No more punctures!?

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I remember reading this some moons ago, but it's reappeared in this months (May) Cycling Plus:
'Hutchinson has developed a tyre which uses no air at all. The Serenity Airless Tyre employs composite materials and layers of rubber..to keep the tyre's shape and provide shock absorption and it could be in bike shops in 2010. Anyone making puncture repair kits must be getting nervous'.


Wos reckon - answer to a maiden's prayers or a false dawn??
 

Gerry Attrick

Lincolnshire Mountain Rescue Consultant
What goes around comes around. Similar tyres were pushed in the late eighties/early nineties. For many reasons reported in the bike world at the time, they never caught on. However, you never know, these may be the future.
 

RecordAceFromNew

Swinging Member
Location
West London
I am willing to be open minded, but this is what the late, great, Sheldon Brown said:

Airless tires

Of all the inventions that came out of the bicycle industry, probably none is as important and useful as Dr. Dunlop's pneumatic tire. Airless tires have been obsolete for over a century, but crackpot "inventors" keep trying to bring them back. They are heavy, slow and give a harsh ride. They are also likely to cause wheel damage, due to their poor cushioning ability. A pneumatic tire uses all of the air in the whole tube as a shock absorber, while foam-type "airless" tires/tubes only use the air in the immediate area of impact.
Airless tire schemes have also been used by con artists to gull unsuspecting investors.





 

Beardie

Well-Known Member
I actually tried an airless tyre and found that although it felt much the same if pinched, the ride was only slightly less harsh than riding on the bare rim. It is one of those things like shaft drive, oval chainwheels, flywheels etc, which come along every so often, just as soon as the makers think that people have forgotten about the last time they came along.


If they were any good, wouldn't they be on cars and motorbikes?
 

andyhunter

New Member
Location
northern ireland
airless tyre has been around for a couple of years, it was michelin that developed it first for trucks to stop blowouts and to control a truck better and increase life of the tyre. They are currently used on most jcb machinary etc to get better traction etc. all it is, basically a more cool honeycomb structure.
 

Tynan

Veteran
Location
e4
can't see it, air is a wonderful thing, especially for a bike, don;t solid tyres have problems with uneven wear to name but one
 
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