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FLAT-FREE
TUBES & TIRES
These products are semi-solid rubber, with no air, so
they can't go flat. You can get either an air-free tire,
which replaces the whole tube & tire (e.g. Greentyre),
or an air-free tube, which fits inside your existing tire
(e.g., No-Mor
Flats, Toobz).
These are an as-yet unproven technology, and cycling
equipment master Sheldon
Brown thinks they damage wheels. (We don't know
whether that's true, but we're loathe to disagree with the
revered S. Brown.) Below are some reviews of these
products.
Carol Kent's comments on No-Mor
Flats (April 2002)
The actual fact of No-Mor
Flats is that installing them takes no more time than
fixing any flat, and they increase the weight of the
bicycle by less than two pounds. When they are first
installed, there will be slippery water between the tube
and the tire, which may cause the tube to slip around,
making riding rather hard. Once it has dried out
(overnight, if you do it in the evening) riding is the
same as before. There is more inertia, you will not coast
as fast, but pedaling is no harder.
I consider mine a work bike. I run a housekeeping
service and go from house to house all day with all the
cleaning supplies. When I am not doing that, I am
carrying groceries or going to Home Depot. I have
absolutely no intention of arriving late or unloading
everything on the road to fix a flat. I've used the
bicycle for all my transportation for several years,
approximately 3000 miles per year, with the only expense
being replacing the chain twice a year. No-Mor Flats is
great for me. I think they would also be great if a
person were to travel for several months across country.
The only problem with No-Mor Flats is that too few people
are using bicycles for the purposes which make them
ideal. (Apr. 2002)
Our review of GreenTyre
(1998)
GreenTyre makes special flat-free tires. From
the company's home page: "Greentyres are molded from one
piece of micro-cellular polyurethane. There's no inner
tube, only millions of tiny air pockets (or cells) that
give Greentyres a comfortable and flat free ride." They
claim performance similar to standard tires. They're
wrong. The 24" pair I got was so mushy it was like riding
on flats. They do have some higher-performance tires for
racing bikes, but the tires they have for most commuting
bikes and mountain bikes don't have very good
performance. (They're like riding slightly flat tires.)
Still, if you don't do much riding, or if you REALLY hate
getting flats, or if you're mountain-biking and don't
need the equivalent of a pumped-up tire, these might be
for you.
GreenTyres also have environmental benefits. According
to the company's home page, "Greentyres™ are created
out of a high-tech process but never at the expense of
the environment. The process is clean, non-carcinogenic,
is CFC free and releases no harmful toxins to damage the
atmosphere. The product itself cures at ambient
temperature so that there is no need to burn valuable and
diminishing fossil fuels in post manufacturing
vulcanizing, as required by rubber tires. The product
lasts longer than rubber and when the tire eventually
wears down it can be recycled." Plus, of course, you save
on materials by never having to buy another tire, tube,
or patch kit.
To add to the excitement, GreenTyres are available in
a variety of colors: black,
gray,
blue,
red,
green, and
yellow.
GreenTyres are available in a variety of sizes,
treads, and other styles. Each tire sells for $25, except
most off-road styles which are $36. You can order
online from the company's website.
Besides the poor performance, the other bad news is
that, unfortunately, GreenTyre's customer service is so
pathetic it's incredible. In 1998 when I didn't receive
my order three weeks after I placed it, I emailed them
and they told me they'd lost the order because they were
moving their warehouse. They finally sent the package
out, but sent it to my billing address instead of the
shipping address (even though the shipping address was
clearly listed on the invoice). It turned out that the
tire I received wouldn't fit my bike -- an error I think
that they're partially responsible for because their
website doesn't provide any detailed help in selecting
sizes. Then, amazingly, I traded about five or six emails
with them in which they refused to answer my questions
about tire sizes so I could try to get the correct size
tire! They preferred to refund my money so they wouldn't
have to deal with me. I had to insist that I wanted a
correct-fitting tire instead of my money back. They
reluctantly agreed. I told them the tire I wanted, and
this time they sent me the wrong color tire. I contacted
them, and they said they'd take the wrong tire back and
send me the right one. After another delay, I got an
email from them apologizing, explaining that my tire
didn't go out because they were moving their warehouse
that weekend! Uh, isn't that what they told me a
month and a half earlier when they lost my first order?
That's not all -- their website ordering system has a few
bugs. I couldn't get it to work at all with Internet
Explorer (latest version). And in Netscape, good luck if
you accidentally order the wrong item and need to try to
change your order...
Another site by Michael Bluejay... |
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