some of the big names Kenda, Specialized, WTB, etc seem to have amber or tan walls offerings but only in modern larger wheel sizes, figures...

Most of my vintage bikes have black wall tires which definitely suit them but I'd love to find some suitable Tan/amber walls in 26" if they exist that aren't super heavy and don't break the bank for certain builds.

Suggestions welcome, thanks!

 

[gtturbo]

I would run Smokes front and rear rather than Darts. That's what me and my mates raced with back in the day and they work well.

 

[27motorhead]

I was going to say Terra One do modern 26” amber wall tyres:
https://www.rideterraone.com/shop/But everything is sold out?!

Might be worth dropping them a message to see if they’re waiting on another production run?

Also Charge Splashback’s come in 26” amberwall, but they’re only 1.8” wide which don’t quite look as good as 1.95/2.1” profile tyres.

Also keep an eye out for complete bikes with original amberwall tyres. I bought a bike locally and robbed it of its pretty much new Tioga Wonder Dawgs and sold the rare bottle and cage to someone on here then flipped the bike a week with some worn out old tyres I had lying around. Excluding time those Wonder Dawg tyres cost me -£15!

 

[JRGSXR]

I’ve got smokes front and rear on my Fuchs. As gtturbo mentioned, it’s what I ran back in the 90s. I’ve also bought bikes just for the tyres, like 27motorhead. Replaced them with surplus/rubbish tyres, cleaned/repaired the bike and flipped it for a profit.

 

[ishaw]

Splashbacks came in 1.8 and 2.1 iirc. I found the 1.8s came up much wider than the size suggested and looks really good.

I've acquired some schwalbe Billy bonkers amber walls in 26 inch size. Graphics are huge but seem decent tyres, though I've yet to use them.

Continental tyres often come with an orangey red sidewall pattern. Not amber, but look different to boring black on builds.

 

[Joe*Pro]

Not used them myself, but tempted :

https://freshtripe.co.uk/simworks-the-homage-26-tyre-green-x-tan-26-x-1-95/

 

[Canuckbiker]

I'm liking the SimWorks Homage in Black & Tan with 1.95 width a lot (the Green & Tan is very nice too) but $100CAD/tire is up there.

The Charge Splashback 2.1 looks more appealing and affordable, not seeing them too available currently though but will keep looking...

Thanks

 

[ishaw]

The splashbacks are not easy to find, I had a couple of sets, sold a pair that were still 8n packaging, the others sit on my dynatech. They are 1.8s but come up much wider, I thought they may have been mislabelled 2.1s. so no idea how wide the 2.1s are in reality

 

[27motorhead]

These look lovely, but potentially too wide for a lot of old frames:
https://www.renehersecycles.com/shop/components/tires/26-inch/26-x-2-3-humptulips-ridge-tc-tire/Plus punchy price! Guess they don’t make them in huge numbers to enable a lower price point. The profile on these seems more suited to 80s MTB’s where they were more rounded with less aggressive side treads, but at 2.3” they may struggle to fit!

eBay can come up with random job lots from time to time too. In the past 6 months there’s been European sellers selling multiple pairs of knobbly amber wall tyres... Victorria (spelling?!) brand from memory? like all these things, keep your eyes peeled!

 

[Darcus]

Splashbacks are rubbish, all show and no go. They perish quickly compared with most other.