Recently I’ve been cycling to local beaches – because of Welsh COVID restrictions, and because cycling is greener; although taking the car lets me collect much more marine rubbish.
Two weeks ago I had to walk home (2 miles): one tyre completely flat. As the inner tube had split through old age, for good measure I treated the bike to two new ones.
Imagine my, ahem, amusement yesterday morning when a new inner tube gave out instantaneously.
Pushing the bike slowly home well laden (I had beachcombed, of course), this kept running through my mind: WHY do we accept cars, bicycles, buses, lorries, and aircraft etc using pneumatic tyres?
Granted, they’re OK when they are working; but the design is so flawed! And an instant flat, even worse a blowout, is potentially very dangerous and can badly damage the machine.
The pneumatic tyre: surely a technology which fails the Telescope Of Time test, same as the petrol engined car – if invented recently, not only would it never catch on, it would be legislated against.
We must, in any case, very soon replace pneumatic tyres: constantly shedding plastic microparticles, tyres are responsible for dreadful quantities of environmental pollution, thus electric cars are by no means “zero emission”; also, tyres aren’t very energy efficient.
Footnote: in case you’re wondering, my bicycle is fitted with so-called puncture proof tyres which, despite their name and their extra cost, AREN’T!