Ask the Editors: What Ever Happened to the Airless Tire?
Dear ATVC:
A while back you did a piece on airless tires. What’s going on with those? Any word on them coming to ATVs soon?
Funny you should ask- It just so happens one of the leading companies behind the airless tire movement happens to specialize in ATVs. Polaris in fact purchased a company called Resilient Technologies – which had originally developed the airless tires for military use.
According to our sources, Polaris has been so impressed by the testing of the technology that they want to make it available to the public by 2014.
The fact that they can’t go flat, offer better bump compliance and are actually quieter than pneumatic air tires makes them very appealing for off-road applications.
The biggest inhibitor at present is cost. Estimates are putting these bad boys at around a grand each- and the tread is said to last no longer than the rubber and belt stuff we use now. However, as items become mass produced, the cost generally goes down. We suspect that by the time OEMs start adopting these airless tires, they’ll be considerably more affordable. Perhaps even no more than we currently pay for air-filled tires.
