I Tried Solid Bike Tires | Here's What I Found

I worked in the tyre industry for 15 years, I tested solid tyres for cars with negative results, mainly because of wet road condition performance. the grip coefficient in dry conditions was lower than pneumatic tyres but still acceptable for low speed applications. in wet conditions it was simply too dangerous. So I think an important test would be on grip performance.

I used to work in a bike shop about 30 years ago, solid tires were quite popular then and we made a lot of money re-spoking, replacing bent rims and damaged hub bearings of wheels fitted with solid tires. Air is a fantastically efficient shock absorber. Foam rubber with unpressurized air in the foam are in no way comparable. Elastomers make very poor springs. Personally I have found well protected tires (Schwalbe Marathon for example) are virtually puncture proof, and I prefer the minute chance of a puncture (less than 1/20,000km in my experience) to the massive cost of wheel repair resulting from solid tires.

Hey! I’m the guy who invented the “NASA bike tire” and I agree that solid tires are a fantastic part of the solution. In fact, I’m running Tannus tires on the Schwinn featured partway through the video. I’m also running tubeless on my Esker MTB, and pneumatics on my Gunnar touring bike. Ultimately, a diversity of options will benefit the cycling community and I’m excited to see these innovations on the solid rubber tire—especially if the recyclability claims hold up. Similarly, re-treading a NiTi tire would be huge for sustainability. Until then, I recommend just squirting some sealant inside your pneumatic tubes. It’s quick, cheap, easy, can retrofit onto most bikes, and eliminates the vast majority of flats!

You don't need NASA or some new materials to not worry about punctures, just use a simple trick. When you do get a puncture, reuse the old punctured inner tube as a tire liner, just make sure to cut off the valve and clean it, make sure whatever caused the puncture is not there any more. I never had a flat tire since i did that. Edit: Forgot to mention that the ride quality didn't feel any different.

As for ride quality: pneumatic tires work so well because you’re not relying on the elasticity/compression of the few cubic centimeters of air between your rim and the pavement—you’re benefitting from the compression of the entire volume of air of the entire tire. That’s why airless tires have so far fallen short: they can’t spread the force of impacts or bumps across the entire tire like a fluid can. Adding millions of tiny bubbles in a sponge-like fashion may be better than being solid rubber, but it’s only because of the balance between elasticity and weight and compliance, not because it’s reproducing the benefits of a pneumatic tire.

As a teenager, I put over 2,000 miles on a set of airless tires with decades-old technology. One could say it was "just commuting", but it was also from one county to another, with the requirement that I never show up late for work. So...a valuable solution to an important problem, with zero downtime, reasonably good efficiency . . . and low comfort in that era of rubber tire. I'm excited to see first-hand what decades of improvement can deliver in the most maintenance-heavy area of a bike.

The first bicycles used solid rubber tires. The problem with a soft foam airless is you can't tailor your pressure for terrain and weight. I think the ideal solution is something like those foam tire liners. Make the foam equivalent to, say, 15-20 psi, and use air for the difference.

Would be curious to see how these tyres handle in the winter. It's currently -26 and I wonder if they'd just turn into a solid disc with no give or grip.

Regarding this topic, I've been riding on a single set of Schwalbe Marathon+ tires for around 10.000 km's in the past 4 years and never had a flat. They have several hard to puncture layers and a solid insert to minimize punctures. I pulled a long rusty nail out of them and large shards of glass that had me absolutely BAFFLED how they hadn't punctured them. The downside is the weight but they saved me so much hassle I can only gush over them.

You brought me closer to believing that this is possible. The bicycle is an interesting thing, because so many people think they can create an idea and build it for the bicycle since the bike is a simple machine. But because the tradeoff between energy efficiency and reliability is so delicate on a bicycle, in over a hundred years, we still haven't come up with an alternative to the pneumatic tire. We may never, but this idea is intriguing and promising.

With a pneumatic tire, the whole volume of air contributes to the "springiness" (feeding into both rolling resistance and comfort). For the rubber-foam-tire, it is just the bubbles around the area of contact - a considerably smaller volume.

One of my road bikes has Tannus tyres - I only use that bike on the static trainer. I originally used them on the road but found two problems. The first was that the tyres felt to be dragging - loads of friction - most unpleasant. The second problem (which I hope that Gecko addresses) is that because the Tannus tyres have far less "give" than a pneumatic tyre, they transmit any shocks straight up the spokes to the hub and with a "J" shaped spoke where it fits to the hub I found that several spokes sheared off at the bend in the spoke. As you mentioned in your video, the Tannus tyres are a nightmare to fit so imagine trying to replace a spoke! It can be done but, under no circumstances, allow the nipple to fall back into the rim, otherwise it's game over. This facet is important to physically large cyclists, I'm 6'3" and my optimum cycling mass is around 110kg because I have very broad shoulders. I also still hold my British Cycling Race Licence at age 67 and enter things like Ride100. If any of my comments are of interest to Gecko then please pass them on. I look forward to them becoming available.

I used Tannus tyres and pros and cons made them worthwhile for me. Commuting in London i just got sick of punctures trying to get in/out for work, tried all the usual stuff Gator, Marathon Plus, sealant, but the roads were just too poor and too much debris. Fuss-free reliability is definitely great for a specific type of cyclist. Yes an absolute pain to fit, but i did about 6500 miles a year, and they'd last 4 years. Second set was the slightly improved model (meant to be softer iirc) and seemed completely fine too. Also nice not having to carry all the things to fix punctures, which saves weight/space. If you're a commuter i'd defo suggest at least keeping an open mind about them.

It’s a great concept but I can see two issues: Air filled tires conform to internal rim width, these would have to come in many different sizes to suit different wheels. They might be comfortable for you at your weight, but give a terrible ride for someone lighter or heavier, so again they would have to come in different densities to match air filled tires.

"Schwalbe’s three-tire Marathon Plus lineup is among the company’s most popular and has been around for more than a decade and a half. For the most part, it’s immensely popular among most who’ve tried it. After all, they report it delivers a solid mix between comfort, low rolling resistance, high puncture protection, and a variety of tread patterns from which to choose, depending on terrain." In NQ Australia where we are afflicted with heavy duty thorns, I got many flats on my electric mountain bike until I used Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres :) Then I got no flats, you need to pull out accumulated thorns after each ride, which was good because they have wire beads and require a special technique to get them on the rims.

I think using microbubbles will be a game changer. Increase the PSI in the middle, reduce it by half a dozen PSI on a gradient to the sides of the tread for better grip when turning. You can have two layers of the same material with bubbles at different PSI to get that strong spring / weak spring effect that cars use. I could see this completely revolutionizing tires if it works.

Seems like this would be an excellent fit for the increasingly popular e-bikes segment. Bike lane and Pavement-only Cargo and Commuter e-bike styles seem like the best fit. Helps keep the e-bike ready at all times....and importantly, gives the e-bike company better "performance" (spec'd to always offer least rolling resistance for Max Range) and safety features (no flats EVER...gets you home) to tout.

With the on coming electric bike market this tire needs to be tested on several to see how well they hold up. The way a person normally rides changes markedly when riding an E-bike. really like the idea of no flat tire and recyclable.

I think this is interesting, but I would also suggest looking at tire sealant. Ever since going tubeless with sealant, I've enjoyed not worrying about thorns (especially goat heads). I still have to occasionally pump my tires, but it's not often and they feel very similar to regular tires aside from them being so hole resistant

I now have Tannus tires on all of my bikes. Zero worries about ever having a flat tire. I've heard from some of the cycling snobs that the solid tires ride harsher than a pneumatic tire, and don't grip as well in the wet. This was probably true of the earlier versions, especially on the skinny 23×700 tires. My serious workout bikes are 28×700, and my gravel/commuter bikes 32×700, and I cannot discern any difference between the softer Tannus Portal solid tires and pneumatic tires. I rarely ride in the wet, and if I do, it's just for casual commutes, so if they do grip less on wet roads it is a non issue for me. It is so much better to never get a flat, have the inconvenience of one, have to carry a spare tube and flat repair items.