[Per]

Hey Bonz,

Your link takes us to the seat company. Are you in the wine already?

[Karl]

Truk, here’s the difference….Fla…wine….Ga….Squeezin’s. Geo.

[Tim]

Even if we want to put them on our coaches I am going to assume it will be a long time before the sizes we use become available. The cost to tool those tires will be enormous and no tire company is going to make the investment unless they get a fast return on the investment. They can only do that with very high prices or a lot of volume.

[Peter]

Haha, Tom. Sorry ’bout that. I fixed the link.

Jon is being so management/practical. Of course it may be a while, but I want to stimulate a discussion. Maybe along the lines of lithium batteries.

[Archived]

If management practical means the companies involved in producing the tires are expected to make a profit, count me as management practical. Ditto with Li batteries.

I don’t doubt both of your examples are going to find widespread acceptance at some point, but to get that acceptance both technologies have to be developed to the point where they are as reliable or more reliable than the alternative and they are as cost effective. Both examples are competing with well established designs and technologies and purchasers of those products are well aware of the price and performance they can expect. They know the sizes that will meet their performance needs.

In the case of the tires all that is known is what is stated in the press releases which is pure puffery. In the case of the batteries there is some history, but so far I don’t think the market can draw conclusions regarding the cost / benefit ratio with the driving force behind them apparently being their light weight which makes the weight savings more important than cost.

[Archived]

As I recall, Michelin talked about a similar solution several years ago but it was in combination with a complete wheel/tire package. Never heard any more of it BUT, I’m using non-pneumatic tires currently on my bicycle and very satisfied.

[Karl]

John Deere has a new Zero turn mower coming out with the Michelin airless tires…. I would post a link but don’t know how to do it.

[John]

We saw a front-end loader on a trailer today that had airless tires. It just had three concentric rows of circular holes drilled all the way through the tire, which I had to assume was otherwise solid rubber.

[Archived]

Cost effective may be hard to quantify. For me, I’d gladly pay double to eliminate the risk of blowout and possibly improve mileage, but I’ll admit that I’m one of those that likes trying new things and doesn’t parse the numbers to extremes.