BriTek energy return wheel
Does anybody use them?
Are you saving Watts ? anything about them? Hillclimbing mountain biking or road would be much appreciated
For maybe more than 100 years people have been looking for ways to create tires that don’t need air, and for nearly 100 years nothing has been able to produce the same comfort/grip/efficiency of a pneumatic tire.
It is unlikely that BriTek has solved the problem. You are welcome to buy one and find out though. Keep us posted.
The only place I have seen that airless tires work well is on the wheelchairs. I work a lot with them and they have quite a few advantages over air filled tires. But only on wheelchairs.
I would love to live long enough to race on fast “no flat” tires.
Me too. Although the particular wheel here has the strong stench of snake oil.
Could you imagine how much mud one of those mountain bike tires would hold?
jaretj
for thousands of years, we thought the earth was flat
.
Hello cardioman34 and All,
The future of bicycle improvements will incorporate the wheels.
… Imagine 3D printed bicycle ‘tweels’ that are flat proof, have excellent rolling resistance, and are much thinner with very low frontal area for better aero properties.
for thousands of years, we thought the earth was flat
The people who thought the earth were flat thousands of years ago were the same kind of people who think aero doesn’t matter under 25mph today.
They were uninformed.
Ancient people with a clue knew it wasn’t flat.
Anyway nobody has said it is impossible to build a tire that doesn’t need air that works as well. I’m just saying, don’t get your hopes up.
for thousands of years, we thought the earth was flat
The Greeks thought that the Earth was a sphere circa 600 bc and accepted it as fact circa 300 bc. In essence, we’ve known that the Earth was round for thousands of years. Maybe you were thinking of a time period before that?
Jeebus, I wouldn’t want to go round a corner on those things
.
Michelin recognizes that the rolling resistance and comfort of their tweels isn’t great. They are marketing it towards low speed vehicles for that reason. Like farm equipment.
Hello iSam and All,
You probably will not have the opportunity to go around a corner (on your tri bike) on ‘tweels’ very soon … but perhaps in the not too distant future.
And agreed that new ideas are difficult to sell … but if useful … and if the new concept has a bit of staying power … it can be sold successfully …
‘Tweels’ for road bicycles will sell if they help you to go faster and will sell in other markets if they are maintenance free.
The no flat concept is OK but I don’t flat very often … but a very thin wheel and tire that is measurably faster than current offerings will most likely sell me on the concept.
The bicycle market might start with commuters and MTB.
As noted Michelin is not the only company selling the product.
Michelin markets ‘tweels’ now for some construction vehicles and ‘tweels’ appear to be useful for military vehicles.
Radial tires for automobiles were said to be ‘harsh’ riding when introduced, cell phones were ‘clunky’ …
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/10/dont-trust-the-critics-four-apple-products-they-thought-would/
What did the critics have to say about these four “failed” Apple products when they first debuted, and which products were they?
Excerpts:
"1. The Mac
It seems absurd now, but there was a time when some critics thought the Mac would be a complete failure. They considered the mouse-driven interface “Useless.” Ponder that one for a bit. “Awkward,” “Not easy to learn,” and of course, “Costs too much” were other 1984-era complaints leveled at Apple’s latest creation. These critics were used to the keyboard-driven interface of DOS-running PCs, and from the sounds of things, they considered the Mac, with its graphic user interface and “awkward” mouse, to be nothing more than an overpriced novelty, doomed to fail.
I hardly need to tell you what happened next. The original Macintosh completely revolutionized the computer industry. Within only a short time, companies like Microsoft scrambled to duplicate the GUI/mouse combo the Mac brought to the market. Today, nearly every desktop, notebook, and netbook out there runs a GUI/mouse interface. And 26 years after the first Macintosh debuted, Apple still sells Macs by the millions every year. I wish I could fail half as hard as that."
Nobody is saying the technology is silly, or without potential merit. Just that it’s not there yet.
In none of those above cases were there any fundamental problems of physics in the way though. Very difficult to defeat the comprehensibility properties of a gas, with solid materials.
Someone schooled in chemistry or materials engineering might even be able to put pretty tight boundaries on what is even theoretically possible here.
I think it would require pretty far out technology. You won’t get there with just different foams and rubbers for sure. There is one sci fi book that introduced an interesting idea of tires made of little nanomachines, that conform to the road intelligently. Maybe that!
My brother tried a solid tire on his commuter many years ago, it was SO EFFIN stiff he never even got it on his clincher rim.
I predict there will be a pneumatic “run-flat” tire similar to the Bridgestone Run-Flat tire for automobiles in the near future. Basically a regular rubber tire with high tech sidewall stiffness that allows a tire with 1 atmosphere of pressure to ride on.
Hello jackmott and All,
When speaking of the future, based on our current worldview, we humans often err.
Not that my overly optimistic views offer any better reliability …… I just enjoy new ideas and products so I am indulging in a pastime that requires an open mind. That doesn’t mean that there will not be failures …… but there will be no new successes without making attempts …. some of them appearing to be wild ass ridiculous …… until they find a use.
“What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.”
(Written before humans went to the moon.)
*Jackmott wrote …… “In none of those above cases were there any fundamental problems of physics in the way though. Very difficult to defeat the comprehensibility properties of a gas, with solid materials.” *
When reinventing the wheel fundamental physics is your friend and materials engineering is your friend – you just use them to your own ends focusing on possibilities rather than limitations.
“Someone schooled in chemistry or materials engineering might even be able to put pretty tight boundaries on what is even theoretically possible here.”
I seriously doubt it. Others with excellent credentials have tried and failed in that exercise.
The light bulb:
«… good enough for our transatlantic friends … but unworthy of the attention of practical or scientific men.»
British Parliamentary Committee, referring to Edison’s light bulb, 1878.
«Such startling announcements as these should be deprecated as being unworthy of science and mischievous to its true progress.»
Sir William Siemens, on Edison’s light bulb, 1880.
«Everyone acquainted with the subject will recognize it as a conspicuous failure.»
Henry Morton, president of the Stevens Institute of Technology, on Edison’s light bulb, 1880.
The automobile:
«The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty, a fad.»
The president of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry Ford’s lawyer not to invest in the Ford Motor Co., 1903.
The airplane:
«Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.»
Lord Kelvin, British mathematician and physicist, president of the British Royal Society, 1895.
«It is apparent to me that the possibilities of the aeroplane, which two or three years ago were thought to hold the solution to the problem, have been exhausted, and that we must turn elsewhere.»
Thomas Edison, American inventor, 1895.
Others:
«Remote shopping, while entirely feasible, will flop - because women like to get out of the house, like to handle merchandise, like to be able to change their minds.»
TIME, 1966, in one sentence writing off e-commerce long before anyone had ever heard of it.
«They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist-»
Last words of Gen. John Sedgwick, spoken as he looked out over the parapet at enemy lines during the Battle of Spotsylvania in 1864.
«Our country has deliberately undertaken a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far reaching in purpose." -– Herbert Hoover, on Prohibition, 1928.
«It will be years - not in my time - before a woman will become Prime Minister.»
Margaret Thatcher, future Prime Minister, October 26th, 1969.
«Read my lips: NO NEW TAXES.»
George Bush, 1988.
«That virus is a pussycat.» -– Dr. Peter Duesberg, molecular-biology professor at U.C. Berkeley, on HIV, 1988.
http://www.2spare.com/item_50221.aspx
“I think it would require pretty far out technology. You won’t get there with just different foams and rubbers for sure. There is one sci fi book that introduced an interesting idea of tires made of little nanomachines, that conform to the road intelligently. Maybe that!”
Damned straight!! I like the nanomachines – and have seen some wonderful applications for space systems and sensing devices for the battlefield.
.
yes, every idea has its doubters.
some ideas work
so every idea that works will prove a doubter wrong.
for thousands of years, we thought the earth was flat
The people who thought the earth were flat thousands of years ago were the same kind of people who think aero doesn’t matter under 25mph today.
They were uninformed.
Ancient people with a clue knew it wasn’t flat.
Anyway nobody has said it is impossible to build a tire that doesn’t need air that works as well. I’m just saying, don’t get your hopes up.
Not to digress, I never understood those who believed the earth was flat. I know it sounds ridiculous after hundreds of years. But one only need to look out over the ocean to see the earth curves. One only need to watch a ship set sale to see it looks like it is sinking after a couple miles out. Duhhhh.
If 1 chamber doesn’t work (tubeless or tubed)
and
Zero Chambers doesn’t work (Air-less tires).
Then
We obviously need to go in the opposite direction.
DUAL CHAMBERS! (A tube inside a tubeless tire so that you can run Not One! But Two! Airpressures! !!!
