Subject:
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Re: History of wheel and tire designs
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Thu, 29 Mar 2001 23:22:31 GMT
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Viewed:
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456 times
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In lugnet.general, David Lewis writes:
> Can anyone (who didn't have a twenty-five year dark age) point me to info or
> give me a quick history of Lego wheels and tires? The wheels I remember
> from childhood (late sixties, early seventies) had a short brass colored
> axle that was inserted into one of four holes in a 2x4 brick what had a
> clear plate on the bottom, and some inner workings to hold the wheel secure.
> The tires were thick grey rubber and had no tread, but had (I think) grooves
> on the sidewalls that went around the circumference of the tire.
>
> When did the sets move to the plastic axle on a plate or brick that snaps
> into a hole in the wheel (I realize there's still some variation today)?
> Were there intermediate designs? I've seen wheels like the old style, but
> with black rubber tires with "tread". When did those come into use? How
> well did these older wheels and grey tires hold up? If I bought some today,
> is there any possibility that the grey tires are in decent shape?
Some "brass axle" wheels also had black treadless tyres - some of these were
pnuematic, some were solid, but didn't last as well as the grey solid tyres, at
least not in my collection. The grey ones held up remarkably well, except some
stretched a bit. The black ones tended to crack (both types).
With the arrival of Technic (Expert Builder?), Lego moved to wheels which would
fit on the (then) white axles. These had the treaded black tyres you mention,
and are still fairly common, as well as having three different tyre sizes (that
I know of!). There were also metal "adapters" which allowed these wheels to be
fitted to the old-style 2x4 axles (no, Wayne, I haven't forgotten your
request!)
Since then, I think most wheels (except town) have had the cross axle hole,
some notable exceptions are most (all?) train wheels, the model team wheels,
and the large wheels in the 8880. there are probably a few others.
ROSCO
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | History of wheel and tire designs
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| Can anyone (who didn't have a twenty-five year dark age) point me to info or give me a quick history of Lego wheels and tires? The wheels I remember from childhood (late sixties, early seventies) had a short brass colored axle that was inserted into (...) (23 years ago, 29-Mar-01, to lugnet.general)
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