Based on technology designed by NASA, The Smart Tire Company has managed to create a puncture-proof airless tire. Its sale on the Kickstarter platform has since begun, for deliveries in June 2024.
Imagine riding a bicycle or an electric bike, whose tires are free from any inner tube and any puncture, for the rest of your life. This is The Smart Tire Company project, which, in 2021, presented the first prototype of its so-called puncture-proof tires designed using NASA technology.
Two years later, the project takes on a whole new scale and becomes even more concrete: a Kickstarter campaign was launched to finance the production of the famous tires, deliveries of which are scheduled for June 2024. More than 115,000 euros have already been raised. raised on a target of 25,000 euros.
Superelastic and shape memory
Called METL, these tires are based on a type of alloy developed by NASA. Incidentally, the SMART Tire Company has an exclusive license to develop and market its tire, in agreement with the American agency. More concretely, what is this alloy made of?
This alloy is made of Nitinol, which is both nickel and titanium. As a result, this alloy boasts two key properties: it is superelastic, light and flexible on one side, but also strong like titanium. In addition, it systematically returns to its original form thanks to skills called “shape memory“.
All this beautiful maneuver allows you to obtain a tire devoid of any inner tube. In other words, punctures no longer exist. It also has very low rolling resistance, for – as we imagine – interesting performance on the road. The icing on the cake: it lasts a lifetime.
The Kickstarter page still specifies that the tread must be replaced every 8,000 to 13,000 km. This type of tire is intended more for road bikes and gravel bikes, and will be available in three different versions to adapt to various wheels: 700 x 32c, 700 x 35c, 700 x 38c, i.e. widths of 32, 35 and 38mm.
From 500 dollars
Winner of two awards at CES 2023 last January, METL tires cost the sum of 500 dollars. You have to pay a sum of 1500 dollars if you want to be delivered tires already mounted on wheels, or even 2300 dollars to taste carbon wheels. A version for electric scooter ($150) is even available.
It is interesting to see such technology landed on bicycles. Technology that we have already encountered in the automotive world, since Michelin and Goodyear have both developed their own airless tires. All of this obviously has an ecological aspect: according to Michelin, its solution would save 200 million tires per year, or the equivalent of 2 million tonnes of materials.
The bicycle subsidiary could also benefit from this and reduce its consumption of materials for tires.