I like to tinker..

Joined
Oct 19, 2024
Messages
16
Location
Arizona
I recently got my ebike and got sick of flat tires so I went to the hardware store and got some 1/8 inch rubber floor mat and cut 2 1/2 inch strips for around 7$ haven't had a flat here in the desert for 140 miles, swear the bike tube and tire industry is a racket.db6f74f3-75cf-4a55-9cc6-885b3f6a351c.jpg
 
Back in 2011 I built this monstrosity. So here I was, blasting down the road with a sniper helmet on, a lawnmower engine ...disk brakes I made out of recycled car tire wheels and a goofy cut and welded frame..basically a death trap. But I haven't been on this site in so long I thought I'd share a fond memory..The endless sphere. Cheers
 

Attachments

  • yup (1).jpg
    yup (1).jpg
    53.3 KB · Views: 15
Do you have any problems with:
- tire/tube slipping
- super high rolling resistance?
- things slipping or shifting?

This does seem like a good solution. How's the rubber hardness compared to the tire? ( softer, harder? )

Is it goathead season out there in the desert?
 
I recently got my ebike and got sick of flat tires so I went to the hardware store and got some 1/8 inch rubber floor mat and cut 2 1/2 inch strips for around 7$ haven't had a flat here in the desert for 140 miles, swear the bike tube and tire industry is a racket.View attachment 360916
I agree that it is an interesting approach. But 140 miles of success doesn't seem like enough test time to me. Let us know how things are going after a year and/or a few thousand miles.
 
Do you have any problems with:
- tire/tube slipping
- super high rolling resistance?
- things slipping or shifting?

This does seem like a good solution. How's the rubber hardness compared to the tire? ( softer, harder? )

Is it goathead season out there in the desert?
Yeah no slippage the tires are so thin it is goathead season. The tube pushes against the insert well it's solid rubber
 
I was sold on using inserts until after a couple thousand miles I got a flat. Turned out to not be a puncture, but the insert and tube rubbing together, and wearing a hole in the tube.
 
I was sold on using inserts until after a couple thousand miles I got a flat. Turned out to not be a puncture, but the insert and tube rubbing together, and wearing a hole in the tube.
This.

Tire liners rub holes in tubes. The commercial kind does it, the homemade kind does it, and the Albuquerque system (tire inside a tire) does it. To get decent longevity from tubes used with tire liners usually requires adding yet another protective layer of cut-open inner tube to protect the tube from the tire liner. Eventually the edge of the cut tube probably will chafe into the inflated tube even in that case.

Just use a good thick tire with puncture protective features. Cheap crap will let you down even if it's thick, I find. And I love cheap crap that actually works. Tire liners unfortunately don't.
 
Last edited:
Yeah my first experiments with tire liners and tire in a tire yielded very poor results.
I thought about using some RTV on the liner to 'weld' it to the tube, as well as filling in the tire liner gap, but AW says this is a bad idea.

I'm happy that Kenda will sell me a 8mm thick, 3lbs bike tire today.
 
Yeah the weight did change for sure!! I'm on 262 miles now in my test will keep posted just driving 19 miles back forth through holiday pay at amazon
 
On a side note anyone familiar with the motor field winding settings I'm getting a large drag on my downhill with current going through it?
 
What controller / motor combination are we talkin' about?
 
On a side note anyone familiar with the motor field winding settings I'm getting a large drag on my downhill with current going through it?
Is it a geared motor or direct drive? A geared motor has an internal clutch so shouldn’t have much drag unless the clutch is failing. A direct drive will have drag, making it a drag to pedal (pun intended) without power. . What motor and contoller do you have? Are you using regen?
 
Yeah my first experiments with tire liners and tire in a tire yielded very poor results.
I thought about using some RTV on the liner to 'weld' it to the tube, as well as filling in the tire liner gap, but AW says this is a bad idea.

I'm happy that Kenda will sell me a 8mm thick, 3lbs bike tire today.
I used rubber cement to keep a tire liner from slipping on the inner tube. I did this mostly to make installation easier, not to prevent tube rub. I then used a tire within a tire. I wore out two outside tires using this method and never had a problem with the inner tube and never had a puncture or flat until a bit more than a year ago. That final flat was an inch and a quarter screw that went through the sidewall.

The worst part of tire-in-a-tire in my experience was that the inner tire I was using had a sorta square-ish tread profile. That tread profile definitely stressed the sidewalls on the outside tire. I probably swapped the first tire a bit sooner than I'd have otherwise needed to because of this. I got a tire with thicker/tougher sidewalls for the second go 'round.

There was rubber rub between the inner tire and the outer tire as evidenced by a collection of rubber "bead" debris in the tire. But there was no evidence of rubbing and wear on the tube.
 
What controller / motor combination are we talkin' about?
Not sure a friend bought the bike for me as a b day gift off amazon. its a fat bafang mtor hub on 24' wheels its 48v with a 54.6 at 2ah charger. this one Euy F6 Long Range Fat Tire Electric Bike nothin fancy but it just slows down so much as a current is running through it. If I kill it mid ride I coast fine downhill.
 
Is it a geared motor or direct drive? A geared motor has an internal clutch so shouldn’t have much drag unless the clutch is failing. A direct drive will have drag, making it a drag to pedal (pun intended) without power. . What motor and contoller do you have? Are you using regen?
It's a hub, brushless bafang PY48V20'24081568 Stamp
 
Oh, it's not a DIY build.. is the controller even programmable, has documentation, etc? usually on prebuilt bikes, this is not the case and having control over how the motor runs involves replacing the stock controller & accessories with a programmable one.
 
so I figured out that if you dont have both throttle and pedal assist on at the same time it spins freely so I set it to just throttle and it spins beautifully. Thanks all
 
Yeah my first experiments with tire liners and tire in a tire yielded very poor results.
I thought about using some RTV on the liner to 'weld' it to the tube, as well as filling in the tire liner gap, but AW says this is a bad idea.

I'm happy that Kenda will sell me a 8mm thick, 3lbs bike tire today.
I got 1124 miles out of the tires it was a good run, just ordered a new set will send pics Monday when I disassemble
 
Yeah my first experiments with tire liners and tire in a tire yielded very poor results.
I thought about using some RTV on the liner to 'weld' it to the tube, as well as filling in the tire liner gap, but AW says this is a bad idea.

I'm happy that Kenda will sell me a 8mm thick, 3lbs bike tire today.
Do you happen to have a link for those kenda tires? I wanna do some more tests.
 
Back
Top