Product news: Hard as titanium, flexible as rubber and no more flat feet. This is what the dream of a bicycle tire for all situations looks like. This dream could come true for many cyclists with the help of the know-how of the US space agency NASA. However, the "NASA tire" is still in the prototype stage.
NASA engineers develop metal tires
Imagine a Mars or Moon rover suffering a flat tire off-road. That would inevitably be the end of every extremely expensive mission, because nobody in space can simply change the tire. Accordingly, NASA's rovers are not equipped with rubber tires, but with tires made of a special elastic metal.
The US start-up “The Smart Tire Company” now wants to make this technology usable for cyclists. Founded by NASA engineers, the company consists of "METL". This special metal has a memory, so to speak. While its structure deforms under load, it returns to its original molecular shape when the load is removed.
The METL prototypes work entirely without air chambers. So you can never run out of air again. At the same time, the tires always offer optimal grip, high comfort and minimal weight thanks to their structure.
A tire for a whole bicycle life
The engineers even promise that METL tires will last the lifetime of the bike. No wonder that the founders not only want to stir up the bicycle industry with their development, but also the automotive industry.
According to the plan, the METL tires will appear on the market in the course of 2022. However, prices are not yet known. Whether the guaranteed higher costs for the high-tech product are worth it compared to regular tire changes is still in the stars, in the truest sense of the word.