News feed today brought up an article from a American Kickstarter company The Smart Tire Company Metl tires (featured on Shark Tank). Pneumatic and “last the life of the vehicle” with NASA technology. First offering 6/24 are 35mm road bike tires. 25g heavier than 35mm GP5K AS TR
“last the life of the vehicle”
With an asterisk. The slinky-like interior spring lasts the lifetime of the vehicle. The rubber/polymer tread, of course, does not, and you have to retread the things periodically.
One word, hysteresis. This will not be performance oriented. It may become a competitor to Tannus, so that gives you an idea for its market. Nitinol is a great material, I’ve used it as a low tech pasteurization indicator before, but it offers no real advantages in tire design, especially in high speed applications.
but it offers no real advantages in tire design, especially in high speed applications.
Interesting. At what speeds did you measure the hysteresis vs. pneumatic during your pasteurization work? 
News feed today brought up an article from a American Kickstarter company The Smart Tire Company Metl tires (featured on Shark Tank). Pneumatic and “last the life of the vehicle” with NASA technology. First offering 6/24 are 35mm road bike tires. 25g heavier than 35mm GP5K AS TR
http://thesmarttirecompany.com
It would be interesting to see hysteresis measurements of these. Nitinol isn’t known for low damping, and you’re still flexing a rubber tread.
Something may have changed since you posted this, but there is no “the” in the URL now.
Something may have changed since you posted this, but there is no “the” in the URL now.
https://www.smarttirecompany.com/
Thanks!
but it offers no real advantages in tire design, especially in high speed applications.
Interesting. At what speeds did you measure the hysteresis vs. pneumatic during your pasteurization work?
Not hysteresis of Nitinol, as it effectively works as a spring here, but hysteresis of the system. There is no need to measure anything as we can’t reduce hysteresis by adding something to the tire. We have to replace something. There isn’t much to replace in performance bike tires to start with.
I guess I should have said high speed performance bike tires applications, but I thought this was a triathlon forum 