Researchers at the University of Bayreuth have, for the first time, provided concrete figures on the abrasion of mountain bike tyres in off-road conditions. Their findings contribute to a better understanding of the global microplastic cycle. They report on their research in the journal „Science of The Total Environment“.  
  • LarmyOfLone@lemm.eeEnglish
    2·
    16 days ago

    Oh wow thanks that is super interesting!

    I have been wondering if you could do something like that with carbon fiber (using carbon fiber as springs) after once seeing a bicycle wheel with spokes that was made using carbon fiber wrapping. Which is a process that can be / has to be automated. If you could create the entire wheel including the tire through carbon fiber wrapping it could become really cheap and worth the downsides. This could be done by a machine that isn’t much more complex than a 3D printer, plus a special 3D printed mandrel to build this tire on. Basically they just seem to be large loops the size of the tire that provide the springiness plus a mesh that holds it together with a rubber tread on top.

    PS: Not sure if that “superelastic shape memory alloy” is fundamentally different from normal springs or if that is just marketing speak, or the need to function without maintenance or replacement in space.

    PPS: Apparently it is vastly different from my idea.

    These shape memory alloys are capable of undergoing significant reversible strain (up to 10%), enabling the tire to withstand an order of magnitude more deformation than other non-pneumatic tires before undergoing permanent deformation. Commonly used elastic-plastic materials (e.g. spring steels, composites, etc.) can only be subjected to strains on the order of ~ 0.3-0.5% before yielding.