this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2023
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Space-Age Bicycle Wheels Using NASA Technology by The SMART Tire Company — Kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com)
submitted 1 year ago by perishthethought@lemm.ee to c/bicycling@lemmy.world
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I can't believe people like these keep trying to fix something that's not broken (bike tires) with this space-age nonsense talk. Preying on the gullible is what they're doing.

$500 USD for two of these tires.

What do you all think?

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[–] perishthethought@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

I go in with an open mind, but there were a few red flags for me:

  • they keep confusing "tires" and "wheels" on that KS page. You know the difference, right? Why don't they?
  • they repeat that NASA design bit over and over, and even provide a link to a NASA web site but the tire shown there is very different from the design in the KS. I fear that the economics of the NASA design would never work out in the marketplace, but that's not stopping them from pushing this sale.
  • as someone else pointed out, they claim the re-treading process would be cheap and easy, without saying how it's done or even who will do that.

Also, there have been quite a few previous inventions which claim to improve upon mostly rubber, air-filled tires. None of them made enough economic sense to replace what we've had going for many, many years. I'll be happy to learn I am wrong and this company can really do that, but starting at $500 for two tires seems like a bad start to me. We will see...