Airless Tires -data all in one place-

Reid Welch

Reid Welch

1 MW
Joined
Nov 18, 2006
Messages
2,031
Location
Miami, Florida
Collected by google search.
Looking for all aspects, not just sellers' claims

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http://www.bikemania.biz/Complete_Nu_Teck_Airless_Tire_Installation_Tool_p/nu_installtool.htm
ALL Nu-Teck products ordered after December 18th, will be shipped on January 9th.



ONLY SOLD WHEN A NU-TECK TIRE IS PURCHASED AT THE SAME TIME Installation of a Nu-Tech tire requires the use of a Nu-Tech installation tool! How To Use Install Tool REMOVE THE RIM RUBBER STRIP BEFORE INSTALLING THE TIRES Place the tire on the rim and secure with toe strap or tie cord. Make sure the tire is seated into the rim. Now work the tire into the rim approximately half way around the rim and secure with additional strap or cord. Fit the remainder of the tire onto the rim by gently stretching the tire, using the tire tool. The tire will stretch. Take small (1 to 2 inch) sections and work around the rim, fitting the tire into the rim groove. As the final section is fitted, the tire will snap into place. With your hands, work the tire all around to ensure it is seated uniformly. the tire is made to fit snugly and is smaller than the rim. Use gentle persuasion during the installation.
Click to expand...

Before you place an order for these tires, please measure your rims by following the instructions found below to determine if this tire is the appropriate fit for your rims.

Also, installation of a Nu-Tech tire requires the use of a Nu-Tech installation tool!

Imagine a bicycle tire impervious to rusty nails, broken glass, sharp rocks and thorns.
Dream on you say!!

Nu-Teck has introduced a full line of flat-proof, leak-proof and maintenance free tires.
No way, you say?

Here’s how:
Each tire is made of hundreds of thousands of microscopic air cells trapped in a matrix of incredibly tough polyurethane. The result is a tire that is amazingly light-weight, incredibly durable and easier to roll than ordinary rubber tires. Lose the pump, patch kit and problems associated with rusty nails, broken glass and thorns!

Micro-Cellular Polyurethane tires are designed to be the most technically advanced tires ever developed, utilizing, perhaps, the most versatile, state-of-the-art formulations. The revolutionary process used is quite unique developing, perhaps the finest, unsurpassed qualities inherent to the actual tires.

SIZE: 26 X 2.0
WEIGHT: 980 grams
Equivilent PSI: 45-55
Bead Width: 24-25 mm
Bead Depth: 8-9 mm

Installation of a Nu-Tech tire requires the use of a Nu-Tech installation tool!



The following elaborates on some of the unique qualities of MICRO-CELLULAR TIRES:
* Uniform, efficient, free of imperfections generally found in the common rubber tire.
* Manufactured from synthetic materials in combination and area not susceptible to breakdown from climatic conditions, chemical hazards, weather, etc.
* Typically lighter than the conventional rubber tires and tube.
* Extremely strong, durable and wear-resistant exceeding the wear co-efficient of rubber tires by up to 200%-300%.
* Provide a feel of soft air-cushioned ride yet they are airless, flat proof, leak proof and virtually maintenance free.
* Absolutely non-marking.
* Full molded, self skinned and mount on most standard rims with inexpensive mounting tools.
* Will not roll off even under the most rigorous riding conditions.
* Competitively priced with regular rubber tires and thorn-proof tubes.

A tire that’s guaranteed to never go flat!!

FEATURES:
Weight - equal to or less than pneumatic tire and tube.
High resistance to wear and tear. Laboratory tests have shown expected life span two to four times longer than a rubber tire.
A wide range of airless tire ‘pressures’ can be made available to provide the riding quality and firmness normally associated with rubber pneumatic tires.
Variable airless tire pressures can be simulated from 30 psi to 175 psi.
Guaranteed never to go flat!!
Maintenance free - no need for inner tubes, air pumps and puncture (repair) kits.
All airless tires are made in a fully molded snap-on style to fit a wide range of rims.
Airless tires install easily in seconds with our tool and don’t roll off - even under the most rigorous conditions.

Airless tires performed as well or better than pneumatic tires in tests performed by an independent testing laboratory.




Accessories for this product...
Complete Nu-Teck Airless Tire Installation Tool
Our Price: $25.99
Add

Related Products...
Nu-Teck 24 X 1.75 All Purpose Airless Tire
Our Price: $25.25
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Flat-proof, leak-proof and maintenance free
Nu-Teck 26 x 2.0 HP Mountain Bike Airless Tire
Our Price: $31.31
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Imagine a bicycle tire impervious to rusty nails, broken glass sharp rocks, thorns!
Nu-Teck 12" SCOOTER, JOGGER, STROLLER Tire
Our Price: $21.95
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Flat-proof, leak-proof and maintenance free
Nu-Teck 16 X 1-3/8-1.75 Street Tire
Our Price: $27.75
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Flat-proof, leak-proof and maintenance free
Nu-Teck 700 X 20TT Speed Airless Tire
Our Price: $40.95
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Imagine a bicycle tire impervious to rusty nails, broken glass sharp rocks, thorns!


Share your knowledge of this product with other customers... Be the first to write a review.
Click to expand...

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http://www.flatfreeusa.com/eng/product/categories.php?cat_id=7




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Now looking for reviews:



http://www.snappingturtle.net/gigantichound/archives/004933.html
screenshot is not active-go to the original page instead for hyperlinks


____"Mr. Bike" sez:



__________

"Slows you down somewhat"
Reid asks: why is that? Why don't the sellers say that?
Building in lossy drag is not as much an issue for some of us.
See Sheldon Brown's article again: 'OK for smooth surfaces,
heavy, slow'. And he has points.

Where are all of the other airless tire makers?
Why don't the mainstream makers offer airless tires




:?:
 
http://www.airfreetires.com/AskHugh/categoryDsp.asp

Personal opinion now expressed: This "FAQ" does not address primary points made by Sheldon Brown's anti-airless stance.

Draw your own conclusions.
Who is selling, who is buying?

Who are the knowlegeable street bikers who like the feel, the performance,
of foam or solid tires?

Why are their only a few makers of airless tires?
Why haven't they taken the market by storm?
Why don't all the pnuemantic tire makers also offer airless tires?

Why???
I tend to squint at things, ha ha
:lol:
 
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gloss_aa-l.html
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 and slow. They give a harsh ride and poor high-speed cornering on rough surfaces. 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 tires are either made of elastomers (rubbery materials) or closed cell foams, which are rubbery materials with lots of tiny air bubbles. The better ones are foam type, becausle solid elastomers have hardly any shockabsorbency.

This sort of material has a non-linear response to compression loads: as apply a compressive load, the stiffness of the material increases as it gets squashed thinner and thinner. The beauty of pneumatic tires is that the compression is nearly linear.

A basic fact of physics is that pressure is inversely proportional to volume.

Imagine a pneumatic tire that is divided into lots of little segments so that each inch or so of tire is effectively a separate "balloon." Let's say it's 1 inch thick, and when a rider sits on the bike, the tire compresses 1/4 inch. That means the volume of the localized "baloon" is now 75% of what it was before the rider got on, so the pressure in the bubble is going to become 133% of what it was.

If the rider hits a bump that compresses the tire another 1/4 inch, the volume will be half the static value, so the pressure will be double the starting pressure.

If the rider hits a bump that compresses the tire 1/2 inch (plus the static 1/4 inch) the volume will have been reduced to 25% of the base volume, and the pressure will now be 4 times the base pressure!

"Airless" tires that use foam derive their resiliency from the bubbles in the foam, so this describes their general functioning. The bubbles are only part of the mix, though, so a 1 inch thick tire doesn't actually have an inch of air to play with before the bubbles are all compressed as far as they can go. You can only compress the bubbles so much, and the more you compress them, the harder they press back, in geometric progression.

Contrast this with a pneumatic tire, where the whole volume of air in the tire is being compressed as a unit. When you sit on the bike, the bottom part of the tire flattens out, say 1/4 inch, but this only reduces the total air volume by a fraction of a percent. Thus the pressure is nearly constant under all conditions, and the tire can be equally shock-absorbent for the full "travel" of its thickness.

It is this property of providing nearly linear response to external pressure that is the unique feature of pneumatic tires, and it is not possible for any system that doesn't have this feature to give as good ride as pneumatics do. This is why every vehicle designed for road use in the last hundred years has used pneumatic tires.

The near-linear response of pneumatic tires is not just a matter of comfort. It also improves traction at higher speeds, because they don't tend to bounce as much as harder tires do. Bouncing can cause loss of traction in high speed corners, because when the tire is airborne, it can't have any traction.

Airless tires do have their applications. They can work well either where speeds are very slow, or where surfaces are very smooth. Thus, they're pretty satisfactory for wheelchairs, especially those mainly used indoors, and also for railroad trains, roller skates, furniture casters, children's riding toys and wagons.
 
Personal opinion:

I have no experience with airless tires.
I do know tire history. I used to own antique cars.

Early in the last century there were -endless attempts-
to make airless (mostly solid rubber) tires.

The genre also included foamed rubber tires (this is "elastomer" too)
and tire inserts of many sorts of materials, including springs, cork and
you name it.

All these products quit the market in time;
heavy truck tires of solid rubber were the last to obsolete.

High speeds were not the solid or foamed tires' forte.
Neither was traction--it was poor.
They also tended to flat-spot.

---
Newer materials the answer?
I suppose the polyurethane foams are much better than rubber,
but...

I read Sheldon's blurb again, and wonder,

where are all the glowing user reports for airless tires today?
I'm hoping to see some user reports soon.


Buy airless tires! Get up-to-date! New! Improved!

:lol:

I am prejudiced and wish to be shown the error of my opinions.
This is not hubris; it's a position derived by reading, in balance,
all that can be found.

Point: The thinner and more supple an aired tire is made,
the better it rides, the better it adhears to the roadway.
That's why I'm trying latex rubber inner tubes next week:
to further improve the good ride and grippy stick of the perfectly slick
and pretty thin and very resilient fat balloon slicks that are
presently on my ebike. I -think- they offer the gold standard for:
ride quality, traction and protection of the bike's equipment,
and, being the most resilient, are -the least lossy- of the genre
of fatter tire.


 
From the uppermost posting:
* Typically lighter than the conventional rubber tires and tube.
* Extremely strong, durable and wear-resistant exceeding the wear co-efficient of rubber tires by up to 200%-300%.
* Provide a feel of soft air-cushioned ride yet they are airless, flat proof, leak proof and virtually maintenance free.
* Absolutely non-marking.
Click to expand...

The first claim is not so true, is it? (980grams)
The second claim may well be true, but the tradeoff is lowered traction.
Nothing equals rubber for traction, so far as I know about.
"Soft air-cushioned ride". But equally-so as an aired tire? How?
And is that tire going to follow minute road imperfections as quickly as aired tires? If not, then they slip at inopportune times.

Then it's not as safe a tire for high speed running.

The early motor trucks, as noted already, were the last to abandon solid tires. These trucks only ran about 10mph or maybe 15mph in ideal circumstances. The tires were punishment for the truck, but could stand the loads. They were skid prone.

I wonder how skid resistant the new and improved foamed, non-rubber tires can be?

I am not anti-airless tire--it's just not yet apparent that such tires don't give up a range of vital qualities
in order to gain their one goal of indisputable superiority: the flatless ride.

If I were having trouble with flat tires here, I'd be willing to buy a pair and learn for myself first hand how well they might serve.
 
OK, from another thread, here is a link supplied by Dan,
to a page of happy user testimonials.

http://www.airfreetires.com/Testimonials/

Let me know how you like them,
and how well they grip compared to your aired tires?

I'm open minded--but note that I have yet to find pages of pro and con testimonials on non-commercial web sites.

Sellers tend to cherry-pick.
I see he has zero unhappy customers.
Sellers tend to cherry-pick.
I see he has zero unhappy customers.

:wink:
 
From the Nu-Teck page, quoted from the topmost posting here:
Airless tires performed as well or better than pneumatic tires in tests performed by an independent testing laboratory.
Click to expand...

Well, where's that data? Performed as well or better, in what ways?
In all ways, is what is implied.

That's hard to believe.

Unsupported claims are the mainstays of hucksters.
So are sellers' glowing testimonials from alleged (or real) users,
especially when no contrary testimonials (inevitable to any product) are offered to the readers
 
Sorry you are upset. I don't understand why.
I had started this at knightmb's thread, where it was open to all opinions;
where you put in glowing words for the airfree brand of tire

((which you have not tried yet yourself)),
which all tends to create a buzz in potential buyers.

You complained that my long posts, which include the data in quote
for convenience of comparison and discussion,
were a waste of readers' time.

So I obliged and moved that data to this separate thread.

I have not been rude to you.
I don't understand why you are angry with me.

Is the airfree type of tire a sort of personal religion?
Is it someone's baby I'm calling ugly?

(no)

It's a commercal product subject to review, study and opinions shared.
That's what this place is about, in part: sharing viewpoints.
We don't need to agree.

We don't need moderation here.
I am not upset, nor meaning to upset you, Dan.

Kind regards in reply, truly,

Reid
 
Ah, he does have technical data.
I've only skimmed it and it's old data "more coming soon"
(as of 2002)

And I don't know yet what it really means, etc.
I'm not quick on the uptake.

But, for balance,
http://www.airfreetires.com/TireData/

Paraphrasing from Sheldon Brown's article up above in blue font,

the airless tire has, as active shock absorber, only the sectional area of the tire in instant contact with the road.

an aired tire has a progressive compressibility, using as the spring, the entire volume of air within the tube.

Therefore, for an airless tire to provide support to a load, it must be stiff enough, obviously. And the rate of compression of a small crossection of semi-solid rubber-like material (foamed urethane) must, perforce, be a higher spring rate than that of the aired tire's volume of air.

And inasmuch as -all such similar solid** and semisolid materials- are more lossy (converting much of the deflection into heat energy),
then, it stands to reason that no airless tire can roll as freely as an aired tire, other factors being similar.

And at high speeds, can an airless tire react to disturbances
to regrip the road surface as instantly as does an air-sprung tire?

I have not seen, nor can I imagine any such equal result can be obtained.

I suspicion* that many folks would be happy with an airless tire.
I suspicion that I'd feel a tradeoff, myself. One I'm not keen to make,
inasmuch as I don't have trouble here with punctures.
If I lived in a thorn-infested area, or drove on broken glass,
as many must do, then the tradeoffs might be worth the while
-to me-.

It's a personal choice. People who run airless tires are not losers;
it's the grip and cornering traction that I most value, though.
A minor increase in rolling resistance, and a harsher ride?
I could live with that. But not traction losses.

my opinions again,
Reid

*I picked up that vernacular from a Colorado friend. I like it!
I suspicion I ain't a as-hole, neither
There again that be my own op-onion. :)

**Q: What is the most resilient (least-lossy) of all solids?
A: hardened steel.

bounce a bearing ball on a hard steel plate to confirm the statement.

All materials deform under any measure of stress.
The rate of the resilience in a shock absorbing tire is tailored to the desired results for the prevailing conditions.
An aired tire is customizable to varying conditions by simply altering its air spring pressure; the spring rate of its resilience
 
Some months past, for my scooter and ebike I bought airfree tires from airfreetires.com . They sent the wrong bike tire, and the scooter tires didn't fit my currie rims as their website claimed. So after getting an RMA I returned the tires to Nu Tek as directed. Airfreetires never returned my money as promised. Hugh from airfreetires stopped answering my emails and I could never get through on the phone, so I filed a chargeback -- one of two I needed to do after buying my ebike and scooter project's products from over a dozen different vendors. Robotcombat/Sandor Tako was the other vendor with whom I had a similarly negative experience that absolutely could not be resolved fairly any other way.

Wrong airfree tire delivered picture (wouldn't fit my rim):
 

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has any one here from the uk tried this web site or products

http://www.stopaflat.com/

if so what do you think or are these going to be as bad as the airless tire ( ie an space suit without a helmet in space)
 
Since the guy what called me an ASSHOLE gave up the ship some time ago,

I guess it's safe for me to reply to your question:

The TUBEZ system is slightly less disagreeable because, at least, the tire is still a real tire of grippy rubber, etc.

But this insert is just a firm, resilient foam product.
In 1905 they were selling cork and wadded horsehair and foamed rubber toward the same ends. Don't work well.

The basic reason why inserts and foam core tires suck, is that they are not but a fraction as resilient as a pneumatic tire.

That is: the WHOLE of the air volume of an aired tire acts as a spring and a damper.
Your bike hubs -hang- your vehicle in the center of an entirely aired circle of suspension.

In the TUBEZ system or in any airless tire, only the tire contact patch and the bit of tire right above can act as shock absorber.

Think of it this way: an inflated tire suspends the load in mid air--perfectly compliant.

A foam tire is just a solid tire with a bit of "give" and a bit of "return". And this is, depending on the design, either a lazy, lossy restoration force -or- a jittery quick restoration (as in the case of unfoamed polyurethane such as skateboard wheels).

The things work to prevent flats, and are poor handling/adhesion at higher speeds. Good for wheelchairs and slow utility vehicles.

Elmweaver is somewhere else today.
Lost in space perhaps without a helmet. :cry:
I miss him. He was all right, really.
 
thanks for that advice good points I had not considered might look into thorn resistant tubes I dont really want to be repairing a flat or puncture while riding and having to disconnect the wiring from the hub motor in the rain
 
Good presentation on airless tires (can't that entry from elmweaver be removed?). Just had a personal experience with the airless tubes version. My son lives outside Eugene about 10 miles from his work and rides a non electric tour type bike to work regularly. frustrated by flats he installed airless tubes and likes them. However, I hauled my trike over and took some rides with him last week and when following him, even down slight grades, I had to use my brakes to stay behind when we both coasted, even though I had 5 tires on the road and 3 hub motors with a slight drag, plus 3 of my tires are low pressure (35 - 45 PSI). We thought maybe my extra weight (over 400 pounds) might have a lot to do with it, but my son and his wife also have a cruiser style tandem (which I just added a front hub motor to for them) and would have weighed in at somewhere between 350 and 400 pounds with both riders. We did the same experiment with the tandem and the trike rolled much better on its 5 20" wheels than the tandem did on its two 26" wheels, one being a regular mountain bike type tire at 60 - 65 PSI and the other with an airless tube. He plans to put his other airless tube in the hub motor wheel, but I think I'll take my rear tire from my mountain bike with me next time and try our experiments with two regular tires.

Based on what I've read in the above discussions and my tests with my son, I have lost my interest in moving to airless tires.
 
According to the ES Quote thread in the general discussion area on page 7:

Elmweavers Last words:

http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=583&highlight=#583
Click to expand...
 
Aw, I'm thinking he needs to work on his communication skills, then.

Don't see why we can't talk. I always figured it was fine to talk about someone when they weren't around as long as you don't say anything you'd regret if they heard.
 
Here in the American south-west foam inserts are a must have. We have thorns out here we call "goat heads" that just push right through normal tires. Even the ones with slime or thick linings fail.

I like my cheapie foam inserts from Wal-Mart (I believe Bell makes them).
They are kinda tough to get on the rim, nearly impossible to get off, you literally have to cut the tire off to swap tires.

The thing is you can get very quickly get 20 plus miles away from home on these e-bikes, and that's one heck of a walk back to civilization. Love them or hate em, I wouldn't even consider running a pneumatic.
 
parajared said:
They are kinda tough to get on the rim, nearly impossible to get off, you literally have to cut the tire off to swap tires.
Click to expand...

Definitely tough, but not impossible to get off without cutting the tire. I managed it with great patience here:
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=492154#p492154
Oh, and a hammer. :lol:


My experience is that it does work, but it is too low of a "pressure" emulation to work well for my bikes--it adds far too much rolling resistance, making it pretty much impossible for me to just pedal the bike, and using more motor power than it should, as well, reducing efficiency.

Given the many problems I have with pneumatics, particularly valve stems, I would love to use airless tubes/tires exclusively, but it would take some made as equivalents to 60-70PSI to be useful to me, and they would have to be able to sustain that even with extreme weight on them, up to several hundred pounds. I'm not sure that they *can* do that, not for long, because evne closed-cell foam bleeds air out of the cells under pressure from heavy weights, and does not usually re-inflate the cells very well afterward even if the load is taken off.

I don't know what pressure equivalent mine happen to be, as they came from another bike I got off Freecycle, but they feel like maybe 30PSI. Cushy ride, maybe, but eats too much power under my conditions.
 
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