"Air Free Tires" ?

On Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:48:28 -0400, Eric Vey may
have said:

Carl Sundquist wrote:

"Eric Vey" wrote in message
...
wrote:
\Still, if it works reasonable well,
it would, at least, be great for commuting and unsupported touring.

Why would commuting be second best? Around here there are many bricked
streets and I want a s-m-o-o-t-h ride, not something to shake my bones.

I thought you were in Hollywood FL. There are bricked streets there?

Winter Park, FL

Bricked streets are becoming all the rage again. 70 years after the
city started ripping them out and paving them over here in Houston, we
have new ones getting installed. At least the new pavers have a less
slippery finish then the traditional bricks did.

--
My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail.
Typoes are not a bug, they're a feature.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

wrote:
`
Anyone ever try those "air free tires"?

www.airfreetires.com

In a way, this sounds like a product of my dreams, but I suspect it
may cause more problems than it solves. (And I'm sure the ride quality
leaves something to be desired.) Still, if it works reasonable well,
it would, at least, be great for commuting and unsupported touring.

I have not ridden those tires, but I have discussed them at length
with Hugh, the owner of that company. Some of my Seattle friends used
similar tires from Amerityre.

In short: they ride harshly and have traction and rolling resistance
tradeoffs that pneumatic tires don't.

But foam tires are not all the same, and they differ from each other
more than pneumatics do. It looks like they may be optimized for one
particular characteristic if compromises in the others are
tolerable.

Airfree is unique in that they will custom formulate tires to order.
By mixing different ratios of urethane resins and foaming agents, they
can deliver different effective PSI ratings, with corollary
differences in rolling resistance, wear, and weight. They also offer
Bayer High Resilient resin, which offers excellent rolling resistance
and wear characteristics, but isn't available in customized
densities.

Hugh and I came to the understanding that my application probably
wasn't a good one for Airfree tires (very high loading, high speed,
lousy surface conditions). He deals a small selection of the most
flat-resistant pneumatic tires for folks who are better off with
those.

Chalo

On Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:03:23 -0400, Eric Vey may
have said:

Actually, I have found that the older bricks are better than he new
ones. The new ones are being used for traffic calming.

There's a piece of doublespeak if I ever saw one. They call it
"traffic calming" when it's more likely to promote road rage.

One road near here got speed-humped a while back despite the fact that
the majority of it had -zero- houses fronting on it, it had -zero-
active businesses on the humped stretch, it had a traffic light at the
intersections at each end, and it was the only practical approach to
the storage yard and warehouse of a very large business (Acme Brick)
which had located in that area in part precisely because of the fact
that this road was able to withstand the weight of their loaded
flatbed delivery trucks without damage. There was a subdivision along
one side of the road, but it was along the backs of the houses (which
all had tall wood fences) and there had never been a speeding problem
or safety hazard issue involved. The speed humps eventually got taken
back out. It may have been in part because people who had to use the
road started blowing their horns every time they came to one of the
humps.

The rules for getting humps installed were changed no long after those
were installed, and the city has only been putting them in where there
is strong affirmative support for them by a significant percentage of
the people on the street AND no significant opposition to them. That
doesn't happen much.

--
My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail.
Typoes are not a bug, they're a feature.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

"Werehatrack" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:03:23 -0400, Eric Vey may
have said:

Actually, I have found that the older bricks are better than he new
ones. The new ones are being used for traffic calming.

There's a piece of doublespeak if I ever saw one. They call it
"traffic calming" when it's more likely to promote road rage.

One road near here got speed-humped a while back despite the fact that
the majority of it had -zero- houses fronting on it, it had -zero-
active businesses on the humped stretch, it had a traffic light at the
intersections at each end, and it was the only practical approach to
the storage yard and warehouse of a very large business (Acme Brick)
which had located in that area in part precisely because of the fact
that this road was able to withstand the weight of their loaded
flatbed delivery trucks without damage. There was a subdivision along
one side of the road, but it was along the backs of the houses (which
all had tall wood fences) and there had never been a speeding problem
or safety hazard issue involved. The speed humps eventually got taken
back out. It may have been in part because people who had to use the
road started blowing their horns every time they came to one of the
humps.

The rules for getting humps installed were changed no long after those
were installed, and the city has only been putting them in where there
is strong affirmative support for them by a significant percentage of
the people on the street AND no significant opposition to them. That
doesn't happen much.


Yeah, our local authority in my corner of Australia has also gone crazy with
putting in speed humps on suburban streets. I don't know why they call them
speed humps cuz if anything, they tend to slow me down.

PH

In article ,
Werehatrack wrote:

On Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:03:23 -0400, Eric Vey may
have said:

Actually, I have found that the older bricks are better than he new
ones. The new ones are being used for traffic calming.

There's a piece of doublespeak if I ever saw one. They call it
"traffic calming" when it's more likely to promote road rage.

One road near here got speed-humped a while back despite the fact that
the majority of it had -zero- houses fronting on it, it had -zero-
active businesses on the humped stretch, it had a traffic light at the
intersections at each end, and it was the only practical approach to
the storage yard and warehouse of a very large business (Acme Brick)
which had located in that area in part precisely because of the fact
that this road was able to withstand the weight of their loaded
flatbed delivery trucks without damage. There was a subdivision along
one side of the road, but it was along the backs of the houses (which
all had tall wood fences) and there had never been a speeding problem
or safety hazard issue involved. The speed humps eventually got taken
back out. It may have been in part because people who had to use the
road started blowing their horns every time they came to one of the
humps.

The rules for getting humps installed were changed no long after those
were installed, and the city has only been putting them in where there
is strong affirmative support for them by a significant percentage of
the people on the street AND no significant opposition to them. That
doesn't happen much.

Fire departments are dead set against them.

--
Michael Press

In article ,
"Peter Howard" wrote:

"Werehatrack" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:03:23 -0400, Eric Vey may
have said:

Actually, I have found that the older bricks are better than he new
ones. The new ones are being used for traffic calming.

There's a piece of doublespeak if I ever saw one. They call it
"traffic calming" when it's more likely to promote road rage.

One road near here got speed-humped a while back despite the fact that
the majority of it had -zero- houses fronting on it, it had -zero-
active businesses on the humped stretch, it had a traffic light at the
intersections at each end, and it was the only practical approach to
the storage yard and warehouse of a very large business (Acme Brick)
which had located in that area in part precisely because of the fact
that this road was able to withstand the weight of their loaded
flatbed delivery trucks without damage. There was a subdivision along
one side of the road, but it was along the backs of the houses (which
all had tall wood fences) and there had never been a speeding problem
or safety hazard issue involved. The speed humps eventually got taken
back out. It may have been in part because people who had to use the
road started blowing their horns every time they came to one of the
humps.

The rules for getting humps installed were changed no long after those
were installed, and the city has only been putting them in where there
is strong affirmative support for them by a significant percentage of
the people on the street AND no significant opposition to them. That
doesn't happen much.


Yeah, our local authority in my corner of Australia has also gone crazy with
putting in speed humps on suburban streets. I don't know why they call them
speed humps cuz if anything, they tend to slow me down.

I put it in first gear, accelerate up to the speed limit,
brake at the speed bump, ease over, than floor it again.

--
Michael Press

Michael Press wrote:


Fire departments are dead set against them.


They say that people will die and they are right, although the new style
of humps aren't quite as bad as the old bumps. Some bumps were so high
the truck's frame would get caught.

But hey, 40,000 people die every year from auto crashes, what's a few more?

On Apr 14, 7:32 pm, wrote:
Anyone ever try those "air free tires"?

www.airfreetires.com

In a way, this sounds like a product of my dreams, but I suspect it
may cause more problems than it solves. (And I'm sure the ride quality
leaves something to be desired.) Still, if it works reasonable well,
it would, at least, be great for commuting and unsupported touring.

I bought some for my Waterford road bike and an EZ-1.
Pretty hard ride both ways.
About like 200 PSI inflation, extra drag.

On Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:03:23 -0400, Eric Vey wrote:

Werehatrack wrote:
On Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:48:28 -0400, Eric Vey may
have said:

Carl Sundquist wrote:
"Eric Vey" wrote in message
...
wrote:
\Still, if it works reasonable well,
it would, at least, be great for commuting and unsupported touring.
Why would commuting be second best? Around here there are many bricked
streets and I want a s-m-o-o-t-h ride, not something to shake my bones.
I thought you were in Hollywood FL. There are bricked streets there?
Winter Park, FL

Bricked streets are becoming all the rage again. 70 years after the
city started ripping them out and paving them over here in Houston, we
have new ones getting installed. At least the new pavers have a less
slippery finish then the traditional bricks did.


Actually, I have found that the older bricks are better than he new
ones. The new ones are being used for traffic calming.

We really should hunt down the ******* who first sold that "traffic calming" con
job and just beat the idiocy out of him.

Stop and go is infuriating. "Calming" means something entirely different.

wrote:
On Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:03:23 -0400, Eric Vey wrote:

Werehatrack wrote:
On Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:48:28 -0400, Eric Vey may
have said:

Carl Sundquist wrote:
"Eric Vey" wrote in message
...
wrote:
\Still, if it works reasonable well,
it would, at least, be great for commuting and unsupported touring.
Why would commuting be second best? Around here there are many bricked
streets and I want a s-m-o-o-t-h ride, not something to shake my bones.
I thought you were in Hollywood FL. There are bricked streets there?
Winter Park, FL
Bricked streets are becoming all the rage again. 70 years after the
city started ripping them out and paving them over here in Houston, we
have new ones getting installed. At least the new pavers have a less
slippery finish then the traditional bricks did.

Actually, I have found that the older bricks are better than he new
ones. The new ones are being used for traffic calming.

We really should hunt down the ******* who first sold that "traffic calming" con
job and just beat the idiocy out of him.

Stop and go is infuriating. "Calming" means something entirely different.

The alternative is lots more "All Way" stop signs (notice that I am
using the new terminology).