Get 5,000 Miles On These Airless Tires And Never Have To Wrestle With A Flat.
Credit: Harriet Wallis
If your hands are arthritic, you know how hard it is get a tire back on its rim after fixing a flat. Arthritic hands just don’t have the strength they used to have. But it’s impossible to get a flat with solid tires, so that’s good news for arthritic hands.
I saw airless tires for the first time just a few weeks ago. It was the evening before a major all-women’s bicycle ride fund raiser for women’s cancer research. The annual event is sponsored by the Bonneville Cycling Club here in Utah and the women-only ride is called Little Red Riding Hood.
This year there were 3,900 riders who could choose to ride routes ranging from 27 to 100 miles through rolling rural countryside. Once again, my friend Laurie and I were good-will Course Ambassadors, which means we’d ride a route amongst the women reminding them how to ride safely.
Tires That Can’t Get Flats? My Hands Need Them.
Credit: Harriet Wallis
On the evening before the ride, the start area becomes a shopping mall of vendors with bike-related products: bike clothing, bike jewelry, bike art—and for the first time, tubeless bike tires.
Right then, the night before the ride, we each bought a set of colorful Tannus tubeless tires and had them installed. During the long ride the next day they seemed to feel and ride like regular tires at 100 – 120 psi.
Details
The Tannus website says this design reduces drag to 1-2%, but we didn’t notice any drag on the Little Red route with rolling terrain and few hills. Apparently other brands of solid tires can produce considerable drag.
I’ll give you my follow up evaluation after I give the tires a good workout this summer on a variety of terrain.
The Tannus foam tires are lighter weight than a tube/tire combination. They also reduce weight because there’s no need to carry a pump or compressed air cartridge or tire tools.
They come in several road bike tire styles and in a dozen flashy colors. Aren’t my red ones pretty? Price: about $65 each plus installation
You can install them yourself, but I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s a very unconventional installation, and it uses a specialized tool to squeeze the tire onto the rim. If you already have arthritis in your hands, installation won’t be fun. But installation directions are available online.
To read more from Harriet click here for her stories on SkiUtah.
Harriet, I am really interested in these but when I clicked on the company’s link, there was no phone number, no way to find out if anyone in my area handles them. How did you communicate with these people? I wd love to do away with flats (Seattle is notorious for … stuff on the roads) and the pumping and all the rest but I wonder about the ‘resistance’ factor and a lot more. Wd love to hear more about your knees, also. I’m in line for titanium. I also write for Mike so if it’s okay maybe we cd trade email addresses thru him. I thought you might be in NASJA but don’t see you in the directory.
I messaged the company and they replied:
You may contact us Monday – Saturday 10 AM – 6 PM Arizona time at (520) 829-4541.
Excellent.