Re: Stupid? Stroke of genius? Somewhere in between?

[Peter Clinch]

[email protected] wrote:

> here's my latest idea waiting to be shot down in flames.

> So I got to wondering. Wheel - tire - can of foam. Do I have the
> ingredients for a cheap puncture proof wheel?

Yes, but...

The "but" is you're certainly not the first person to have this idea,
and every implementation I've heard people talk about to date has been
rather less satisfactory than a good pneumatic tyre and the occasional
faff to fix a puncture in it.

There are useful niches for them, but they don't involve typical riders
on typical roads.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email protected] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

 

[Tom Sherman]

Peter Clinch wrote:

> [email protected] wrote:
>
>> here's my latest idea waiting to be shot down in flames.
>
>
>> So I got to wondering. Wheel - tire - can of foam. Do I have the
>> ingredients for a cheap puncture proof wheel?
>
>
> Yes, but...
>
> The "but" is you're certainly not the first person to have this idea,
> and every implementation I've heard people talk about to date has been
> rather less satisfactory than a good pneumatic tyre and the occasional
> faff to fix a puncture in it.
>
> There are useful niches for them, but they don't involve typical riders
> on typical roads....

Are you saying us wheelbarrow and industrial lift truck operators are
not typical?

--
Tom Sherman

 

[Ken the Troll]

If you want a puncture proof tire, I remember a bike rental place up on
Mackinac Island, where horseshoe nails cause a lot of flats, was
putting a piece of milker hose (the hose that carries milk from the
teet cups to the pipe line that takes the fresh milk to the tank)
inside of tires, thus making them puncture proof (but also heavy).
Pressurized air still seems to be the lightest material to fill the
void in the tire and keep it ridgid enough to reduce rolling resistance
to the minimum. Personally, I don't mind the little extra weight from
liners, I use Mr. Tuffy, but I wouldn't want the extra weight of foam
or milker hose (or something similar). If I remember correctly, the
first rubber tires were solid rubber and Mr. Goodyears' pneumatic tires
were such an improvement that no one in the auto industry ever
considered going back to slolid rubber tires, even though the air
filled tires could go flat from time to time.

 

[Tom Sherman]

Ken the Troll wrote:

> If you want a puncture proof tire, I remember a bike rental place up on
> Mackinac Island, where horseshoe nails cause a lot of flats, was
> putting a piece of milker hose (the hose that carries milk from the
> teet cups to the pipe line that takes the fresh milk to the tank)
> inside of tires, thus making them puncture proof (but also heavy).
> Pressurized air still seems to be the lightest material to fill the
> void in the tire and keep it ridgid enough to reduce rolling resistance
> to the minimum. Personally, I don't mind the little extra weight from
> liners, I use Mr. Tuffy, but I wouldn't want the extra weight of foam
> or milker hose (or something similar). If I remember correctly, the
> first rubber tires were solid rubber and Mr. Goodyears' pneumatic tires
> were such an improvement that no one in the auto industry ever
> considered going back to slolid rubber tires, even though the air
> filled tires could go flat from time to time.

Charles Goodyear invented vulcanized rubber in 1844. The is no
connection between him and the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, other
than it choosing his name because of its association with his work in
developing rubber manufacturing processes.

John Dunlop patented the first pneumatic bicycle tire in 1888. However,
Robert Thomson received the first patent for a pneumatic tire in 1845.

The first pneumatic automotive tires were made by André Michelin in 1895.

--
Tom Sherman