cooker

I don't get why a different type of wheel or rim is required for a solid tire.

wphamilton

I'm sure that's possible, but I think that with available materials the structures necessary for light weight and damping similar to pneumatic tires will break down with use. Too quickly. Some super-material might be developed but my intuition is we're too far from that to see anything available in the near term.

tandempower

I don't know that it's 'required,' but someone mentioned the difficulty of getting it on the rim, so it occurred to me that someone might just manufacture single-piece wheels with tires, all made within the same single mold. Maybe the material for the tire would be different from that used for the (mag) wheel, but I'm sure both plastics could be injected into the same mold somehow so they are bonded from the moment of formation, instead of having to stretch the tire/tube over the rim after both are made separately.

I-Like-To-Bike

Is "I can envision" another way to write "dream about" or "wishfully think about" rather than predict something happening in the next five years?

cooker

I really don't get why you have a problem with people speculating about the future. I'm personally not wishing for or dreaming of solid tires, but I can see there would be a demand for them if they could be made workable.

tandempower

"Envision" means it's possible. I cannot envision robots gluing tubeless tires onto conventional rims, for example, because I don't know how that would be possible. When I say I 'envision' it, it means I think it's possible and not a bad idea.

350htrr

And I can "envision" people 20 years ago saying stuff like you are saying is going/would be totally IMPOSSIBLE in their near future... Everyone including 10 year-olds having a phone, connected to the internet, talking for "free" and seeing the other person on skype around the world, teenagers coming home after borrowing their dads car and the dad saying WTF did you do... ? I see you went somewhere totally different, than you said you were going to, you did over the speed limit most of your drive, you did... Blah blah blah...

You needs to free your imagination...

I-Like-To-Bike

Ain't you the fellow who keeps badgering other posters to stick to your script for this thread and limit their posts on this thread to 5 year predictions? How does using imagination, wishful thinking and daydreams to conjure i.e. envision about what might be possible at some vague distant point in time fit your script?

McBTC

...speculating as in, the forming of a theory or conjecture without firm evidence--e.g., driving cars leads to catastrophic global warming so during the next five years we will return to harnessing human power as our primary means of transportation-- a la, the rickshaw and gondolas; and, some of us heretics will continue to enjoy riding road bikes for exercise and entertainment.

jon c. 

A 20 year time span is a different game. Looking back, one can usually see many things widely used today which they could not have envisioned two decades prior. But not much happens over a 5 year span that's really startling. Over the shorter time frame most innovation follows a more predictable path. I can't think of anything today that I would consider an impossible or even improbably change from only 5 years ago. Technology has gotten incrementally better, but there's nothing really stunning.

cooker

That "badgering" (gentle reminding, actually) was mostly addressed at people who were veering into completely unrelated political topics or disussing stuff that hasn't even been invented yet, let alone ready for deployment within 5 years. Earlier I did make the specific prediction that we would see solid bike tires within 10 years, but not 5 years. Then I discovered there already are some on the market, but they're not very good. However, we live in an era of rapid advancements in materials engineering. So I think a discussion of how they might be improved is not "imagination, wishful thinking and daydreams to conjure i.e. envision about what might be possible at some vague distant point in time", but does fall within the realm of what might happen within 5 years. So that's my response. But you didn't address the question about why you're so hostile to any kind of futurist discussions.

I-Like-To-Bike

"Hostile" is your loaded description of opinions (or "gentle reminders") that differ from your own, "futuristic discussions" is your fanciful description of the high fiving amongst a few members of the LCF forum to support each others' WAGs.

cooker

I love opinions that differ from mine, quite few of which are offered in the thread. I got the idea that you were hostile from your tone, not your content.

I-Like-To-Bike

You have lots of "ideas", some of them quite imaginative.

prj71

Solid tires dude... Airless dude...Already available...

https://www.specialized.com/us/en/bi...s/alibi/118326

cooker

You say that like its a bad thing.

cooker

That video was posted in August 2016 and indicated that the tire would be available on the 2017 Specialized Alibi bike; and according to the website they are now selling that bike with the tire pre-installed. So we will see if it catches on and gets extended to other Specialized bikes or the idea is copied by other bike brands. Obviously they are marketing it first to casual riders who don't want the inconvenience of flats and it remains to be seen if utility riders like commuters will buy in. I'm a bit more leaning towards it becoming "a thing" within 5 years, now that a major bike brand is trying it out. I couldn't find any information on how you replace it if it wears out or you don't like it, or if it is vulnerable to popping off under stress. That may not matter to the most casual riders but of course it would to any of us who are higher mileage types.

It's true that solid tires have not caught on in the past, but the same has happened with lots of innovations that didn't succeed until the technology was good enough or other conditions were right, an obvious example being the electric car, which has been lurking in the wings for over 100 years, with many false starts, and is now finally breaking through.

McBTC

There are examples where it has caught on-- e.g., Forklifts, wheelchairs...

tandempower

I admit that I didn't foresee Skype either, but that is because I didn't understand html as a latent potential of digitization. In fact, it was a long time before I understood how CDs relied on digitization. A lot of clarity is gained by understanding the basic science, from quantum mechanics up. Some things are really impossible, while others are possible but unfathomable by people due to cultural assumptions. Freeing your imagination from cultural assumption clarifies future vision, indeed, but freeing it from the laws of physics/nature only leads to crazy ideas like flying unicorns genetically engineered from fairy dust . . . and limitless energy/industry/consumption/development without climate change or other negative side-effects.

tandempower

Came across some videos about tubeless/airless tires for bikes. They're called ERWs. The first video is more of a polished corporate demonstration video, while the second shows someone trying out some prototypes at a local bike shop:



and here's a CNN report about loop-wheels (instead of spokes)

350htrr

Don't know about unicorns, but I do believe someone IS raising up a mastodon from the dead, with some bone DNA... I'm pretty sure that was impossible/imagination 5 years ago.

I-Like-To-Bike

Use your "imagination" and make a prediction based on its product; works for some posters on this thread.

tandempower

Prediction: chain oil will be distributed in single-use packets like those for condiments. The outside of the packet will be covered with paper-towel like material to wipe off excess oil after applying.

It will be handy to keep one or two of these packets on your bike for those unexpected moments when the squeaking begins.

350htrr

That is a great prediction/idea...Actually.

tandempower

Jurassic Park was originally published in 1990 and was considered realistic sci fi. The double-helical structure of DNA molecules was revealed to Watson and Crick in 1953.