Bike tires made from NASA’s bizarre shape-shifting metal are now available to buy

the100rabh@lemmy.ml to Technology@lemmy.ml – 205 points –
Bike tires made from NASA’s bizarre shape-shifting metal are now available to buy
theverge.com
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And at only about 10 times the cost of traditional bicycle tires, you’ll only need to not replace your tires about 11 times for this to be cost-effective!

It might be worth it to not have to ever worry about having a flat.

I already don’t worry about that anymore using the anti-flat tyres I have on my bike. I can just ride through a pile of broken glass without a worry.

Modern bikers use tubeless systems which don’t generally have flats. They are filled with a compound that plugs up holes as soon as they happen. You only get flats for large holes or sidewall punctures.

Do those actually work? I don't have tubeless tires, but I haven't had much luck with the liquid that you put in the tubes. In my experience, I still get flats, and the goo just makes a big mess inside the tire.

Maybe my holes are large? I regularly get flats from goat heads, and one summer I got a dozen or so flats on my work commute before finally buying Schwalbe Marathons, which seems to have solved the problem (have had like 1 flat per year since).

Tubeless tires solves that issue aswell. You can drive over nails and the sealant inside the tire automatically plugs the hole.

Give it a decade and economies of scale, and maybe it will get it down to twice as expensive.

Tyres last about a year, so this sounds fine

Either you bike a lot, or you use very thin tires. I bike occasionally, and I still have the original tires on my bike that I've had since I bought it in 2018, I think.

How do you get your groceries? How do you get to work?

Once per year is pretty typical for folks who use bikes.

For those I typically drive because there's no good way for me to do it by bike. But I also put a few hundred miles on per year biking recreationally on a variety of surfaces.

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