Solid Tyres

[Mick F]

...but if you use a bike for utility that has front suspension and a sprung seat post over short distances/grocery shopping, probably the pushbike's forte, and dependability is very important, you don't have a car...

.................... but if you use a bike like that, you won't get punctures in normal pneumatic tyres anyway, especially if you buy puncture-proof tyres.

[townbikemark]

...but if you use a bike for utility that has front suspension and a sprung seat post over short distances/grocery shopping, probably the pushbike's forte, and dependability is very important, you don't have a car...

.................... but if you use a bike like that, you won't get punctures in normal pneumatic tyres anyway, especially if you buy puncture-proof tyres.

Ha! If only...

[Mick F]

Sorry, but you must be riding over tin tacks then.

[Brucey]

I think it is fair to say that some urban environments are about as ghastly as you could imagine; you might as well be riding over tacks...

Broken glass (esp in the wet) can slash any tyre to ribbons; I've seen cuts 1/4" deep in M+ tyres, (not all of which have caused punctures, I grant you) but any of them would have disembowelled most other tyres on the spot.

So I can see why some people would like solid tyres. I'm not sure I'd ever use them though; I don't mind fixing the odd puncture really. Just part of life I guess.

cheers

[townbikemark]

So I can see why some people would like solid tyres. I'm not sure I'd ever use them though; I don't mind fixing the odd puncture really. Just part of life I guess.

cheers

I had gone several months puncture free then had 3 back wheel over the past month or so. Tiny holes, the bike fine one day then wake up the next morning starting a new job, finding a flat...

[Tigerbiten]

I wouldn't mind trying one of the 20x1.5 soft tyres on the back wheel of my trike.
The limiting factor for me with that tyre is when I wear the rubber down to the carcass.
No carcass means I can wear a lot more rubber off before I had to change it.
Plus as it did wear down square, I get more rubber on the road so in theory more grip.
The only question would be how well it stayed on the rims with the sideways force due to the trike not tipping.

[Brucey]

if you look at the X-section image etc in the review I linked to earlier, you can see how they are mounted in more detail. You will also see that the interior of the tyre is a spongy material that is unlikely to be suitable as a 'tread rubber'.

You may also find that the lifetime of these tyres is actually considerably less than what you might get out of a standard pneumatic tyre.

Although I've not done it myself, I have often wondered how a 'greenguard' tyre performs (in applications where grip isn't a high priority!) once you have worn into the coloured bit. It might be that the tyre has a whole new life ahead of it...

cheers

[Tigerbiten]

Although I've not done it myself, I have often wondered how a 'greenguard' tyre performs (in applications where grip isn't a high priority!) once you have worn into the coloured bit. It might be that the tyre has a whole new life ahead of it...

cheers

I've had a Marathon+ on my back wheel after 3,000 miles with a solid blue line running around it.
The grip wasn't quite as good as with black rubber.
But it still didn't puncture .........

[Brucey]

OK, so you have done the experiment already!

If you get through M+ tyres at that rate, I'd suggest that you might be wearing them out about twice as fast as in some other bike applications. This being the case I think you would very soon be riding on the flattened off spongy material if you used the solid tyres. I'm not at all optimistic that it would be a good arrangement, but I am sure that folk would like to hear about it if you tried!

cheers

[Tigerbiten]

If the center is just a spongy rubber mix then I don't think it would work as well.

It all depends on how much hill climbing I do in the wet as to how fast I go through a back tyre.
It was a wet hilly tour around the UK when I wore a Marathon Racer out in 1,000 miles and then a Marathon+ in a further 3,000 miles.
The thinnest I've taken a tyre was on my trailer this summer after a bearing failed.
I could just see daylight through the last layer when finally I took it off.
But it still did not puncture ...........

[ianpallen]

........ So it looks like the days of the P* fairy could be numbered.

It's 100+ years since the pneumatic tyre was invented and in that time it's been refined to this:- http://www.vittoria.com/tire/voyager-hyper/
Why anyone would want to turn the clock back I've no idea

This is what we done to our wheels in the 70's when we were kids. If we had a puncture and no rubber solution to repair it (we had loads of innertubes to cut up into patches), we put a tyre (bead cut off) inside the tyre and a garden hose cut down inside. Took ages to fit it and get it on just right but it was an uncomfortable ride with a definite notch / dip in the ride where the hose pipe joined and there was a small gap.

[mrjemm]

Apart from the point that skidding is largely a matter of riding style rather than bike design, I don't know what they mean by a tendency to flat spot. Does it mean they are vulnerable to abrasion? Also from the article, it sounds as though these tyres are a bit like Aero chocolate (my words) ie a bit like Doc Martins soles. If so, I think the general idea has been tried before. IME, Doc Martins soles tend to fail with use. It's a long time since I had any, but the used to come with instructions on how to mend them.

PS The article includes this link:

http://tannus.co.uk/

What a horrible site- the pics in the gallery are horrendous, especially the rather offensively sexist ones. Looks to me like they'd be rather poor for directional stability- the cross section pic appears to show a constant density, and I'd guess it would allow side twisting.

Are DM soles not made with large voids rather than a solid foam? I would've put these closer to modern trainer or walking boot soles, which tend to be rather vulnerable to losing chunks and hence rigidity when knocked or caught.

[mickp]

Wow, how time flies. I can't believe that ten years have gone by since these last appeared. Presumably after ten years or so everybody who last tried them has either died or given up cycling or just forgotten what a bad idea solid tyres are.
Incidentally if you want to try solid or rather closed cell foam filled tyres why not simply make your own. All you will need is an ordinary tyre,a cheap one will do, no point using one with any sort of puncture protection and some of this http://www.mbfg.co.uk/foam-materials/foam-soft.html I've used this stuff to make LARP arrows for my daughter and can tell you that it expands and goes off pretty quickly so it would probably be best to mix small amounts and fill the tyre in segments rather than in one go. If anyone feels like trying this please let us know how it turns out.

Mike

[jb]

I would not have thought you could get enough clamping force on the bread using that method

[hondated]

OK even more good points made so let's open the debate further. Given if you were to fit these maybe more spokes would break then why are we still using spoked wheels. I mean I can remember when my son was little that he had plastic wheels on his bmx bike so given modern materials why are we still using spoked wheels. Is it just another case of reinventing the wheel !.