Michelin "see-through" tyres

[TonyHetherington]

Received this e-mail this morning, one of those pass-on jobbies. Anyway, quite interesting I thought. I have done a search for this on PH but can find nothing - apologies if it is indeed a repost.

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SEE THROUGH TIRES
Radical new tire design by Michelin. The next generation of tires. They had a pair at the Philadelphia car show.

Yes, those are 'spoke' like connections to the inner part of the tire from the outside tread 'wrap!' The next picture shows how odd it looks in motion...

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I'm sure it will change the ride characteristics, but is there an advantage anywhere in all this, or is it just a gimmick to be different for difference's sake? Must say I don't find them aesthetically pleasing - but is that just because I'm so used to traditional tyres?

Also - what would the load/speed ratings be like? All of a sudden it makes tyres look very fragile, but when you consider what a regular tyres is - air (!) there's in fact probably more material connection the inner surface with the outer, rather than less.


(edited to remove a quotation because it makes the pictures thumbnails!)

Edited by TonyHetherington on Friday 9th July 09:17

[TooLateForAName]

This is quite an old idea - I've seen the prototypes in news articles over the last couple of years.

I'm sure PH has reported on it before as well. I'll see if I can find the link.


They're called Tweels.

http://www.pistonheads.com/doc.asp?c=26&i=1311...

Edited by TooLateForAName on Friday 9th July 09:19

[carmadgaz]

You'd never get another puncture!

[TonyHetherington]

Ahhh buttocks.

[HellDiver]

It was a repost 10 years ago.

Stupid design - imagine driving down a muddy lane, how much crap would be stuck in the holes, unbalancing the wheel?

[_Batty_]

older than Ted.

can't a mod sort these out?!?

[toast boy]

As has been said these have been kicking around for a while. Can't say I'm too keen on them, look horrible and they'd have to be covered to stop them filling with crap. With tyre technology being what it is now I think they'd have to be seriously good to be worth thinking about pursuing for a manufacturer.

[Munter]

HellDiver said:

It was a repost 10 years ago.

Stupid design - imagine driving down a muddy lane, how much crap would be stuck in the holes, unbalancing the wheel?

As I understand it the final design was to include side walls. It wasn't on the ones in the picture because they wanted to see what was going on inside. Otherwise it'd just look like A.N.other tyre.