Airless Wonders : O.C Firm Reinvents the Bicycle Wheel
Every bicyclist knows that somewhere out there, probably along some otherwise smooth stretch of highway, lurks that tiny shard of glass or stray nail just waiting to sink into the soft rubbery flesh of a tire.
Bang! The tire--and the biker’s jovial mood along with it--deflate with an ear-splitting crack.
Now comes an Irvine company, Urethane Technologies Inc., that is offering the latest version of the amazing airless--and therefore puncture-proof--bicycle tire.
The tire is made of solid polyurethane, a petrochemical compound that gets its spring from millions of tiny air bubbles. It is mounted on a standard bicycle wheel with a special tool that stretches the tire onto the rim.
Once on, it looks like any other tire--except for the notable absence of a valve stem poking through the rim between the spokes. The company says casual bikers will notice little difference in the ride.
Urethane Technology sells other companies the patented equipment and the chemicals needed to make the tires. More than 11,000 tires have been sold in the United States at prices as high as $100 a pair by sales representatives of an English maker, Green Tyre Co., which is also marketing them in Europe. In California, an Ontario company has begun manufacturing the tires, and a Hong Kong company has been signed up to make them for the world’s largest bicycle market, China.
So far, airless tires have yet to do much for Urethane Technologies’ balance sheet. The company, which has also developed urethane bathtubs and wheelchair tires, has had operating losses every year since its founding in 1985. Its net loss for 1992 was $3.2 million, and its cumulative deficit stood at $8.3 million, according to a March 29 prospectus for a second stock offering.
The new year has not started much better. The company suspended shipments to its largest customer, Green Tyre, after failing to receive the English company’s first-quarter payment. Its other major customer, Airless Technology Group Inc. in Ontario, failed to make enough tires to maintain its status as the exclusive U.S. manufacturer.
Urethane Technologies is confident, however, that new agreements, notably with the Hong Kong company, and increasing awareness and sales of its airless bicycle tires will lead to profits. “We think we’re poised to land some contracts” that will boost sales, Vice President James B. Frakes said.
Patrick O’Donnell, president of a New Jersey marketing outfit that represents Green Tyre in the United States, said that 45 U.S. bicycle shops are already stocking the airless tire.
No stores in Orange County are offering them yet. In Los Angeles County, the tires are carried by three shops--in Culver City, West Los Angeles and Woodland Hills. A store in Newbury Park in Ventura County also carries the tires. O’Donnell said he hopes to line up more than 1,000 dealers nationwide by the end of summer.
Bicycle sporting enthusiasts--those who spend hundreds of dollars for expensive racing bikes--will find that the airless tires require more effort to pedal. But the majority--the occasional riders who buy upward of 90% of the bikes sold, will notice little difference. They will be far more interested in ending the frustration of having to patch and pump up flat tires, O’Donnell predicted.
“We know that the overwhelming market is not that concerned with performance,” he said.
Though Green Tyre is charging premium prices, the airless tires could eventually be profitably wholesaled to bicycle dealers and other retailers for $20 to $26 a pair, Frakes said. Because they last far longer, the airless tires could be sold at retail prices that would be competitive over the long run with pneumatic tubes and tires. Urethane Technologies is experimenting with addition of ground rubber to the urethane mix to reduce cost and weight.
The notion of an airless bicycle tire is hardly new. As long as there have been bicycles, entrepreneurs have tried to develop tires that are impervious to leaks. Most of those attempts have fallen flat. The tires were either too heavy, came off the wheel rims while the bike was being ridden or produced a bone-jarring ride. Generally, airless tires have been stocked by discount department stores, whose customers generally do not rate performance over convenience.
Urethane Technologies, however, thinks it has overcome past deficiencies by creating the bicycling equivalent of M&Ms; candy: a tire with a hard “skin” on the outside and spongier material on the inside.
That way, the airless wonder grips the road like a standard pneumatic tube and tire combination, yet has roughly the same weight and cushioning against bumps. The tire is better balanced than past efforts because of Urethane Technology’s unique centrifugal casting method. Tires are produced by squirting the urethane compound into a spinning cylinder, instead of through the injection molding that other companies have tried.
“I definitely think there is a place for a tire that cannot go flat,” said Jim Langley, new-products editor for Bicycling, a monthly for cycling enthusiasts. “For an experienced cyclist, a flat tire is a 10-minute inconvenience. For somebody putting around the neighborhood . . . they would like a tire like this.”
But sales will probably be limited, Langley said, until the price drops to compete with regular tire-tube combinations.
Steve Frothingham, managing editor of the trade newspaper Bicycle Retailer and Industry News, said there is a ready market waiting to be tapped if Urethane Technologies or anyone else can develop airless tires that match the performance of pneumatics.
“From my retail experience, there’s always people coming in and asking for them,” he said.
