32.3 Miles And A Nice Walk!

Q: Whats the origin of the word "tire"?

I started out this morning with a plan of riding 35 miles, my longest ride so far. This didn't work out quite as planned, but I still did manage to ride longer than my previous best of 20 miles. The weather was a bit chilly with some wind, but all considered, it was a nice, relatively easy ride....But then, less than 3 miles from the finish, I heard a POP and my otherwise smooth-riding bike became noticably not-so-smooth! My first flat tire! That's OK, by this time, the temperature had warmed up a bit....perfect walking weather!

A: The earliest tires were strips of metal placed around wooden, spoked wheels. The metal was heated and wrapped around the wheel and then both ends of the strip were fastened together. As the metal strip cooled, it would shrink and tighten around the wheel, serving the purpose of "tieing" the wooden spokes into the wooden wheel. In spite of metal tires not surviving the ever-changing progress of technology, the original name of tire did surive the test of time.