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Before balloon tires became available in 1925, all Model T tires were clinchers (known in Britain as beaded edge tyres). For an explanation of the various types of wheels, click here. Through the 1918 model year each Ford came with 30 x 3 front tires and 30 x 3½ rear tires. With the introduction of demountable rims in 1919, tires on Fords were 30 x 3½ all around.

Today the clincher tires available for Model T use come in two types. One type is Blockley, made by the Blockley Tyre Company. The other type is all the other brands.  Wards Riverside, Firestone, Universal, Excelsior, are all essentially the same tire wearing different faces. Same rubber formula, same construction, out of the same factory. Some old timers say Wards Riversides are tough and long-lasting. Well, they were. But Montgomery Ward died long ago, and the tires wearing that name today are not the same tires. What about Firestone? Doesn't the extra $100+ per tire mean higher quality? Nope. It pays for licensing the name.

All Model T clincher tires — Blockley and all the others — are currently made in Vietnam. Some Americans assume that must mean they are all inferior products. But the Vietnamese are just as smart as Germans, Japanese, Brits, or Americans. They can produce quality tires, or they can produce rubbish. The quality of the tires you buy doesn't depend on the location of the factory. It depends on whether the suits (importers) demand quality or not.

So what about the money? Which type of clincher is the better deal? Blockleys, which claim to be a superior product, cost about the same as Wards Riversides. But the high cost of shipping from Britain makes their initial cost higher. With shipping to Kansas, the ones I bought in March 2023 came to $213 each, compared  with $179 + shipping from Long Beach for Riversides. Are they worth the extra money? Probably so. If they give me 20% more miles than Riversides their cost per mile will be less.

I am buying Blockleys two at a time. This keeps the value of each shipment well below the threshold for import taxes, so I pay no tax and don't have to fill out any special import forms. I wait until I receive an order before I order more, so nobody at the other end will get confused and combine two orders in a taxable shipment. When I bought those first two tires I placed the order on the Blockley website about 5 AM GMT on Tuesday, and the tires arrived on my front porch Friday afternoon.

Those two front tires went on the car in March. By June they had over a hundred miles on them and they still had some of their little "new tire whiskers" on the treads. A good sign. I bought the two rear tires in June, and the second purchase was like the first. I asked for a shipping quote from Blockley on Monday, bought the tires on their website early Tuesday morning, received an email a half hour later stating the tires had been shipped, and they arrived on my front porch here in Kansas about 2 PM Friday afternoon.

While I'm discussing clincher tires, I should mention the tubes they require. From reading the comments of people who have bought Blockley tubes I have no doubt that they are excellent. But I have found Hartford tubes quite adequate. If I buy a Hartford rubber-stem tube and install my own metal stem, it costs less than half the price of a Blockley tube before we even consider shipping, so I'll continue to do that. I do NOT recommend Custom Classic tubes. Too many people buy tubes only by size, and don't consider the brand. Tubes in short: Blockley, excellent; Hartford, good; Custom Classic, potential trouble.

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