This page shows the types of board-track era tires that I have found vintage photogaphs of. This time period covers from about 1900 to 1920.
For purposes of authentication, only vintage photos are acceptable.

Style #1: button knobby

This is the style of knobby that Coker Tire offers. It is alternating lateral rows of two and three slightly ovalized round knobs, covering only the center area of the tire tread.
Example photo #1-

Zoom of leftmost cycle above-

Board-track cycles were raced on flat dirt tracks also, and the button-tread knobbies is the tires that were used. This tire appears to be all one single color, a medium to dark gray or black. Additionally, in all the photographs that I found online, anyone riding a motorcycle on a public road had button-tread knobbies mounted also. I have not found any photograph of a motorcycle running on a board track with these tires mounted.

Style #2: ribbed

This is the style of tire that was used for actual board-track racing. I have not found any photos showing motorcycles using these tires for anything but board-track racing. There are two types of this tire that I have found, with slightly different tread details.

Ribbed style A:

Ribbed style B:

Both these tires have five ridges around the circumference connected by smaller lateral ridges, but they also have a couple of differences. The lateral ridges are not arranged identically in both tires, and the tires appear to be different colors as well. "Style A" looks like a black tread with a white sidewall, where "style B" has the tread and sidewall both gray (if we are to assume that the lettering on the rider's shirt is white).

Most of the photos I found were clearly one of these two basic styles of tire treads.

Style #3: Firestone Non Skid

As of yet, I have not been able to date exactly when this tire was originated. The tread is extremely recognizable; it has the words "NON SKID" in capital block letters around the tire, tilted 45º upper-left to lower-right, and with small chevrons to fill in the side-voids between the lines of text . The tire in the advertisement below appears all-white or all-gray.

This tread style was also available as a bicycle tire, but it was somewhat different from the motorcycle version. The bicycle tread lacked the center ridge present in the motorcycle tire, the text tilted the other direction (lower left to upper-right) and the bicycle tire was also a combination of two colors--the sides were white, and the tread was light blue (the bicycle tire was also a tubular tire, but we're ignoring that matter for now).

An advertisement for the bicycle version of the "non skid" tire is below.

(image above, showing the text of advertisement)

(image above of bicycle tire, showing lack of a center-ridge)

Style #4: Goodyear diamond (Thanks to Saabsonettguy)

Photo dated 1918, looks all-black to me-

close-up

Advertisement-

Possible Style #1: mystery tire

The photo below shows a front tire that is clearly ribbed on the side, but appears smooth across the center.
I haven't found this style of tire in any other photo, but then again, the writing on the photo says "winner, 100 mi. race", so it is possible that this is a post-race photograph, and these tires are really ribbed tires that are simply worn down in the center.

Possible style #2: slicks

There were also slick tires made at the time (back then they were called "plain" tires). These were available in the same sizes used for board-track motorcycles at the same time that board-track cycles existed. Coker still offers smooth tires in these sizes from a couple of different companies, but I am not certain that these smooth tires were used for motorcycles at all. At the time, there were still cars being manufactured that used the same sizes of rims and tires as motorcycles, and as proof of this, the Coker website (which offers some sizes of repro rims also) warns against trying to use car or truck rims as motorcycle rims.

I have found advertisements for car tires around the same time that show "plain" tire models, but I have not found these tires advertised as used on motorcycles, nor have I seen any vintage photo that clearly showed these tires mounted on a motorcycle.

The below advertisement dates from 1919:

The tire names given in the above lower left are (from left to right) "Royal Cord", "Knobby", "Chain", "Usco" and "Plain" (that being the slick).

The below 1918 advertisement shows the tread designs more clearly:

U.S. Tire Company may have made motorcycle tires, but all the advertisements I have found (in this era of up to 1920-1925 or so) only showed or mentioned cars or trucks in the advertisements.

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