I am going to be upgrading my Pantah race bike this winter with a new set of the Campagnolo replica wheels made by Marvic. What size front wheel should I go with? I'm am currently running ally ss wheels, 2.5 x 18 front and 3.0 x 18 rear. 3.5 is the smallest I can go with the new campy rear, so that is what I will go with so I don't run into chain clearance issues. But the new fronts come in 2.5, 2.75, and 3.0 widths. I have a stock 35mm front end with race tech internals. The 2.5 ally wheel has given me excellent grip with the conti classic racing tires, but maybe a hair wider would work better? Extra grip, wider tire, etc. Anybody have experience with these sizes?

Dave

Hi Dave,
2 1/2" and 3 1/2" were pretty much the standard race rim widths for 18's back in the day. My vintage race group used that for max rim widths until they dropped rim size requirements altogether. If you are sticking with the Conti's, why not question them as to what would be the optimal front rim width for their tire you want to use. Maybe one would be better for steering and another better for braking? That would be interesting to know.
Bill
http://blobs.continental-tires.com/www8/servlet/blob/911758/52aeda7d4b64854c51c6e7a881c5a885/racing-tire-flyer-data.pdf

Hey that's a great little file. Much better than wading through the conti catalog. I will shoot off an email to conti and see what they recommend.

I do have a very narrow sliver of untouched tire at the out side edge of the front wheel, so I had thought that a 2.75 might get rid of that. But I met our very own Cranky at New Jersey Motorsports Park this past July and he said that with these bikes you almost always end up with that strip. Oh and I won both of my races at NJMP as well.

Way to go!!

Dave, do you have a good supplier in the U.S. for your Conti Classic Attack race tires? I'm not sure I can find a place in the U.S. that stocks the street rear 110/85-19 size that I want to put on the '72 Norton Commando I'm rebuilding. Partzilla says they can get one in a week or so, but sometimes that kind of vague time frame can turn into 3 months or not at all.
Bill

Bill,

I am a fan of bike bandit for tires. I just bought some new tires for my Darmah and they were at my door in two days. I looked and they do not have that size conti in stock, it's back ordered. I bought my conti race tires from motorcycle tires maniac, but they do t even list the size you want. So both of my sources are no good.

Now when I buy another set of conti race tires this off season, I will buy them from Andrew and Cindy Cowell. They are now a conti dealer/supplier. Andrew has helped out a TON of racers at AHRMA events so I don't mind supporting him. Maybe they could hunt down tires for you. Their info should be on the AHRMA website.

Dave

I talked to Partzilla again and they assured me that size was available in country, so I got one and a Michelin tube coming from them. Andrew and Cindy are the best and I will keep them in mind for the future. Thanks.
Bill

I received some interesting news today.....my class in AHRMA, Vintage Superbike, is now going to allow the use of tire warmers. I liked using 18" wheels because the 18" tires came up to temp a lap or two faster than the 17" tires. And in a 6 or 8 lap sprint the grip advantage the 17's gave were negated by the long warm up time. Now, with warmers, I feel that 17's will have a pretty big advantage. Max width I can run is 3.5 front and 4.5 rear.

How do Pantah's work with 17's? Also, my plan for a painless bolt on magnesium wheel upgrade now is thrown out the window since the repop campy's do not come in 17's. And the other vintage repop's that are available in 17's do not come in rear widths smaller than 5 or 5.5. Damage does have a rear 17x4.5 but with the pound to dollar conversion they are right at the $3k mark! Yowza!

I was thinking about a set of aluminum monster wheels, cheap and plentiful. Are there any other magnesium wheels I should be looking at in the above sizes and they have an 80mm brake rotor mounting flange so I can use my current brake setup? Or some really good stock wheels? Astralite is no longer in production, plus I am not a big fan of their looks.

Dave

Sorry Dave, I really don't think there are any easy cheap solutions for putting a Pantah based race bike on good safe 17" magnesium wheels.
Bill

I have converted my 750F1 from 16 inches wheels to 17 inches ones. Marvic has accepted to produce a 5.0 inch width rear wheel for me, so I run on a 160 rear tyre. Since Marvic did not reduce the hub width accordingly to the reduction of the rim width ( from 5.5 to 5.0), I had to order from Sprockets Specialits 2 made to order offset rear sprocket (40 and 42 teeth).

Finally, including the price of the 17 inches tyres, this change from 16 inches wheels to 17 inches has costed me more than 5 400 canadian dollars (more than 4 000 US dollars). Not cheap !

Gilles