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Reinventing the Wheel
bob zee sent in this link about reinventing the wheel, err, tweel, err, whatever. Wheels are an interesting challenge in engineering design: they need to be hard to be durable, soft for a smooth ride, grippy to grab the road, but smooth to reduce rolling resistance, flexible to absorb shocks, yet stiff to reduce heat build-up, and so on. Rubber tires are a relatively recent invention.
I agree. In spite of the obvious problems, tt does look promising.
On second thought, what if debris gets caught in the polyurethane spokes?
"Engineers at Michelin's American technology center here envision a future in which vehicles would ride on what they call the Tweel, a combined tire and wheel that could never go flat because it contains no air"
Please let them bring these out for motorbikes, thats one of those things we bikers dream about.. a tyre that never goes pop when your doing 100mph down the autobarnes.
moo
That picture with those paddle spokes in the tire makes me wonder about aerodynamic drag (and noise too). The top of a rotating tire has an air speed that is twice the vehicle speed. Those paddles should do wonders at turing gasoline into stirred the air. I can only hope that they will enclose the spokes in a smooth sidewall.
On the otherhand, if they angled the spokes properly, the tire would suck the air out from under the car and create a wonderful ground suction effect from improved cornering (but even worse fuel efficiency).
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
I think this (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/spotlight/wheels-i mage02.html ) is an example of government research going to a consumer product....
Think large....
No doubt this article submission will get bashed for not being about star wars; but this is a fairly interesting article, if you take the time to read it. I was particularly interested in the fact that this "tire" improves cornering while maintaining a smooth ride. No doubt all the NASCAR fans out there will be happy. While I am sure this is a long way off, it looks promising.
I tried for 5 years to come up with a clever sig...only to realize that I am not clever.
most recently, a few weeks ago when i was in cairo and the taxi driver hit a pothole, bending both rims on the passenger side, leaving the tires flat.
before that, about 2 years ago when i hit a roofing nail, causing a slow leak (woke up the next morning, tire was flat)
then we could also count biking...in which case i've had more than i want to count, and a bike tire that can't go flat would be awfully nice...nothing sucks more than having to stop and patch a tire in the middle of a bike ride...plus having to carry all the tools needed to do the job.
this idea has merits, contrary to what your post seems to imply.
But is it actually much stronger?
The article doesn't mention what would happen if they did fail but if you drive over a large lump very fast will these spokes break and cause a nasty dent in the tire (resulting in a rather bumpy ride)?
For those not in US he means tyre. Why is Slashdot so US focused?
It wouldn't be hard to modify the way tire spikes work. Basically, have lots of long chains parallel to the road, with the spikes having barbs on them. A car will roll over them, the spikes enter the tire but can't come back out. The chain will tangle itself around the wheel. It would probably cause a pretty violent loss of control, actually.
Sir, ignorance of the law is no excuse -- In Washington:
"All motor vehicles must be preceded by a man carrying a red flag (daytime) or a red lantern (nighttime) fifty feet in front of said vehicle."
The ten feet you reference is both silly and dangerous. Please abid by the law and allow the fifty feet.
The law is supposed to strengthen rules created by society. If any law restricts change within that society then that law should be rewritten. In other words: society is the base, not the law.
I presume that if - after some rigorous testing - this tweel has been found to be a success, the law will change accordingly without to much fuss. If it doesn't, it is time to take a serious look at your political leaders.
"The Tweel offers a number of benefits beyond the obvious attraction of being impervious to nails in the road."
:)
Read: The Tweel offers a number of benefits beyond the obvious attraction of being impervious to gunshots and nail beds.
Looks like the police may have to re-think their tactics if this tire becomes popular.
It will clear the books of nonsense like this which serve no purpose, but could be used against someone who doesn't have the correct political affiliation du jour.
If nothing else, it would at least keep legislatures out of trouble, making up new nonsense/bad laws [*cough* DMCA *cough*] for as long as it takes them to keep renewing obviously useful laws.
Of course this would only work if they had to deal with laws one at a time - otherwise it would just evolve into the usual crap - "omnibus law renewal act of 2005" - with all the old junk still in there, plus other nasties buried in the fine print.
Oh well.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
OK, I admit it - I am crazy about cycling... Now, if you accept that, you'll be able to hear me out - we are as yet to find the best tire out there - the one that will do everything right - corner, hold, being light weight, durable, free from flats, sexy (there I said it). It is being said that cyclists are the trendiest of all - that's true - nowhere else a minimal gain in performance could lead to a win... Tour de France 2003 - over 2300 miles raced - won by seconds... Yes, we need better rubber!!!
Tubeless tires (sewup or whatnot) that you are talking about are nearly identical to current automobile tires in that there is no innertube to hold the air in and rely on pressure to seal the casing against the rim.
Airless tires have been around for quite a while for bicycles. These tires are mostly filled with urethane. And like the car tirein review, it suffers from pretty miserable rolling resistance issues as well as weight problems to say the least. Development in airless tires have shown quite some improvement over solid rubber tire, however I don't think they will be getting rid of the pneumatic tire anytime soon (~20 years).
Nuclear war would really set back cable. - Ted Turner
MOT = Ministry of Transport in the UK. So an MOT test is one done under their auspices.
ABS not working doesn't prevent operation of normal brakes, which is why I'm still driving around happily. It does however leave a warning light on the dashboard - instant MOT failure.
ABS replacement system is nearer £500, including fitting here in the UK. So nearer $900.
My car (Citroen Xantia) has hydraulic silly suspension. Assume approx $1000-1500 to get it replaced - again, including labour. Again, warning lights on the dashboard (in fact, two, one of which is a full three inches by one inch in size and says STOP in the middle). Obviously if I didn't think the suspension could keep the car stable and steady I wouldn't be driving it; the MOT test doesn't attempt such judgements.
Oil leak looks like the cylinder head gasket. That's going to be $1100-1600 to get sorted. You may be right, that might not cause MOT failure; I'm not sure. It is however something I'd want fixing if I intended to keep the vehicle.
There are other issues with the car too (it'll need new brake pads, maybe disks for the MOT, new tyres on the front, who knows what random other faults) none of which will be cheap.
So yeah, it's blinking expensive to fix if you lack the skill/desire to do it yourself. And yes, those quotes are from an independent mechanic.
As for the MOT being excessive Gov't interference: I like that the Government are forcing people to keep their vehicles in a roadworthy condition - otherwise there'd be idiots driving around in cars that leak oil all over the place, that can't stop safely, that have no grip on their types, whose suspension is liable to collapse at high speed. Not to mention the other things that are checked (working lights, chassis properly welded and not rusted through, wheels attached to car, etc).
~Cederic