wheels

Future of Road Tubeless from Mavic

cristleripLeave a comment

Several years ago, coming from mtb, I didn’t really know what my friend was talking about when he said that he chose to go with clinchers instead of tubies. At the time, I was still running tubes, not knowing of other options. Today, I’m running tubeless on mtb, hoping to run tubular for cx, and still in tubes for road.

But I may not be hoping for tubulars for much longer. In US 2015/0028660, published on January  29, 2105, Mavic  discloses a new rim that “is as lightweight as a tubular tire wheel and as practical as an open pneumatic tire wheel.”

Mavic FIG. 2

As shown above in FIG. 2, the bead 6 of the tire 2 includes portions that fit into the hook 35 and stop 37 as shown below in FIGs. 6a-6g.

Mavic FIGs. 6

As shown below in FIG. 5, the balance of the forces on the hook 35 and the stop 37 allow the rim and tire combination to withstand pressures of up to 10 bar (~145 psi).

Mavic FIG. 5

Moreover, the design of the rim helps decrease pinch flatting. Shown below in FIG. 7, the base 36 of the rim helps to distribute the forces from impacts in more areas than just the flanges 32 of the sidewalls 33.

Mavic FIG. 7

These features are also intended to be applicable to mountain biking. I hope this technology comes fast so I don’t have to learn how to glue tubulars.

Stan’s NoTubes’ Rims

cristleripLeave a comment

We had a great time meeting everybody at NAHBS 2015, and we learned so much. Even got to ride snow-covered trails at Cherokee Park and underground trails at the Louisville Mega Cavern.

But, now we’re back to the IP. On December 24, 2013, Stan’s NoTubes received US 8,613,485 drawn to their tubeless rims. The interesting part here looks to be in FIG. 2:

NoTubes Hump

Compared to the current design of the Iron Cross, from notubes.com, the differences are clear:

iron cross

The central hump 514, as shown in FIG. 2, does not appear in any of the current offerings on NoTubes.com. The hump 514 increases the strength and stiffness of the rim and helps with tubeless setup, for example:

It can be further observed in FIG. 2 that the troughs 517 on opposite axial sides of the hump 514 effectively form two channels. When a tire is initially mounted on the rim, each of the tire beads will sit in a respective trough region 517. Not only do the hump and troughs serve to keep the tire beads separated and confined prior to and during inflation, the separate channels created by the troughs make it easier to trap air and thus easier to inflate the tire particularly in the case of manual pumping. The hump and troughs also keep the tire spread apart and allow for the valve stem (not shown) to inject the air directly into the center of the tire, easing the inflation process.

Note that the hump is only in dependent claims 5-8, i.e., the hump doesn’t make it into the independent claims.

Application: US 13/219,340
Application Status: Issued Dec. 24, 2013 as US 8,613,485
Assignee: K.G. Motors, Inc.
Related Patents/Applications: Continuation of US 12/420,595 (Issued as US 8,007,053), which is a Continuation of US 12/197,901 (Abandoned), which is a Continuation of US 11/965, 153 (Abandoned), which is a Continuation of US 10/959,743 (Issued as US 7,334,846).