Airless tyres

trdbzr, Dec 5, 8:34am

ginga4lyfe, Dec 5, 8:40am
interesting. Id be keen to see them work in real world applications

mugenb20b, Dec 5, 8:51am
What happens when you get dirt, mud, stones or animals stuck in the spokes! Will tyres go out of balance!

ginga4lyfe, Dec 5, 8:58am
I would imagine that it still needs a side wall for the bead to seat on the rim and stuff, so being closed off, maybe there wont be anything to get in the spokes to begin with!, My question is, whats its Flex like! you dont want too much sidewall flex and you dont want rolling flex either otherwise you would be wasting power/fuel/handling

panicky, Dec 5, 9:31am
like to see them win a burnout competition

gadgit3, Dec 5, 10:00am
Isn't that just a run flat design! BMW been running them for a few years now on there higher end stuff

ginga4lyfe, Dec 5, 10:48am
Nope, a run flat needs air to work still, all run flat means is that when the tire goes flat, atleased the side walls will keep the car off its rim and be able to hobble to the nearest service station to get it fixed

elect70, Dec 6, 1:49am
Run flat tyresfine in Europebut tryit here,servos dont do tyres or repairs anymore &tyre crowds are closed on weekends /holidays .

smac, Dec 6, 2:51am
Interesting that they claim Bridgestone developed the technology. Search for 'tweel'.this stuff has been under development for years.

franc123, Dec 6, 6:30am
Yeah lol, repairs!You've got to replace the whole thing if its been run flat for any length of time. Run flats are particularly useless in places like Reefton or Haast or Taihape or Kaitaia or Tokomaru Bay for instance at any time of the day let alone at 10pm on a wet Sunday night, you will be laughed out of town.You are hundreds of km's away from a BMW agent that will be the only place that would be likely to have one, and even then in all sizes except the one that you need.When you camp overnight outside the local Beau's or Firestone, again if you are lucky enough to be close to one, waiting for them to open the next morning you will (again) be laughed at and be told Nah we'll have to order that in.

mugenb20b, Dec 6, 7:01am
We had a guy come into our garage once, in a BMW with a flat, run flat tyre. Asked us if we could repair / change it. We did some research and found that only Firestone tyre shops (as well as others possibly) can do them, as you need a special machine to work with them. The poor owner had to (chose to) drive his $90k BMW for 30kms to get to the nearest Firestone dealer.

franc123, Dec 6, 7:09am
Yep, and you can imagine that this subject is NOT raised by the salesman when they are greasing you up in the showroom wanting you to part with high five or six figure sums to drive away in a shiny new Beamer.

gadgit3, Dec 6, 7:15am
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Ahh I thought the internal design was roughly the same. maybe not then. but the design is not new and I can think of many "concept cars" from years back running this type of tyre and also seen it on a few NASA vehicles

smac, Dec 6, 8:00am
Like I said really.

gadgit3, Dec 6, 8:06am
Yea just like you said but different words lol

vtecintegra, Dec 6, 8:12am
Run flats also have a rep for ruining the ride of the car.

Its a bit difficult to carry a spare in a modern car that probably has nowhere to put it and at any rate may need different size tyres for the front and rear.

gadgit3, Dec 6, 8:12am