Say Goodbye to flats for good with the Tannus Lightweight Solid Road Tire

I’ll say this before all the hate comes in. Any product that gets a person out on a bike that might not otherwise ride is a great product. It takes away one more concern/hurdle/excuse that keeps some people from pulling the bike out of the garage.

I agree these would be great for commuters and utility bicyclists. No need to worry about fixing flats on busy roads or in bad weather. No more worrying about getting your pump stolen while your bike is locked on the street.

Hello there, you’re a fine looking 28/32mm Gravel Grinder Tire.

I’ve ridden on cheapo no-flats, and they felt ok except that they seemed to fit the rims pretty loosely. It looks like these would be a lot better in that respect.

I’ve talked to lots of people whose bikes just sit in the garage with flats, and they don’t know what to do with them (I recognize the lameness, but that’s where they’re at), and these would be awesome for them and their kids, if they could get over the cost and figure out how to put them on.

Since we’ve got goatheads aplenty, I wouldn’t mind having a set to allow riding in certain areas that would be off limits with normal tires, as well as just not have to worry about it. Probably not recommended for mountain biking though!

Typical training tire is at least 250g. And then unless you make very picky selection the typical tube is around 100g? 380g if true is pretty reasonable. Over time I guess the weight goes down since there’s more tread to play with, and there’s of course the net investment of tubes and perhaps tires even.

But that weight + the fixed “100psi” rating makes the 28’s questionable as training tires. Handling is another thing too.

Performance questions: how secure is that system under hard cornering? Will it hold up on a twisty descent?

Let’s do a mini value-proposition analysis here:

Problem: pneumatic tires are susceptible to flats. Solution: solid tires.

User categories & needs: commuter – safe under all common commuting scenarios, maintenance free, works well under heavy loads, handles bad roads & junk well. Indoor trainer – long wearing, better value than other training tires. Roadie outside – safe under all common training scenarios, durable, competitive weight (compared to other training setups), competitive road feel.

I’d say the product fits the indoor trainer market well. It’s close to fitting the commuter market if the safety component can be validated. It’s a less sure fit for the roadie market until the safety and ride quality component is thoroughly proven and well documented.

Without any hate, I would like to point out that solid tires preceded pneumatic tires on bicycles. The reason they were abandoned in favor of pneumatic tires is because if you hit a bump, that energy is transferred directly into the contact point, where as with a pneumatic tire, its absorbed over the entirety of the tire.

Tubes are a pain to replace, but are even more so and cost a lot more.

This product definitely gets around a major problem with versions that work as only inner tubes: Changing the tire! Tested for fun one such version and it took me ages plus blood, sweat and nearly tears to afterwards get the tire off the rim!! When the fit is good you really don’t have the possibility to deflate the tube to make good space for tire levers, and that’s when the things get complicated… Probably a major reason why the “tube” only made a very brief “pop” in the Finnish market ages ago.. no mechanic in their right mind probably wanted to work with them..

KM is on the right track. While I realize these look like a great “no maintenance” alternative to tubes, please please please don’t use them on anything but a trainer. The problem most people don’t think of with solid cores or tires is the lack of impact absorption as compared to a standard pneumatic tire. They would probably be excellent on a stationary trainer where there is no impact happening, but when you ride this in the real world they will actually end up costing you more in up keep on the rest of your bike. I can’t tell you the number of hubs and head sets that I’ve seen totally destroyed by solid tires through out the years. It beats the hell out of all of the bearings on your bike as well as making it virtually impossible to keep a wheel true. This is, of course, leaving aside that they are a total nightmare to install and remove due to what KM brought up.

Found this install video

It’s… interesting? I guess there are little semi-rigid clips that go slide into holes in the tire and then clip between the beads. The tire itself appears to be flexible enough that there isn’t an issue of fitting it around the rim. http://www.tannus.com/2_tech/tech2_02.html

I’d be interested if the price made sense compared to my tubeless training wheel setup and the grip is acceptable. I don’t need to ‘win’ the race down the hill but it’s nice to have a tire with some grip to spare if needed.

I would gladly give up 1kph for a training tire if it didn’t beat me to death on crap roads and was decent when wet.

@Saltymechanic–also the damage of even running hard-cased tires or thorn-resistant tubes. Or both. That being said, if modern technology could change this, as in the tweels we now see gaining popularity, it’s a good thing. To be honest, I do want to see video of someone clamping down hard on some hydro discs and still moving because the tire is sliding on the rim. What fun. Maybe there could be a bolt through the valve hole to hold them in place.

I’d like to see how these corner and brake in the wet. I’ve ridden earlier generation urethane solid tires. Besides taking motorcycle tire levers to install, then rotating on the rim under extreme braking (exactly when you DON’T want them to rotate), they were very sketchy in the wet. The ride quality was terrible. All that said, this could be a completely new material and it could work just like they say. I, for one, am not holding my breath.

Don’t you dare lock up the tires, you’ll have a mean flat spot.

We had some of their older sample tires to test and we would just flat spot them down to the rim on our loading ramp behind the shop. Fun for about 10 minutes…no flats, though, just mean flat spots.

could be a great solution for bicycle touring, particularly in more remote locations.

I’d love an 80 psi 28mm option.

Curious how they ride, relative to Gatorskins. I bet they would not be far off.

Aither 1.1 vs. Schwalbe Ultremo.
Both tires 28 x 622
Both tires approx. 100 psi.
Similar tread
Trek Madone 5.2
Put 100 miles on the Aithers.
Noticeable different in the rolling resistance of the Aither 1.1s.
A difference of cruising at 12-14 mph vs 16-18 mph with the Schwalbe tire.
They are not advertised as a performance tire but I was not expecting the amount of RR I felt with the Aithers.

I had tannus tyres installed on my bromptons hoping it would be the answer to my puncture problems, it turned out to be the biggest mistake ever. Although they stopped the issue of punctures, they were however extremely stiff and ultimately destroyed both of the wheel bearings within half a year of use. After chatting with the service guys, they explained how solid tyres were always an issue hence they never stock them. They also mentioned how brompton bike hire commissioned them to remove all solid tyres off their existing stock of bromptons as proof of all the issues caused. My advice is avoid these at all costs to save you the future hassle of changing new wheels.