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Christ · 03-08-2009, 08:38 PM

So this got taken up pretty quickly here LOL...

My opinions on it, be them educated or purely superficial:

1. Great technology, regardless of the perceived "hard ride"... c'mon... pump your tires to 50 PSI and tell me you're going to be mad about a hard ride??
2. Rolling resistance is greatly reduced by the lack of a flexible sidewall, which means that even though the tire is "flattening" at the bottom, it's only flexing on a single axis, as opposed to the sidewall's flexion, which occurs at every possible angle in all 3 dimensions, over a larger surface area.
3. The "fan" problem. Well, adding a sidewall kinda kills the RR part... so how about making them so that they "suck" air from under the car, blasting it outward? Does that work? Would that create another aero problem?
4. Recyclable: Well, with standard tires, it's not the "can't separate materials" that makes them not a candidate for recycling... it's the fact that they're vulcanized. You can't recycle Vulcanized rubber into non-vulcanized rubber, apparently. And to make tires, you need non-vulcanized rubber. It's also just plain not cost-effective to separate all the diff materials. Chances are, the Tweel is going to be an impregnated (not fully rubber) wheel/tire.
5. Damn, that thing looks awesome moving... if you can find a video, watch it.
6. Weight is an issue... the tweel (w/o the metal wheel) alone weighs about what a standard wheel/tire does normally. Then you have to add a "special" press-fit wheel that it can ride on, which COULD save some weight over a normal rim, but the assembly still weighs more.
7. That thing still looks really cool... LOL.

03-08-2009, 08:38 PM	#22 (permalink)
Christ Moderate your Moderation. Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Troy, Pa. Posts: 8,919 Pasta - '96 Volkswagen Passat TDi 90 day: 45.22 mpg (US) Thanks: 1,369 Thanked 430 Times in 353 Posts	So this got taken up pretty quickly here LOL... My opinions on it, be them educated or purely superficial: 1. Great technology, regardless of the perceived "hard ride"... c'mon... pump your tires to 50 PSI and tell me you're going to be mad about a hard ride?? 2. Rolling resistance is greatly reduced by the lack of a flexible sidewall, which means that even though the tire is "flattening" at the bottom, it's only flexing on a single axis, as opposed to the sidewall's flexion, which occurs at every possible angle in all 3 dimensions, over a larger surface area. 3. The "fan" problem. Well, adding a sidewall kinda kills the RR part... so how about making them so that they "suck" air from under the car, blasting it outward? Does that work? Would that create another aero problem? 4. Recyclable: Well, with standard tires, it's not the "can't separate materials" that makes them not a candidate for recycling... it's the fact that they're vulcanized. You can't recycle Vulcanized rubber into non-vulcanized rubber, apparently. And to make tires, you need non-vulcanized rubber. It's also just plain not cost-effective to separate all the diff materials. Chances are, the Tweel is going to be an impregnated (not fully rubber) wheel/tire. 5. Damn, that thing looks awesome moving... if you can find a video, watch it. 6. Weight is an issue... the tweel (w/o the metal wheel) alone weighs about what a standard wheel/tire does normally. Then you have to add a "special" press-fit wheel that it can ride on, which COULD save some weight over a normal rim, but the assembly still weighs more. 7. That thing still looks really cool... LOL.