Airless bicycle tyres?

[robbiepapenfus]

Hi All,

I currently have a full carbon fibre road bike ( 700 x 25 ). I was wondering if I can get airless tyres fitted (or if they even exist for road bikes)?

I remember as a kid having a BMX with airless tyres which was great as i never got punctures, although it was slightly heavier.

Cheers,
Robbie

[find_bruce]

Airless tyres are one of the horsemen of the cycling apocalypse. The are much more than slightly heavier nor are they effective - there are very good reasons pneumatic tyres replaced cart wheels.

If punctures concern you, get some heavy duty tyres, such as schwalbe marathon plus - I use them on my commutes & last puncture was more than 2 years ago

[djw47]

Are you talking solid rubber on your rims? I can't even begin to imagine how uncomfortable that would be to ride on, not to mention the weight. Why buy a lightweight carbon bike and then weigh it down with 2kg of rubber?

[g-boaf]

Hi All,

I currently have a full carbon fibre road bike ( 700 x 25 ). I was wondering if I can get airless tyres fitted (or if they even exist for road bikes)?

I remember as a kid having a BMX with airless tyres which was great as i never got punctures, although it was slightly heavier.

Cheers,
Robbie

I would suggest instead to use some Mr Tuffy liners in the tyre. They won't stop all punctures, but they will prevent quite a lot of them.

[Calvin27]

Better off going with schwalbe marathons and filling it with nitrogen.

[Thoglette]

Better off going with schwalbe marathons and filling it with nitrogen.

And sealant.

[lone rider]

http://www.tannus.com.au/

I think there was threads on here a long time ago about them, they are more aimed at commuters than roadies.

[bychosis]

Hi All,

I currently have a full carbon fibre road bike ( 700 x 25 ). I was wondering if I can get airless tyres fitted (or if they even exist for road bikes)?

I remember as a kid having a BMX with airless tyres which was great as i never got punctures, although it was slightly heavier.

Cheers,
Robbie

I would suggest instead to use some Mr Tuffy liners in the tyre. They won't stop all punctures, but they will prevent quite a lot of them.

Plus one. Running mr tuffys in my road tyres. Only had a few (2-5) flats since installing them a couple of years ago. At least one was a pinch flat, another was rim tape failure.

[Calvin27]

Better off going with schwalbe marathons and filling it with nitrogen.

And sealant.

Does sealant seal work with nitrogen filled?

[Ross]

Saw these on Twitter, don't have any info on them, just a pic

[Bunged Knee]

^^ Might be from Ever Tyres???

[eeksll]

^^ Might be from Ever Tyres???

However, according to the Nexo FAQs, the ‘rolling resistance is roughly 15-20% more than traditional pneumatic tires, meaning that the rider will experience the same level of fatigue at a distance of 80km as riders on pneumatic tires traveling a distance of

surely thats only if 100% of the effort is to overcome rolling resistance ... which it isn't.

[AUbicycles]

Michael did a really good look at Tannus tyres for BNA.

This is the of Tannus tyres, asking if they are a genuine option.

At that stage it was not a genuine alternative. I spoke to Tannus at Eurobike specifically about the performance and they gave me some tyres but I didn't want to take them - firstly because I would have to lug them about (and was also travelling by bike) plus I wasn't convinced.

A Ukrainian junior road cycling team was using them and the logic was that there are less punctures and the support car doesn't have to keep on picking up the juniors with punctures. But there was a direct performance effect which was acknowledged but argued that not as bad as I suggested it was.



The reality is that you also get handling issues and grip issues - the foam compound is smoother and just doesn't have the grip of rubber. For example in wet weather you need to be particularly careful and the ability of the sponge tyres to soak water would significantly affect the ride and grip.

For slow speed commuting there are more merits. Many years ago I rode around Copenhagen on a hard (solid) tyred share bike... very nasty ride but also practical because you don't get punctures. For your road bike... stay curious, but the time is not yet ripe in my view.

[trailgumby]

I used foam tyres when racing R/C on-road cars at state and national level for about 20 years. As soon as the track gets any hint of moisture it's like trying to drive the cars on ice (edit: the frozen water kind ).

A very bad idea for bicycle tyres.

[Thoglette]

Better off going with schwalbe marathons and filling it with nitrogen.

And sealant.

Does sealant seal work with nitrogen filled?

Works with my mix of 80% nitrogen 16% oxygen and a smattering of other things.

Less flippantly, sealant "works" when it gets out of the tyre/tube and meets normal "air". Somewhere hereabouts there's a thread on touring/bikepacking tyres and someone (@aushiker?) posted a picture of their tyre which looked more like an orange pomander* than a tyre thanks to all the double-gees/caltrops/goat's head

If you are getting lots of wire/glass/goat's head punctures then sealant works. Big holes, not so good. Road tubeless seems to remain a challenge if you're inflating over 100psi, requiring matched components and/or a pile of luck.

There are those who swear by the various puncture proof belts which have become popular (e.g. Maaxis refuse as the cheaper chicken)

Ps, depending on your weight, dropping tyre pressure can reduce punctures (as there's less pressure to drive that bit of glass into the tyre). It does increase the risk of snakebite punctures - you need to strike a balance.

*

[MichaelB]

Christopher beat me to it re the Tannus tyres. I tried to like them, but in reality, for any half decent road riding, they are not quite there.

The biggest downside was the higher rolling resistance and the lack of apparent grip.

I’d rather put up with the odd puncture.

As pointed out by others, there are better ways to get around punctures.

[Duck!]

All I can say about airless tyres is "don't do it".

[Cardy George]

Another sealant supporter.

Around here it's impossible to get to work without it, especially at grape harvest time

[uart]

^^ Might be from Ever Tyres???

However, according to the Nexo FAQs, the ‘rolling resistance is roughly 15-20% more than traditional pneumatic tires, meaning that the rider will experience the same level of fatigue at a distance of 80km as riders on pneumatic tires traveling a distance of

surely thats only if 100% of the effort is to overcome rolling resistance ... which it isn't.

Yes but what tyre is it roughly 15 to 20% more than? The manufactures are not going to compare it to a high performance tyre, because they don't want to results to be 200-300% more, obviously they' like to quote a lower performance penalty. So presumable it is compared to the worst performance heavy touring or mountain bike tyre out there, so probably something like a 40W RR tyre (as compared under the speed and conditions used at something like "bicyclerollingresistance.com" : https://www.bicyclerollingresistance.com/mtb-reviews

So perhaps 20% more than 40 Watts per tyre, perhaps about 45 to 50 Watts per tyre compared with 15 Watts for an even half decent performance tyre. So in reality, 200% more.

That's the problem with manufacturer claims of "percent more" or "percent less", they often don't clearly state what they're comparing with. Even if it was only 0% more (than the heaviest shittiest pneumatic tyre out there) it probably still would not be the tyre for me.

[Thoglette]

especially at grape harvest time

Grapes?

Or is "bogan glitter" the problem.

[Strawburger]

Tubular tyres? No one has mentioned them. Run with sealant and low pressures, get a lot less punctures

[Crawf]

All I can say about airless tyres is "don't do it".

I recall trying these tannus tyres around 4yrs ago or so, when they started getting media coverage.
I have never been so scared on a bike, woeful handling, felt dead and disconnected from the road, zero road feeling and feedback, so much rolling resistance and going around corners was frightening as they didn't confirm as you'd expect and feel, they gave the sense they were going to roll off the rim.

They were promptly removed.

[Thoglette]

Tubular tyres? No one has mentioned them. Run with sealant and low pressures, get a lot less punctures

OP was asking about airless, which is diametrically opposed to the tubular experience.

That question lead me to believe that the OP was, perhaps, one of these rare people who actually gets lots of punctures.

If it's an occasional puncture or fear of punctures then your suggestion is valid. In which case, the OP should read the Introduction to tubular

[MichaelB]

They were promptly removed.

And that wasn’t easy either !!!

[Cardy George]

especially at grape harvest time

Grapes?

Or is "bogan glitter" the problem.

Bogan Glitter appears around August as the local footy season wraps up. Late Jan early Feb is wine grape harvest season up here (Mildura region). All the pickers/tractors/B-Doubles drag all the three corner jacks off the blocks and spread them down ALL the roads.

So, yeah, sealant all year round is the go for me