If you’ve ever been riding your bicycle along through the city or the country on a beautiful day only to suddenly notice you have a flat tire, this solution is for you.
Airless car tires have been a sort of Holy Grail quest, and Michelin introduced their version of them, the Uptis, back in 2019 as a more convenient and efficient alternative to pneumatic tires. Because they aren’t required to hold air, such tires are more durable, reliable, and less susceptible to roadside mishaps. Michelin went on to partner with General Motors to promise that these non-pneumatic tires will be available on passenger cars by 2024.
Designer and tinkerer The Q has come up with his version of the Uptis and with it, a way to solve one of life’s many annoyances by coming up with a DIY solution - a cheap and simple one at that - to build some airless and tubeless bicycle tires using just a bit of PVC pipe, a handful of bolts and nuts and an amazing about of ingenuity.
It will certainly require some tweaks, but as it stands, it’s a working concept.
In taking on all the daunting engineering challenges to make it happen, The Q is here to help you ride along on some seriously sturdy tires for your bike.
The completely functional design is part of his mission to help DIYers to solve everyday problems with readily available materials. In his video series, The Q shows you all the ins and outs of building this set of puncture-proof airless bike tires. The step-by-step tutorial sees him replace his old wheels with his new design.
While it looks like his solution is a bit labor-intensive, all that work might pay off in spades over time as you’ll spend exactly zero time searching for fresh tubes, shopping for tires, and pulling the wheels off your bike to change flats.
By the end of the video, he’s riding down the street without a care in the world sure in the knowledge that he’ll arrive at his destination, without pulling out an ancient piece of kit like a bicycle tire pump.
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