Hutchinson’s new flatproof Serenity tire kit is now available for purchase in the United States.
Hutchinson USA sales manager Levi Olsen showed me their new Serenity airless tire, fresh off the airplane from France.
According to Hutchinson, the Serenity flat free tire was developed specifically for the Velib bike share program in Paris to reduce maintenance expense and downtime. Hutchinson claims the tires are lightweight, strong and durable, with the inner “tube” designed to last the lifetime of the bicycle. Hutchinson claims an “ingenious shock absorbing system” results in a good balance between performance and comfort for this urban utility tire.
The problem with your run-of-the-mill foam rubber airless tires is that road bumps are absorbed only by the foam between the road and the rim; with a pneumatic tire, the bumps are distributed through the entire volume of the tire. I’ve tried foam rubber bike tires before, but the Hutchinson Serenity feels more like a pneumatic tire than a solid tire does. It’s not the nice ride you’ll get from a fat commuter tire, but it’s not unreasonably harsh and they’ve done an excellent job creating an airless tire with a decent feel and good rolling resistance.
The Serenity system is a matched set of tire and airless “tube” insert. When the tread on the tire wears out, you just replace this outside casing and keep the long lasting insert. The combo is fairly heavy at 800 grams for the 26″ tire and insert, but it’s designed for utility city riding, not fast performance rides.
Serenity retails for about $85 per wheel and a special tool is required to pop the tire and tube into place on a wheel. This seems a pricey, but it might be worthwhile to reduce maintenance costs on bicycle fleets. While Serenity doesn’t appear yet in distributor catalogs, this tire is now available in the United States. If you want this, you’ll need to bug your dealer to bug their Hutchinson distributor to special order this tire and (likely) the required install tool.
I think the people that aren’t going to change flat tires are also the people not willing to spend $170+ on special heavy flat-less tires. I doubt they have much market at this price other than fleet bikes.
The people from Hutchinson didn’t come right out and say it, but I got the
feeling that they’re mostly interested in going after rhw bike share
companies.
Sent from my Googaw
The people from Hutchinson didn’t come right out and say it, but I got the
feeling that they’re mostly interested in going after rhw bike share
companies.
Sent from my Googaw
so only 26 wheel sizes?
I couldn’t disagree more. Nothing’s worse than finding you have a big hole in your tire late at night 5 miles from your home. You can’t pump it up. And if you live by your bike like me, this is a big inconvenience. I’d gladly pay more for the serenity of knowing that I won’t get a flat…and I’ll put them on my GF’s bike because she can’t change a flat anyway.
Where can I purchase these in the US?
From the article above: “
While Serenity doesn’t appear yet in distributor catalogs, this tire is now available in the United States. If you want this, you’ll need to bug your dealer to bug their Hutchinson distributor to special order this tire and (likely) the required install tool.“
Having to keep air in 40,000 tires for a fleet of 20,000+ bicycles must take up a large chunk of the manpower required for maintaining the Velib fleet. This will undoubtedly lower the cost of implementing a bike share program.
I want these tires NOW!!! :0). Where can I get them? Who can I contact?
Just gottem!! These rock!! No more flats ever!!!
I saw them for the first time this last weekend but have’t had a chance to try them out.