Panaracer Timbuk II skin wall tire

	In restoring some of our older bikes, we were always disappointed when we had to put black wall tires on a 1980's era bike. It just took away a lot of the "classic" look of the bike so we decided to see what we could do about it. We contacted Trek/Bontrager, Ritchey and Specialized and none of them had much interest in the project.

	I contacted Grant Petersen, of Rivendell, since they have had several tires made for them. He suggested talking to Jeff Zell, at Panaracer, to see what they could do. They were interested in the project and would be happy to make a tire....after we paid $5,000 for a mold. Since that was a little steep for budget, we explored some other options.

	Jeff told us that there might still be some older molds in Japan that they could dust off and use. We were excited to hear that the Timbuk II mold was among the living. This tire was introduced in the late 1980's and has a nice tread design that works in all conditions and looked "period correct" on bikes from the mid-1980's through the early 1990's.

	Specs:
Size: 26" x 2.00"	Weight: 545g plus/minus 10%	Bead: Folding (Kevlar)