Here is the story. Many years ago someone stole my portable bike pump and patch kit. I ended up working out of state for several years and put the bike in storage. The poor thing sat there in storage and aged.
Last year I pulled the bike from storage but the tires popped after just a few hundred miles.
I had a decision. I needed to buy new tires, new tubes, a new pump and a new carrying kit. It was all too expensive.
I decided to Google solid tires and found that a Korea firm named Tannus offered an airless tire. The company Tannus America is a distributor for the tires based in Utah ... where I happen to live.
The various videos about Tannus tires indicate that the install is quite difficult. The Tannus web site suggests ordering from your local bike shop.
The site lets you look up local bike shops.
I went to my local bike shop, which was on the list and asked to buy the tires.
My local bike shop, which was on the list of installers, said that they did not install Tannus tires. That was very frustrating.
If you are interested in buying the tires, I strongly encourage that you either get them installed by a local bike shop or just buy pre-installed rims.
The hardest part of the install is choosing the right size. My current tires were marked 700x38c. I ended up buying the 700x32c. I wish I had gone with the 700x25 tires.
This is why I think it is better to shop at a local bike shop than to shop online.
But lets get back to my story.
The tires are regularly $80 a piece.
At the end of last month I achieved dolphinhood. Having achieved my HIVE investment goals, I started thinking of all the things that I might buy with my future HIVE earnings.
New bike tires were at the top of my list.
I wistfully looked at the Tannus site last month and saw that Tannus was having a half price sale and decided to order the tires.
Yep, I am buying these tires with my HIVE earnings.
Thanks goes out to everyone who is investing the platform as you made this purchase possible.
I bought two tires for $80.00 + tax. I used the free shipping option. Since they are in the same metro area it took only a day to ship. I ordered the teal tires as I thought they would be more photogenic for the review. I suspect that the ones colored with carbon black would be more durable.
The web site says the tires should last 5,000 miles. I've found that its is easier to peddle a kilometer than a mile. 5000 miles is about 8000 kilometers. So, I am spending about $0.01 for the tires. We will see.
The Install
The install was extremely difficult. It took me four hours of struggling to get the first tire wrapped on the rim. It took two hours to get the second one installed.
The install might be easier if two people worked on the problem.
Here are some pictures that I took. The tires came in a handsome custom box.
These inner boxes were in the outer box. They are probably used to selling the tires in pairs. I would actually recommend buying one and doing the install before buying the second.
The box included bags of pins of different sizes. I ended up using the purple pin on the left. I put two drawing crayons in the picture for contrast.
The tires are wrapped in a coil like this in the box.
The little purple pin appears to be the right fit for my rims.
If I was a marketer at Tannus, I would allow people to order a kit with one of all the pin sizes. That way users could select the pen then order the right tire for the pin that fit their bike.
Again, I think that one should order the tires from a local shop. The shop should be able to compare the pins and pick the right tires to fit the pins.
The official tire installation video suggested leaving the tires in the sun to warm up before the install. I put mine on a yellow beach blanket.
Note, my putting the tires out to sun caused clouds to appear and a brief rain storm. The rain cleared up and the sun came out shortly after this photo.
The install video suggested that I loosely place the pins in the the tire and then to go through and push the pins in the tire. My 700x32 tire had 40 holes for pins. The picture shows the loose pins and the Tannus install tool that came with the kit.
My old black tires were marked 700x38c. The 700x32c Tannus tires look larger.
This width of tires is considered a cross over. I use my bike on both paved and dirt roads.
I wish that I had ordered the 700x25 tires.
This next picture shows why the install is so hard. The tires are slightly smaller than the rim. To install, one has to stretch the tires and then snap them on the rim. It takes several hundred pounds of force.
I got the first tire installed by snapping five of the pins in place then using two pry bars to superhuman the tire onto the rims. This took several hours and was quite frustrating.
For the second tire I finally came up with this arrangement where I held the tires in place with two heavy duty clamps. I think used three pry bars to force the tire over the rim. The Tannus tool bent when I tried this install. I used metal screw drivers for the pry bars.
The final picture shows the two tires fully installed. I will put them on the bike and do my first ride on the new tires after I press the publish button. I hope I installed the tires facing in the right direction.
Conclusion
I think that the Tannus Airless Tires are a great solution for commuter bikes. I no longer need to carry a pump and repair kit. Best of all is that I don't have to worry about all of the goatsheads (aka puncture weed) and glass that I encounter on my regular ride.
The install was extremely difficult. I recommend buying the tires from a local store and having the store do the install. The local store will recycle old tires.
Tannus also sells preinstalled rims.
Well, I now need to go out and ride 8000 KM to test the claim that the tires are good for 5,000 miles.
I published larger versions of the pictures on my photo site.