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Tennis balls serve as decent bicycle tires that don’t easily puncture
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Re: Tennis balls serve as decent bicycle tires that don’t easily puncture
#22For normal world applications, a tubeless[1] setup will perform infinitely better. Though less eye-catchy. [1] https://www.bikeradar.com/advice/buyers-guides/tubeless/
"Sealant, poured into the tyre or injected through the valve, helps plug any tiny leaks. This sealant stays liquid inside the tyre and will heal small punctures suffered while riding."
Isn't that basically the same as Slime, which is (from what I understand) widely reviled in the biking community?
Re: Tennis balls serve as decent bicycle tires that don’t easily puncture
#23For normal world applications, a tubeless[1] setup will perform infinitely better. Though less eye-catchy. [1] https://www.bikeradar.com/advice/buyers-guides/tubeless/
"Sealant, poured into the tyre or injected through the valve, helps plug any tiny leaks. This sealant stays liquid inside the tyre and will heal small punctures suffered while riding." Isn't that basically the same as Slime, which is (from what I understand) widely reviled in the biking community?
Not sure if they still make them, but some many years ago I tried out some Slime tubes that had the stuff built into the tube somehow. Not only did it not work to seal punctures, it was impossible to patch.
Re: Tennis balls serve as decent bicycle tires that don’t easily puncture
#24For normal world applications, a tubeless[1] setup will perform infinitely better. Though less eye-catchy. [1] https://www.bikeradar.com/advice/buyers-guides/tubeless/
"Sealant, poured into the tyre or injected through the valve, helps plug any tiny leaks. This sealant stays liquid inside the tyre and will heal small punctures suffered while riding." Isn't that basically the same as Slime, which is (from what I understand) widely reviled in the biking community?
Not sure about road biking, but at least in the mountain and gravel communities it's almost universal. There are 3 popular sealant brands that I'm aware of: Stans, Orange Seal, and Slime.
Re: Tennis balls serve as decent bicycle tires that don’t easily puncture
#25For normal world applications, a tubeless[1] setup will perform infinitely better. Though less eye-catchy. [1] https://www.bikeradar.com/advice/buyers-guides/tubeless/
"Sealant, poured into the tyre or injected through the valve, helps plug any tiny leaks. This sealant stays liquid inside the tyre and will heal small punctures suffered while riding." Isn't that basically the same as Slime, which is (from what I understand) widely reviled in the biking community?
No. I've been riding a road tubeless setup in Seattle and surrounding countryside for half a decade now and the feel has nothing to do with Slime. 55mm x ISO 559 lightweight road tires with Orange Seal. (In the NW we like wide road tires : )
Something like 10k miles later I've had zero incidents where I had to fix something on the road. You do have to more maintenance (e.g. make sure you have adequate sealant in the tires periodically) but for regular year round use especially, it is a worthwhile trade.
Re: Tennis balls serve as decent bicycle tires that don’t easily puncture
#26It is interest that from a functional perspective these are just traditional tires with thicker walls to prevent punctures and internally compartmentalized to reduce the impact of a puncture.
it reminds me of the Titanic - because one of your compartments can get a puncture but it definitely totally won't affect any of the other ones at all.
Re: Tennis balls serve as decent bicycle tires that don’t easily puncture
#27Everyone who plays tennis knows that tennis balls don't retain their pressure for very long once outside their pressurized cannister, though. I can't tell if this article is just ignoring that fact or if they are actually running on "flat" balls. (Balls that are too flat to play with still have some pressure and might work fine, I guess, though it seems like riding on them would just flatten them more.)
Maybe they are using practice balls, which don't go flat
Re: Tennis balls serve as decent bicycle tires that don’t easily puncture
#28For normal world applications, a tubeless[1] setup will perform infinitely better. Though less eye-catchy. [1] https://www.bikeradar.com/advice/buyers-guides/tubeless/
"Sealant, poured into the tyre or injected through the valve, helps plug any tiny leaks. This sealant stays liquid inside the tyre and will heal small punctures suffered while riding." Isn't that basically the same as Slime, which is (from what I understand) widely reviled in the biking community?
There are (small) differences in wheel and tire design to support the sealant based system, and that makes all the difference I guess. Slime tubes are pretty reviled, tubeless is the hot thing. Besides being more reliable it also allows for lower pressures, which is probably the main reason it has become popular. There is very little downside for riders (tubeless is just a bit slower than high end tubes that very few riders use), but for the home mechanic they’re a bit of a pain to work on.
Re: Tennis balls serve as decent bicycle tires that don’t easily puncture
#29Everyone who plays tennis knows that tennis balls don't retain their pressure for very long once outside their pressurized cannister, though. I can't tell if this article is just ignoring that fact or if they are actually running on "flat" balls. (Balls that are too flat to play with still have some pressure and might work fine, I guess, though it seems like riding on them would just flatten them more.)
Maybe that only matters for playing tennis. These look almost like the design of any other airless tire, only instead of a rubber tire with holes in it they are holding together the tennis balls to form this sort of shape. I think it only matters that they are able to hold their shape up, not that they remain springy or anything.
Re: Tennis balls serve as decent bicycle tires that don’t easily puncture
#30How’s the braking performance? Wouldn’t the tennis balls function as a kind of high-friction ball bearing, and allow the outer tire to slip when stopping?
The balls are inserted into PVC rings, which are screwed to the hub, so they can't move. (In my mind this also means that the tire is made of PVC rings and that the balls serve more as decoration, but hey)
Exactly! Surprised I had to read this far down for anyone to realize that little detail. To be fair, the balls kind of spread the covering tire out beyond the rings...