Zip-on tires (Norwegian company)

So you're going for a ride in the morning when it's cold and maybe has snow where you start from but the roads will be bare where you're going to. Enter the Zip-on tire. You zip-on and outer tire tread over the inner tire and then remove the outer zip-on tire tread when it's not needed. You don't even have to take off the wheel to do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=5Zde8AWWKeI

Interesting idea but how well will it hold up in actual use?

Cheers

On 11/5/2019 4:00 PM, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
So you're going for a ride in the morning when it's cold and maybe has snow where you start from but the roads will be bare where you're going to. Enter the Zip-on tire. You zip-on and outer tire tread over the inner tire and then remove the outer zip-on tire tread when it's not needed. You don't even have to take off the wheel to do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=5Zde8AWWKeI

Interesting idea but how well will it hold up in actual use?

Cheers

The Norwegians certainly have robust conditions in which to test this
product. That doesn't mean the company has done so.

I'd be real nervous about the shear strength of that zipper (I admit I
didn't run the video, only looked at the first frame). I doubt the
"inner" tire has sufficient traction against the inside of the "outer" tire.

Sure seems easier to me to build a spare pair of winter wheels with
studded tires; ~5-10 minutes to swap 'em in or out makes 'em real easy
to use, and this served me for years of commuting.

A quick swap-in-out is highly desirable here where winter weather hovers
pretty much right /at/ freezing, so bare pavement and freezing fog/rain
both occur with little advance notice.

Mark J.

On Tuesday, 5 November 2019 20:33:14 UTC-5, Mark J. wrote:
On 11/5/2019 4:00 PM, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
So you're going for a ride in the morning when it's cold and maybe has snow where you start from but the roads will be bare where you're going to. Enter the Zip-on tire. You zip-on and outer tire tread over the inner tire and then remove the outer zip-on tire tread when it's not needed. You don't even have to take off the wheel to do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=5Zde8AWWKeI

Interesting idea but how well will it hold up in actual use?

Cheers

The Norwegians certainly have robust conditions in which to test this
product. That doesn't mean the company has done so.

I'd be real nervous about the shear strength of that zipper (I admit I
didn't run the video, only looked at the first frame). I doubt the
"inner" tire has sufficient traction against the inside of the "outer" tire.

Sure seems easier to me to build a spare pair of winter wheels with
studded tires; ~5-10 minutes to swap 'em in or out makes 'em real easy
to use, and this served me for years of commuting.

A quick swap-in-out is highly desirable here where winter weather hovers
pretty much right /at/ freezing, so bare pavement and freezing fog/rain
both occur with little advance notice.

Mark J.

In Toronto Canada a friend and I used to go to an area of interconnected parks when the snow was pretty deep. I carried a spare set of wheels with the widest possible tires with big knobs on them. Those wheels were carried on the rear rack and hung down each side of the rack. Once we left the plowed streets I'd stop and switch over to the big knobby tires. It made the difference to whether we could get through that deep snow or not. I sometimes do the same thing here if going to the MTB trails. I'll use my street wheels to ride the MTB to the trails which are quite a distance from me, and then switch the wheels to ones with big knob tires.

As you mentioned, it only takes seconds per wheel.

Cheers

Cheers