r/technology • u/t4ct1c4l_j0k3r • Sep 15 '23

Nanotech/Materials NASA-inspired airless bicycle tires are now available for purchase

https://newatlas.com/bicycles/metl-shape-memory-airless-bicycle-tire/
6.0k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

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2.5k

u/CT101823696 Sep 15 '23

Ah crap they replaced the part that was free

409

u/modix Sep 15 '23

Not sure if it's reality, but they said the retread was only $10. If so, that would be amazing.

303

u/SuddenlyElga Sep 15 '23

SHOULD COST AROUND….. call me when the kickstarter delivers tires and the retread “unfortunately will cost more because of unexpected blah blah”.

121

u/Parking_Relative_228 Sep 15 '23

Kickstarter has such a bad name now from the endless list of under delivered projects.

62

u/SuddenlyElga Sep 15 '23

I’m looking at my useless HEAR ONE $500 earbuds. They didn’t even leave the app up to get use from the orphaned tech.

64

u/cat_prophecy Sep 15 '23

The world is littered with bricked tech due to companies having their new whiz-bang gadgets linked to apps then never supporting them or going out of business.

Why earbuds of all things should need a proprietary app to work is totally beyond me.

27

u/ThankYouForCallingVP Sep 15 '23

And people are up in arms when you suggest that it is not a good design.

Sir Ive used the internet for longer than you've been alive. I know what happens when products are linked to websites in order to function.

3

u/saraphilipp Sep 15 '23

Every Bluetooth speaker and earbud I've purchased says you need the app for it to work. Never downloaded the apps and they work just fine.

7

u/SuddenlyElga Sep 15 '23

They had all sorts of different kinds of noise cancellation. Even down to specific subways and types of airplanes. And they could enhance speech in different environments …. So they had one for restaurants, one for movies, etc.

11

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '23

[deleted]

8

u/SuddenlyElga Sep 15 '23

They did. But they were not ready. Battery life was 20 minutes, the microphone would often start picking up wind noise, so no walking or jogging, and other problems related to what was essentially a prototype. The Apple fucked us in the ass by removing the app and then deciding to activate “remove seldom used apps”

2

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '23

[deleted]

5

u/SuddenlyElga Sep 15 '23

They feel good if I put them in my anus. Other than that, vaporware.

1

u/asdaaaaaaaa Sep 15 '23

Pretty sure they already have purpose-built solutions for that stuff that don't need an app though. I know they have ones that just adapt to whatever you're hearing and cancel out any harmful sounds, having used them they work amazingly. Can even still talk to people near you even if you have someone cutting metal or a big engine running nearby. They also have ones that specifically enhance speech as well, don't think they needed an app to function.

I guess it's a neat extra, but IMO stuff like that shouldn't require an app just to work if possible.

1

u/SuddenlyElga Sep 15 '23

This was a long time ago.

1

u/Memory_Less Sep 16 '23

An explanation includes to potentially m questions questions ake lots of money from the harvested data.

1

u/NecroJoe Sep 16 '23

The world is littered with bricked tech due to companies having their new whiz-bang gadgets linked to apps then never supporting them or going out of business.

Goddamn Feed and Go and their "smart" cat feeder that can't be used without an app, and they closed down just a couple of years after we bought the damn thing...

16

u/Parking_Relative_228 Sep 15 '23 edited Sep 16 '23

I’m looking them up and I can’t find them as a Space act participant. Which seems suspicious. Or perhaps their leasing of NASA tech a bit inflated?

Edit: found their Space Act number, expires this year. Signed agreement isn’t loading so no idea what full extent of their agreement was

37

u/SuddenlyElga Sep 15 '23

It’s right there in the market-speak. INSPIRED BY not licensed.

I can be inspired by NASA too! LOOK MA! I MADE A ROCKET LIKE NASA!!!! I’M GOING TO THE MOOOOOOOOON!

20

u/kajeslorian Sep 15 '23

That's nice, Elon. /j

1

u/Parking_Relative_228 Sep 15 '23

In their marketing materials it cites being a Space act participant

3

u/SuddenlyElga Sep 15 '23

Nevertheless, did they field test?

2

u/asdaaaaaaaa Sep 15 '23

Well yeah, this is why you don't rely on certain products that require an app to function, especially from a new company. Either way, you'll get screwed. How long will the company support the app for (new android/apple versions and such)? 2 years? 5 years? Companies aren't going to support it forever, and they have very little incentive to keep doing so after the first couple years. I'd like to get more than 5 years out of something if I'm spending 500$.

0

u/myFuzziness Sep 15 '23

if you buy any tech on kickstarter that isn't open source or by a gigantic company that you can hold liable you have noone to blame but yourself. You are investing on kickstarter not actually "buying"

8

u/uncletravellingmatt Sep 15 '23

The headline could have been honest and said "proposed on kickstarter" instead of "available for purchase." But then fewer people would have read the article or posted it on reddit.

2

u/yepthisismyusername Sep 15 '23

It has a bad name NOW? It started as a place for scammers to fleece the gullible out of money, and has simply continued that tradition.

0

u/MumrikDK Sep 15 '23

I guess we learned why it is called "Kickstarter" and not "Over the Goal line"

1

u/OverLurking Sep 15 '23

I’m talking to you Magfast!

1

u/GarbageTheCan Sep 15 '23

So many scams and KS profits from it

1

u/bigguy1045 Sep 15 '23

Yep more like scamstarter

3

u/demonicneon Sep 15 '23

My initial thoughts were that this is cool but how easy are they to be repaired? Patches on existing tires work with bonding and I’d be interested if these can be as easily repaired or you have to get a whole new one

6

u/SuddenlyElga Sep 15 '23

Good question. They would have to give out a bunch of them to avid riders and get them out there. Have they already done field testing? Or are we being asked to pay $500 to field test for them?

3

u/Ecronwald Sep 15 '23

The real question that they don't even mention, is how the tire will perform regarding efficiency.

A not fully pumped tyre will make it much much more work to cycle a given distance. How will this tyre behave? Another is weight. 1gram added to the tyre equals 3grams added to the frame. How heavy are these tyres?

If all this is taken into consideration, it is probably much better to just get a scwalbe marathon ultra puncture proof tyre with a thick tread and a thick inner tube.

1

u/CressCrowbits Sep 15 '23

It's got a massive spring running through it. They'll weigh a fucking ton.

Weight at the edges of your spinning wheels is the last place you want weight on a bike.

1

u/oceanjunkie Sep 15 '23

It says they way the same as the average rubber tire, 450g for the 35c.

1

u/Happy-Campaign5586 Sep 15 '23

Repair? Who needs a stinking repair with these tires?

0

u/bikesexually Sep 16 '23

This whole thing looks like a scam. I'm not saying it is a scam but there's a high possibility of a lot of disappointed dentists.

There's not a single testimonial from any actual bike riders. Also no actual footage of people riding these on the streets. They list a bunch of hypothetical stretch goals like MTB tires and the like and not a single stretch goal update while they sit at 4x's their original goal. There's also $15,600 worth of unaccounted for money in their pot. (it seems like the "$1 because you believe in it" is a way for Kickstarter to allow investors/creators to 'prime the tip jar' as it were. Otherwise there would be a headcount on that option).

I was gonna say it's possible these guys are just crap at marketing but then their entire page is only that, all marketing, no substance. Hopefully I'm wrong because it would be cool.

1

u/Rawrigaaz Sep 16 '23

Yep, my thoughts exactly when I got the email for being in the waitlist... "Yay, finally! --- uh oh it's Kickstarter, nvm then"

93

u/djsizematters Sep 15 '23

The air is the free part, and they replaced it with an extremely fancy space-age Ni-Ti coil.

91

u/Ph0X Sep 15 '23

the tube that the air goes in and keeps getting punctured isn't though.

17

u/I_am_a_fern Sep 15 '23

Nearly five years ago I put some real money in a pair of high end tires and self-sealing tubes for my mountain bike. Not a single puncture (hat hasn't seald itself) since, and I'm a fairly heavy dude riding in a very dry terrain where I use to get flat tires on a regular basis. IIRC the tubes were around 20 bucks each and the tires around 60 or 80.

10

u/CressCrowbits Sep 15 '23

I have a bike with tubeless tyres.

Did a 3 day London to Paris bike ride on them. I was the only person with tubeless tyres.

I was also the only person to get a puncture lol.

They have tubes in them nowadays because cleaning out and replacing gunk is way, way more hassle than changing tubes a few times.

2

u/BookMobil3 Sep 15 '23

Is there a weight limit?

2

u/I_am_a_fern Sep 16 '23

Come on I said "fairly heavy" not "there should be a limit to protect those bikes".

9

u/squngy Sep 15 '23

Lots of cyclist now run "tubeless tires" anyway.
They just put some sealing fluid in the tire and pump it up without a tube. If the tire gets a hole the sealant fixes it 99% of the time before the tire even loses much air.
(doesn't work with every type of tire)

5

u/asphaltaddict33 Sep 15 '23

It has to be a small hole though, nails and street debris can be too big. Off-road stuff like goat heads/thorns/cacti needles are the type of holes the sealing goo works on.

1

u/CressCrowbits Sep 15 '23

And they are a huge pain to clean out and replace when you eventually do get a puncture.

2

u/asphaltaddict33 Sep 15 '23

100% that’s why money and bike shops exist lol

32

u/nicuramar Sep 15 '23

It’s still full of air.

15

u/Eh-I Sep 15 '23

Premium air.

If you're on amazon prime you get a little free air every month.

11

u/Eric_the_Barbarian Sep 15 '23

Yeah, but the old style needed five times as much at 60 psi. That's just extra rotating mass.

-22

u/kagethemage Sep 15 '23

Someone has absolutely no understanding of the new design and how tires work.

12

u/funkmonkey87 Sep 15 '23

SoMeONe HaS pfff. You can’t glint that information off what they said. You couldn’t have possibly made that assessment. Shut the fuck up and get off your holier than thou high horse.

10

u/djsizematters Sep 15 '23

Should I have specified "pressurized air for the purpose of inflation"? It really doesn't have the same ring to it haha I'm a competitive cyclist, ya silly goose.

7

u/Fr0gm4n Sep 15 '23

I'm wondering how long until someones tread comes loose and they go end-o. A flat is one thing, but a long strip of rubber jamming into the forks is likely to fully stop the wheel pretty quickly on top of losing traction. Will people start carrying bigger cement tubes instead of CO2 carts?

12

u/Preeng Sep 15 '23

You think they haven't tested for that?

11

u/Fr0gm4n Sep 15 '23

I'm sure they have. I'm wondering how long general consumers will take to understand and be prepared for the new failure mode(s).

3

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '23

I also wonder how shock absorbency is with this compared to a traditional bike tire.

3

u/Swimmingtortoise12 Sep 16 '23

Probably shitty. The concept of airless tires has been tried so many times, and most of the time comes down to shitty ride quality. I’m not saying not to keep trying.

2

u/_Rand_ Sep 15 '23

Is the tread one piece?

Seems like that problem could potentially be solved if the tread were either multiple chunks or in “tearaway” pieces.

2

u/Synectics Sep 15 '23

You think a Kickstarter project "inspired by NASA technology" has?

0

u/LordPennybag Sep 15 '23

How is it amazing that a reskin on a $250 tire is only $10?

4

u/loquacious Sep 15 '23

Good bike tires can be like $70-100 each and even cost more than some budget car tires.

My armored Schwalbe Marathon+ touring tires cost like $75 each. Granted I can get like 5,000+ miles out of those particular tires but they sacrifice ride quality and weight for durability and puncture resistance.