Nothing short of… revolutionary, Energy Return Wheel Airless Bicycle Tires by Britek literally reinvent the wheel… or at least, the tire. The multipatented design replaces inflated tubes with a rubber tread stretched over tension-adjustable carbon nano tube reinforced composite rods. What all this means and does is turn your wheels into springy slingshots, as the rubber contracts and expands on its way round and round, the claim being that the ERW redirects additional torque to the wheel compared to regular pneumatic tires, actually helping to push you forward, thereby reducing energy requirements. The same tech works for cars and other conveyances—the ERW can replace any wheel—so the overall planetary impact of this invention by Colorado’s Brian Russel could be… mega. Watch the vid!
Run-flat = great
“… actually helping to push you forward…” = absolutely not. The energy delivered by the expanding part of the tyre at the rear of the contact patch can only ever be exceeded by the energy being absorbed by the section of tyre at the front of the contact patch as it is compressed. The losses may be lower than a pneumatic tyre, but there absolutely is *not* a net push.
The rear tyre in the video seems to have an issue in that it’s slipping on the wheel (see spoke-cam), instantly negating any gains.
In the garage door analogy on the website (Technology->Re-inventing the wheel), there are three key features: the heavy door, the spring trying to push the door further from the ground and the person trying to do the same, resulting in the person having an easy time of it. The door represents the rider, bike and wheels. The spring comes from the flex in the tyres. And the person opening the door,… doesn’t feature in this broken analogy.
Potentially a great product, but they’re emphasising the wrong features.
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Placed on a MTB like on the picture, I wonder how they work on mud. Looks like they will be filled with mud soon enough…
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It’s cool!
agreed. mud is going to fill those holes. seems like a daft idea, unless i missing something