Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/04/29/air-free-non-pneumatic-tires-a.html
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I hope this works. 
I have one concern: wind resistance.
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Eh.
We have had similar options for bike tires for decades. how is this an improvement?
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I think I recall the earliest auto tires were solid, but they did away with them for a good reason. I don’s remember the reason.
Probably rotational inertia; heavier objects take more energy to accelerate.
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Mass production, hopefully at lower cost?
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For anyone interested:
**Bridgestone Introduces Air-Free Concept Tyres 2011 **
CNET On Cars - Road to the Future: Airless tires 2014
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This again? Flats DO suck, but puncture-resistant tires have gotten really really good. I haven’t had a flat in years.
Here is the late great Sheldon Brown’s take on this:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tires.html#airless
"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.
Pneumatic tires require pumping up from time to time, and can go flat, but their advantages overwhelm these difficulties.
Airless tire schemes have also been used by con artists to gull unsuspecting investors. My advice is to avoid this long-obsolete system."
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Some streets in Brooklyn are paved in broken glass.
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You must live in a nice clean place. We get a nail or such in a tire at least once a year. One time it was a 3/8" bolt. Seriously.
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This.
We’ve a car with low profile ride-flats that can hardly hit a little pothole going slow without breaking a wheel.
I love the car anyway.
The low profile thing has always baffled me. It must originate in S cali or someplace where roads don’t freeze and pothole. Jersey City has 3rd world roads that can take out your axle, never mind your rims. To be fair, most is caused by crappy patches by the utilities who are never held to account.
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Europe actually. Where putting money into infrastructure isn’t commie pinko bullshit.
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You must live in a nice clean place.
Not really. Before I put the puncture-resistant tires on, I’d get a flat around once a month on my daily commute. Nails, glass, wire, etc. After I switched, nothing. For three years. It really was that dramatic.
I use Schwalb Marathon Plus tires. There are others, too.
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Problem is no American politician gets re-elected with the slogan “I maintained our infrastructure”. It’s all tax cuts or new goodies.
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I wonder what trolls will use once cyclists start using run-flat
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Given how often I get flats - or just leaky innertubes - this is appealing. I wonder about repairability though, since it doesn’t seem to have any. I also sometimes have to replace spokes; that doesn’t look like an option here. So what do you do when you get some minor damage - replace the whole wheel?
This is something quite different, though - the whole wheel is part of it, and acting as a shock absorber, so none of those concerns hold true, necessarily. It still might not be as good of a ride, but not because of the dynamics of airless tires.
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We’ve had foam replacement inner tubes since at least the 1990s. They were in mass production them.
I never tried one, though, so i can’t comment on the usabilty or quality.
wonders if they could do a recomendo for skate boards that might be more impressive
Part of the problem there might be that no American politician maintains the infrastructure. Even as tons of them campaign on the idea of not just maintaining but expanding.
Just look at our current Nard In Chief. One of those major campaign promises was a massive expansion of infrastructure, in the general sense no specifics offered. MEANWHILE the commuter rail infrastructure around NYC is quite literally failing and collapsing as we speak. No comment, attention, or involvement from the White House. And his minion over in Jersey is offering excuses and prevarications about how one of the largest cities in the world doesn’t actually need anyway for people to actually get to it.
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