pmt

Many of you have seen some of my comments about Road Tubeless; I've put thousands of kilos on Road Tubeless and I'm a big fan.

It occurred to me that we could take it further. Why not Road Tireless? Why have all the extra weight of a tire when we could just dump them and use a tube only?

I got an experimental chemical from a friend at a large chemical company that rhymes with PuDont which is a flexible polymer intended for bulletproof vest applications. It's highly toxic in the liquid form, so I had to take many precautions in working with it. The polymer also won't stick to tubular glue, so I had to be careful to only coat the outside of the tube with it.

After treating the tube (a standard Bontrager 650c size) I then glued it to a spare tubular wheel that I had around. It was just as hard to stretch it over the rim as a regular tubular tire.

Then I inflated to 180lbs and went for a test ride. Not only was the treated tube fast and smooth, even superior to the best tubies I've ridden, it also turned out to be totally puncture-proof. I had my cousin send me some goathead thorns from Arizona and rode over them repeatedly, with nary a flat.

I can't see any disadvantage to this setup; if it wasn't glued properly, I can imagine that it could roll just like an improperly glued tubular, but other than that, it's sure superior to any tire that I've used. There may be even better results from a thin latex tube.

My next experiment will be to fill the tube with a lighter-than-air gas to see what improvement I can get; I have a very large amount of methane available so that's what I'll use.

rollin

Wow - I just tried this and found 150 psi was the best for cornering left but I live close to the equator so results may vary.

Thanks man - that's fantastic.

I'm going to put some glue on the outside of the tube to help grip.

scirocco

I very much doubt that lighter than air gases would help. Maybe a very, very light gas like hydrogen. And even then only in warmer climates where the same gas is less dense at a given pressure and temperature.

Homebrew01

I suspect these are only going to be available 1 day out of the year ?

Matt Gaunt

Would that be today, by any chance?

jwill87ta

Ever heard of the Hindenburg?

WhyFi

Did the Hindenburg go over your head, too?

adclark

That's why the OP is going to use methane instead of hydrogen.

Santaria

Wouldn't removing the spokes make this a better kg/$ solution though? Or using toilet paper tubes to replace stems?

pmt

Even today in the cold rain, the tires stuck like glue to the road. I'm going to try to commercialize this.

HMF

I can't tell who's serious and who's playing along.. You guys are good.

M_FactorX19

i just tried this on my new set of Reynolds tubulars and trashed my rim thanks a lot!!!

M_FactorX19

nevermind i was able to super glue my rim back together good as new. no worries ill try again next year.

Spiduhman

I repaired my broken seatpost with a red cardboard tube that was laying around the garage, worked great! There was some sticky clear stuff oozing out that helped it stay together. What is "dynamite" anyway?

531phile 

Good one.

blueride2

I bet you do.

pmt

UPDATE: Please don't anyone try this, even if you can get the special polymer. I went out to the garage and the tires had spontaneously combusted and were gone. Nothing left but a little strip on the rim; it's like all the material just vaporized. Since that would be rather dangerous when riding, don't do it.

mutantdunk

A word of advice; use some sort of surgical gloves. I didn't and now I have a tube stuck to my hand. Thank God I have a straight razor in the medicine cabinet.

fishymamba

lol +1