Felix Wong critiques airfree tires
- Thread starter vlad
- Start date
http://felixwong.com/2006/12/air-free-tires/
vlad says:
November 14, 2011 at 4:31 pm
Mr Wong.
You put airfree tires on your Cannondale Dec 2006, and were pleased with them. Now that you have used them for five years please tell us your opinion. Also please tell any damage to the bike as a direct result of using airfree tires.
I use the same two AFT on 26″ 36 spoke Big Fat Rims without any damage since July 2003. This despite the many rumors I have read that AFT will damage wheels and bike. I weigh 270 and ride at heady speeds aproaching 8 mph average on blacktop roads and paved shoulder of highway. I am now 79.
Reply
Felix says:
November 14, 2011 at 5:35 pm
Vlad, after five years, this is my opinion of the tires:
1. The tires are nearly as fast as regular tires in winter but definitely slower (by maybe 2 MPH) in summer when they are softer.
2. The tires corner about as well as regular tires.
3. The tires last at least as long as my Michelin Pro Race3 tires.
4. The ride quality is definitely worse than a good pneumatic tire like the Michelin Pro Race3, but not intolerable.
5. I’ve broken one spoke on a 32-spoked wheel with these tires, but I attribute that to the wheel not being built up well by a teenager who sold me the wheel for $30.
6. I still think these are near-ideal as a commuting tire, as you don’t need to pump up the tires beforehand, will never get a flat, and don’t have to carry around flat-fixing equipment when you ride.
Joe says:
September 8, 2013 at 10:20 am
Continuing my saga with the Daytrona TTs, I put 5653.6 miles on them before acquiring a new bicycle (actually a used Airborne Titanium bicycle from eBay). I rode this bike with the air tires it came with until they started wearing out. The rear wore out first, so I put the used Daytona TT rear from my other bike on. When the tread on the front air tire finally got too thin I put on an Amerityre 700c x 20 I had bought off eBay. To make a long story short, I managed to get 10,001 miles out of the Daytona TT rear (it looks like about 3/16″ of the tire is worn off). The front tire wore about half as much as the rear during the time I used them both together. I’m estimating I could probably get another 10,000 miles from it (I haven’t used it since getting my new bike), so that would be about 15,000 miles total. The rear Daytonaappeared to start getting worse as far as ride/rolling resistance at maybe the 7,000 mile mark. The bottom line then is the Daytona TTs have a usable life of maybe 6,000-7,000 miles for the rear, perhaps twice that for the front. You can stretch this by 50% or more if you can deal with decreasing ride quality/higher rolling resistance.
I just bought a new set of Daytona TTs for the Airborne from this place: http://www.airlesstiresnow.com/700C-x-20-Marvel-Compound-Daytona-Time-Trial-622_p_39.html
It appears Airless Tires Now took over Nu-Tecks assets and is now manufacturing their line of tires. Service was prompt plus the tires were on sale for $29.95 each. I received the tires 8 days after I ordered them. They may have reworked the molds slightly to prevent the slight misalignment of the two mold halves I noticed with my first set of TTs. Anyway, I put the tires on yesterday, cleaned up the mold flash with a little #40 sandpaper, and took them for a 21 mile ride. Rolling resistance isn’t bad. I managed to average nearly 15 mph along my regular routes, probably could have gone a little faster if it wasn’t so windy. At best I could average about 17 mph with this bike on the same routes but 16 mph or so was more typical. A 1 mph or so loss of speed isn’t bad considering the tires still need to be broken in. Once I get about 1,000 miles on them they should be pretty close to regular pneumatics. Ride quality is a little rough but not completely horrible. It’s actually a little better than my first set of Daytonas.
The same place also has this tire which I plan to try when it’s available: http://www.airlesstiresnow.com/700C-x-20-AirLyte-Monarch-Cizetta-SABEL-Road-Tire_p_63.html
vlad says:
November 14, 2011 at 4:31 pm
Mr Wong.
You put airfree tires on your Cannondale Dec 2006, and were pleased with them. Now that you have used them for five years please tell us your opinion. Also please tell any damage to the bike as a direct result of using airfree tires.
I use the same two AFT on 26″ 36 spoke Big Fat Rims without any damage since July 2003. This despite the many rumors I have read that AFT will damage wheels and bike. I weigh 270 and ride at heady speeds aproaching 8 mph average on blacktop roads and paved shoulder of highway. I am now 79.
Reply
Felix says:
November 14, 2011 at 5:35 pm
Vlad, after five years, this is my opinion of the tires:
1. The tires are nearly as fast as regular tires in winter but definitely slower (by maybe 2 MPH) in summer when they are softer.
2. The tires corner about as well as regular tires.
3. The tires last at least as long as my Michelin Pro Race3 tires.
4. The ride quality is definitely worse than a good pneumatic tire like the Michelin Pro Race3, but not intolerable.
5. I’ve broken one spoke on a 32-spoked wheel with these tires, but I attribute that to the wheel not being built up well by a teenager who sold me the wheel for $30.
6. I still think these are near-ideal as a commuting tire, as you don’t need to pump up the tires beforehand, will never get a flat, and don’t have to carry around flat-fixing equipment when you ride.
Joe says:
September 8, 2013 at 10:20 am
Continuing my saga with the Daytrona TTs, I put 5653.6 miles on them before acquiring a new bicycle (actually a used Airborne Titanium bicycle from eBay). I rode this bike with the air tires it came with until they started wearing out. The rear wore out first, so I put the used Daytona TT rear from my other bike on. When the tread on the front air tire finally got too thin I put on an Amerityre 700c x 20 I had bought off eBay. To make a long story short, I managed to get 10,001 miles out of the Daytona TT rear (it looks like about 3/16″ of the tire is worn off). The front tire wore about half as much as the rear during the time I used them both together. I’m estimating I could probably get another 10,000 miles from it (I haven’t used it since getting my new bike), so that would be about 15,000 miles total. The rear Daytonaappeared to start getting worse as far as ride/rolling resistance at maybe the 7,000 mile mark. The bottom line then is the Daytona TTs have a usable life of maybe 6,000-7,000 miles for the rear, perhaps twice that for the front. You can stretch this by 50% or more if you can deal with decreasing ride quality/higher rolling resistance.
I just bought a new set of Daytona TTs for the Airborne from this place: http://www.airlesstiresnow.com/700C-x-20-Marvel-Compound-Daytona-Time-Trial-622_p_39.html
It appears Airless Tires Now took over Nu-Tecks assets and is now manufacturing their line of tires. Service was prompt plus the tires were on sale for $29.95 each. I received the tires 8 days after I ordered them. They may have reworked the molds slightly to prevent the slight misalignment of the two mold halves I noticed with my first set of TTs. Anyway, I put the tires on yesterday, cleaned up the mold flash with a little #40 sandpaper, and took them for a 21 mile ride. Rolling resistance isn’t bad. I managed to average nearly 15 mph along my regular routes, probably could have gone a little faster if it wasn’t so windy. At best I could average about 17 mph with this bike on the same routes but 16 mph or so was more typical. A 1 mph or so loss of speed isn’t bad considering the tires still need to be broken in. Once I get about 1,000 miles on them they should be pretty close to regular pneumatics. Ride quality is a little rough but not completely horrible. It’s actually a little better than my first set of Daytonas.
The same place also has this tire which I plan to try when it’s available: http://www.airlesstiresnow.com/700C-x-20-AirLyte-Monarch-Cizetta-SABEL-Road-Tire_p_63.html
