Is this the future of bicycle tyres?

[Andrew G]

[quote="-Adam-"]Funny how a few of you seem to be very much scared and un-trusting of new technology.

I suppose you were all very much apposed to pneumatic tyres a few years ago too huh?

[-Adam-]

See there's a lot of assumptions in your last post their Andrew, based on a product that neither you nor I have actually seen.

The point I'm making is people are always so quick to dismiss new ideas. Who says a bicycle version would be anything like what you see on the car version. I'm sure there are ways and means, I wouldn't be suprised to see them come up with something in the next couple of years...

[Snoop Doug]

I love it - I was completely sold from the second the geezer in the german vid used the word gummi - I'll have some of that I thought!!

[Andrew G]

Not quick to dismiss Adam, I did think about it . I like engineering solutions and how things work, no qualifications I hasten to add just an interest. The bit that I can't get my head round is the shoulder issue which would need to take a lot of stresses on a tyre that would be 23mm wide (20mm on TT tubs and an even smaller contact patch when pumped up hard), without the same level of deformation as on a car tyre which is normally inflated to only about 30psi.

As you say they are cleverer than me and may well solve this problem, but surely it has to have a definable market place to be worth doing. Is that there for bikes? Changing a puncture (which let's be honest doesn't happen often these days with tyre technology) doesn't take long. In racing it's either race over, or at the higher level where logically stuff starts before filtering down, a spare is thrown in very quickly so where would the benefit come? They'd have to perform to at least the same standard in every other respect.

I think the more likely next step in bike tyres is tubeless. I can't remember which pro team has been testing some of these - are they Hutchinsons? - but have read that they are a bugger to fit and make sure that the seal is tight and secure. If this is made as easy as a normal tyre fit then it could be a pretty big new product, possibly more in the leisure sector as if they are like the MTB tubeless tyres then you need to put a puncture slime in the tyre to seal them. Not sure how this would make the tyre feel for further racing on after a puncture hole has been sealed.

[Andrew G]

[quote="Andrew G"]I think the more likely next step in bike tyres is tubeless.

[Alex P]

New 'Contis' tubeless

[img]http://uk.geocities.com/alexprotasiuk/Whattyrechoice.jpg[/img]

[Andrew G]

Front and back are a different colour.

[Grahame]

[quote="Andrew G"]Front and back are a different colour.

[-Adam-]

Somehow I suspect for the price they cost to build, I could probably afford another set of Zipps, 808s perhaps

[Alex P]

You could use one of these bike to leave a crime, it would confuse the hell out of the Police scene of crime investigators - imagine the discussion....

"We believe that there were at least 6 perpatrators, with a very short gait, perhaps midgets, who were very disciplined leaving the scene in a line - hokey pokey style. The shoes were all Adidas Blazers obviosly bought in bulk to confuse us"

[mrP(Boonen)VT]

Priceless....