From a friend...
No air! And much less petroleum in their manufacture. Thought you might like to see the next generation of tires. They had a pair at the Philadelphia Car show. Attached are pictures of the new Michelin tires. 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 tires. This is what great R&D will do and just think of the impact on existing technology: no more air valves no more air compressors at gas stations no more repair kits.
While I think this is definitely LONG overdue and a great invention, my concerns about these tires are as follows:
1. What happens when there's a lot of weight distributed to one side of the car? Or there's a lot of weight equally distributed throughout the car? Will the tires flatten out or will the weight be supported?
2. Can you get those joints in chrome? And you know I'm asking b/c dudes are gonna see these joints and the first dude that gets them will have the normal joints. But there will definitely be guys out there trying to get the chrome version. I think the lil center spoke section could be chromed out?
3. How long as these tires supposed to last?
4. If I hit one of those SW D.C. (or downtown Bmore) potholes, will the tire fold up like a pretzel?
I'm sure these concerns had to come up naturally during the research and development phase of these tires so hopefully they were all addressed thoroughly and taken into consideration during the design phase. Personally, I'd buy these joints. But I wouldn't be an early adopter because they'd probably cost too much and I'd want to see them on someone else's car before mine.
1 comment:
With my luck I'd need to get them the day they hit the market. But I'd like to hear R&D's answer to that weight distribution question first. They looked a little shakey under the pressure of the car by itself.
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