Michelin

[ignis]

These tires are airless and are scheduled to be out on the market very soon.

The bad news for law enforcement is that spike strips will not work on these..

Just think of the impact on existing technology:

A. no more air valves.

B. no more air compressors at gas stations.

C. no more repair kits.

D. no more flats.

These are actual pictures taken in the South Carolina plant of Michelin.

[Crossy]

What happens if a small stone gets caught up in there?

[kartman]

Law enforcement may be trembling but i understand Ben Hur has given the thumbs up .

[Spoonman]

Its not new.

Michelin first announced the Tweel in 2005. The name is a combination of the words tire and wheel because the Tweel doesn’t use a traditional wheel hub assembly. A solid inner hub mounts to the axle. That’s surrounded by polyurethane spokes arrayed in a pattern of wedges. A shear band is stretched across the spokes, forming the outer edge of the tire (the part that comes in contact with the road). The tension of the shear band on the spokes and the strength of the spokes themselves replace the air pressure of a traditional tire. The tread is then attached to the shear band.

www.youtube.com/Michelin tweel

[WarpSpeed]

What happens if a small stone gets caught up in there?

In where?? And how is anything going to seriously effect it? They look really cool while in motion and I wonder if these are not just prototypes for external visual purposes with the REAL tire having sidewalls for additional effectiveness and aesthetics..

I question the "no more flats" suggestion though as these are going to come apart dramatically when they fail if run down to thin on the tread...

I would still consider that a flat, at least they better come apart as having a potentially large flat spot come up suddenly on one side is going to be a real shock and quite dangerous..

[husskydog]

How do they hold it on the rim, as no air preasure to keep it tight, special rims? Burn outs still possible...etc?????? comes in various colours....??? wow

[WarpSpeed]

It says they are not on rims the rims are incorporated with the tire and mounted together as one unit on the hub..

[stingray]

It says they are not on rims the rims are incorporated with the tire and mounted together as one unit on the hub..

Cost? If it's not a joke i'll guess normal peaple can't afford it to change the whole unit. Yes, what hapen if some stone, a rat or a frog sticks inside? Must drive nicely then (out of wheel balance). Look like some high educated University Engineer have devlopped them, without using any commonsenses in his brain.

[WarpSpeed]

^ I guess that depends on mileage and performance provided and it seems the 'rims' can be reused but they are like plates that are just tightened over the 'tire' against the hub..

I still don't see the problem with stones or other mentioned? Especially if these are just as I mentioned, visualization prototypes (sidewalls removed for the purpose of viewing them internally)... Highly unlikely anything will get stuck in there while in motion and once stopped would just fall out anyway.. If it was that much of a problem in performance (I.E. balance) on those very rare occasions how hard would it be to stop and remove whatever it was if there is no sidewall?

Personally I'd buy them but my concern is with a potential wearing out and becoming a serious flat side like Flintstone wheels...

[BSJ]

I applaud Michelin for trying to take us to a new and better place. Expensive they maybe, but if the advantages outweigh the potential problems eventually they will filter down to affordable levels.

[Dave the Dude]

I been thinking about something like that for a long time.

Oh well! back to the drawing board.

[WarpSpeed]

I been thinking about something like that for a long time.

Oh well! back to the drawing board.

Me tooo......

[aussiebebe]

That's an interesting post ignis, I like to think I know about current tech, but I'd never heard of the tweel, and the Youtube video was posted in 2006!

I doubt though, that they'll catch on anytime soon. The HowStuffWorks pages reads: The Tweel does have several flaws (aside from the name). The worst is vibration. Above 50 mph, the Tweel vibrates considerably. That in itself might not be a problem, but it causes two other things: noise and heat and the barrier of making manufacturing changes to numerous factories, not to mention tire balancing and mounting equipment in thousands of auto repair shops

I'd personally like to know why Michelin is even making them; they seem to create more problems than they solve; the tread still wears down at the same rate as conventional tires and I can't find any info on the lifespan of the tire structure itself; it must become more flexible and less ridgid over time, compromising the integrity of the tire, yet it can't be repaired of pumped-up. Expensive and crazy.

[WarpSpeed]

I agree with your evaluation and as I said if a chunk came off suddenly at speed it would not be pretty to have a tire suddenly drop several inches in height and lock up at the same time, at least a deflated tire still rolls in some manner..

Kinda funny story: One time I was traveling on the freeway at 70 MPH in my work van and I saw this in tact tire retread come off another truck that was in the right hand lane and it was like slow motion as it traveled across traffic in my direction but on a slight angle to the flow of traffic and there was no way to avoid it so I tried to speed up past it as you don't want to hit that and run over it.

Almost made it but fell just short as it hit the side of my van just in front of the right rear wheel well and it actually completely encased my rear drive tire so that it was sliding on the pavement and the van tire was driving inside of it. It would have been one of those keystone cops moments if it wasn't so fricking freaky and dangerous, my rear tire all of a sudden no longer contacting the road at that speed and the tread was well jammed in too..

I managed to call on my past experience (nothing like this though) and not to loose control and drive to the shoulder safely without getting run over and then how to get a truck tire retread twice the size of my tire out of my wheel well and off my tire, of course taking the tire off but that was only a small part of it as those treads are not at all flexible. It was some adventure but guaranteed without my driving experience it would have gone pear shaped in a hurry as the van initially got all up set and out of shape it was roll over for sure otherwise..