Inside the new tire is a mesh-like network of thermoplastic resin spokes that keep the rubber treads on top rigid enough to keep from collapsing under the weight and speed of a vehicle. The concept tires are very small at only a 9-inch diameters so, Bridgestone is only testing the tires on a small one-seat car that elderly people in Japan favor.

There will be work put into seeing if the tires can be scaled up to work with normal cars. I wonder how comfortable these tires are, as the air inside rubber tire cushions the ride on a rough surface, and it’s hard to tell how much give these tires would have. The upside is even if the tires are rougher is that you will never need to patch a flat again.

[via CNET]

But then, came the PumpTire.

The PumpTire is a revolutionary design by Benjamin Krempel that’s currently up for funding on Kickstarter. The tire actually employs a mechanism that pumps your bike tires as you pedal and move along, ensuring that you will never have a flat tire or ever have to manually pump some air into your tires – if all goes well, that is.

The PumpTire is fitted with a valve and a special inner tube that work hand-in-hand to determine if your tires are full or if they could still use a pump or two of air. As you can see from the video clip, Krempel already has a working prototype of the PumpTire, and just needs funds to ramp up production.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Krempel has listed the goal for his project as $250,000 (USD). The project has managed to raise around $9,000 as of now, so it seems that the group is still a long way off from reaching their goal. If you want to help out, you can make a pledge on PumpTire’s Kickstarter page. A $75 pledge will get you a pair of PumpTires, along with innertubes and pressure control valves, assuming the project reaches its funding goal.

[via TDW Geeks via Dvice]

These CYGLO glowing bike tires contain LEDs that are embedded into the treads or sidewalls of the tire. They will turn your wheels into two circles of light, kind of like the Tron lightcycles. While other companies offer spoke-mounted LEDs already, the CYGLO is supposed to be powered by the circular motion of the wheel itself.

For now, these tires have yet to be made. However, the patent was awarded in February, with funding being secured in April. Could this mean that we’ll be riding lightcycles after hours in the near future? Let’s hope so.

[via Wired]

As you can see the belts are made from treads with varying textures and types “rescued” from the trash. Since they’re not made from stock parts, each belt is really one of a kind.

You can order the belts at Jaborska’s Etsy shop for $30 (USD) each.

[via CoolMaterial]

MonkeyLectric’s Monkey Lights snap onto the spokes of your bicycle and provide an amazing, colorful light show as you pedal through the streets at night.

You’ll have no problem being seen in the dark with a couple of these strapped to your wheels. Although you might end up causing an accident as drivers are mesmerized by the trippy kaleidoscopic patterns.

Each MonkeyLight is a self-contained circuit with 32 super-bright full color LEDs, and comes pre-programmed with thousands of dazzling lighting effects and patterns. Plus, MonkeyLectric offers a full schematic and instructions for installing your own applications, in case you want to hack in your own designs.

Just tie-wrap a Monkey Light board to each of your bike’s wheels, pop in 3 AA batteries, choose your lighting patterns, and watch it go as your wheels turn. The faster your tires spin, the cooler the effect.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

You can grab the Monkey Lights for $64.99 (USD) per wheel over at the MonkeyLectric store.

Designed by Ron Arad and Frances Pellisari for Austria’s Viteo, the Freewheeler produces high quality stereo sound indoors or out. The speaker measures in at about 22.8″ tall x 9.8″ wide, making it just about the same diameter as the tires on a Mazda MX-5 Miata (and about 2x as thick).

Just roll the Freewheeler around your house, and it’ll play your tunes remotely. Simply plug your audio source into the included transmitter, and a built-in FM receiver and rechargeable battery pack lets you wheel the mobile sound system up to 656 feet (200m) away from the base station.

A pair of coaxial speakers mounted inside the lacquered wood enclosure provide true stereo sound. Frequency response is 52 – 21,000 Hz, with a maximum output SPL of 112 dB. A single charge of the battery should give you about 8 hours of play time.

It all sounds really cool, no? Well here comes the bad part… The Freewheeler must be created solely for the uber wealthy. I’m hoping this price is a typo, but according to retailer MadeInDesign, the speaker sells for over $21,000 (USD), making it just about as expensive as that Miata I mentioned earlier, complete with four tires and a spare.

The liquid cooled SLI-Machine Wheel PC is loaded into an 18-inch wheel from a Porsche Cayenne, then wrapped up in a Bridgestone Dueler H/P radial tire to round things out.

An intense green neon backlighting system gives the computer a bright glow as soon as the lights go out.

The system was sponsored by nVidia to show off their SLI video performance platform. Now all they have to do is make a networked set of four of these and bolt them on to my car. Then I’ll really be driving in style.

[via GizmoWatch]

Using a single large bicycle (or I guess that would be unicycle) wheel in front and a smaller caster in the rear for steering, it lets you achieve speeds up to 20 miles per hour, simply using your own leg strength to kick off.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

According to the inventor of the wheel (I always wanted to say that,) its designed as an alternative to skateboards, scooters and roller blades, and is a great way to get around quickly. While it takes a bit of getting used to balancing on the wheel, it’s supposed to take just a couple of hours to get the hang of it.

Magic Wheel is accepting pre-orders now for £119 (appx. $245 USD plus shipping.) They expect to start shipping a fresh batch of them this August.

[via Telegraph via Spluch]