Tires by Morgan & Wright

Tires
The Morgan & Wright tire had some unique aspects to it. For any of you who have tried to fix a flat, you need to forget everyting you ever knew about the ritual. This tire was an early version of what we now call sew-ups. The concept of the sew-up (also called a tubular) tire is that the inner tube, which holds the air under pressure is sewed inside the tire, which makes it lightweight, sturdy, and easy to change. The whole tire/tube assembly is simply glued on to the rim with a sticky cement, closely akin to the business side of duct tape. When you need to change a tire, you just pull it off (usually easier said than done) and stick on the next tire. The real hardship is when you run out of spare tires with no holes in them. Then you have to unstitch the tire in the vicinity of the the puncture, pull enought of the tube out to apply a patch, sew it back up and re-glue. Then you're off to catch up to the pack. Sounds pretty easy, no?

The Morgan and Wright tire was also a glue on tire, but it did not require stitching the tube into the tire. The tube itself was not circular, but a long, butt-ended affair, which was easily slid out of and into the tire cavity through a slot. When the tube was pushed all the way around the tire, the tail end overlapped the head end of the tube a little. The tire was then cemented on the rim and off you go, in search of that pack. On a smooth surface this overlapping innertube must have caused something of a lump in the tire, but since there were precious few paved tracks, no one ever knew there was a problem.

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