Bicycle tires are a weak link in the cycling world. They fail when you need them the most and can be a pain to repair. More often than not, a flat tire is the death sentence for a bicycle whose owner doesn’t have the tools or the know-how to fix the flat. If an owner brings the bike it into the shop to be repaired, the busted tire is thrown in the refuse pile joining the approximately 1.3 billion bicycle tires that are disposed of every year because they have cracks or puncture marks. Instead of contributing to this growing collection of waste inflated tires, Nexo North America has a better idea — two tire models, Ever Tires and Nexo Tires, that never get a flat.
Ever Tires is an airless tire that promises to deliver a smooth ride that rivals an inflated tire. The modified solid tire design is comprised of a polymer blend with a series of holes that have been engineered to offer exceptional control and outstanding durability. Each EverTire is expected to last for up to 5,000 miles as compared to approximately 3,000 miles for a standard high-end rubber bicycle tire. The Ever tires don’t use air which means of course that there are no leaks, so owners can ride over pins, nails, and other materials that usually would punch a hole and cause a leak in a standard rubber tire.
Because they use a single polymer blend material, Ever Tires also are simple to produce and more easily recycled than conventional rubber tires. Each Ever Tire only has to go through one manufacturing process, allowing the company to make a single tire in a mere 30 minutes. This simple production cycle is a marked improvement over conventional rubber tires that require several steps including mastication, vulcanization and the addition of chemicals like sulfur at high heat (280°F) to make the tire material durable.
Ever Tire sounds like the cat’s meow, but it has one drawback — each tire needs a specialized rim to accommodate the airless design. The rim is included in the price of the tire, so there are no hidden costs to ownership, but it is wasteful. When you switch over to Ever Tires, you inevitably end up with an extra set of tires and rims that are headed to the back corner of the garage or the dump. Nexo is aware of this problem and has created the Nexo Tire, another type of airless tire that is designed to fit on your existing rims.
Nexo Tires achieve this compatibility using patented T-bolts that fit under the lip of a standard rubber tire rim. These bolts extend down into the airless tire to hold it into place. Installation is not as easy as the Ever Tires which just require you to swap out the rims, but Nexo Tires cut down on waste by utilizing your existing rims. Because the bike owner supplies the rims, the Nexo tires also are less expensive than the comparable Ever Tire models.
Ever Tire and Nexo Tire are available for pre-order as part of a Kickstarter campaign. Both tires are available in a variety of sizes to accommodate youth, off-road and road bicycles. All Nexo Tire models are available for $75, while pricing for the Ever Tire package starts at $76 for a 12-inch or 16-inch version compatible with a child’s bike. Next expects to begin delivering both the Ever Tire and the Nexo Tire in January 2017.
