Author Topic: Airless tires coming to cars  (Read 3477 times)

MTNRCKT

Airless tires coming to cars
« on: July 18, 2015, 02:05:50 PM »
Thought this was interesting and I remember seeing a thread here a while back about mtn bike tires similar to these. Thought the idea sounded silly at the time, but who knows, maybe there's something to it:



http://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/advanced-cars/airless-tires-roll-towards-consumer-vehicles

Not sure if there would be any benefits for a mtn bike though? Road bike maybe.





Carbon_Dude

Re: Airless tires coming to cars
« Reply #1 on: July 18, 2015, 03:51:23 PM »
Looks like it would be a heavy tire.
2019 Stumpjumper Expert 29/27.5+
2017 Santa Cruz Stigmata
2017 Trek Stache 9.8 (29+)
2016 Specialized Stumpjumper FSR Carbon Comp 6Fattie (27.5+) (Sold)
2016 Trek Stache 9 (29+) w/upgrades (Sold)
2014 -036 Full Suspension Chiner (Sold)
2013 -057 Hardtail Carbon Chiner (Sold)
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MTNRCKT

Re: Airless tires coming to cars
« Reply #2 on: July 18, 2015, 05:57:59 PM »
I agree, but when you see them in bike form it looks like they might would be light enough:


Sitar_Ned

Re: Airless tires coming to cars
« Reply #3 on: July 18, 2015, 06:16:54 PM »
I could see them being good for road bikes too. For the short amount of time I had mine, whenever I was hitting 30 mph, going downhill looking at that skinny tire, I would always think "it would really suck to have a blowout right now".. Probably as mostly unfounded concern but, regardless, that's what was running through my mind. It seems this would alleviate that completely.

cmh

Re: Airless tires coming to cars
« Reply #4 on: July 20, 2015, 09:34:01 AM »
I could see them being good for road bikes too. For the short amount of time I had mine, whenever I was hitting 30 mph, going downhill looking at that skinny tire, I would always think "it would really suck to have a blowout right now".. Probably as mostly unfounded concern but, regardless, that's what was running through my mind. It seems this would alleviate that completely.

None of these concepts are new, and just like the spoked bicycle wheel, there have been a bunch of "improvements" that folks have come up with over the years but we keep winding up with the same technology that worked at the dawn of the bicycle.

"Energy return wheel" reminds me of the Slingshot bicycle. I've even got one, and I love it for its whacky freakishness, but if it really did return energy, all bikes would be made that way. They aren't. Same with those tires - tires have some definite shortcomings, but for the things that we need in a bike tire, it's hard to beat the existing combination. Not to say something better won't come along at some point, but I haven't seen it happen yet.