Bonnie Tu, CEO of Giant, is often described as the ‘Godmother of Cycling’. A few years ago she entered the Tour of Taiwan, but couldn’t find any female-specific kit that she liked so – as you do – she set up her own company. Liv is now a global phenomenon, building bikes for women that are designed by women. ‘Our engineers, our product designers, our gear designers, our retail specialists are all female,’ says Bonnie. Liv now offers a whole spectrum of clothing and frames: from road to MTB and from £675 to £2,999. All are intended to get more women on to two wheels (or Tu’s wheels). The 2017 entry-level road frame is the Avail. Lightweight and versatile, its geometry ensures women will be comfortable on long days in the saddle. And not one of them is pink! (liv-cycling.com)
Liv Avail 1
Price: £675
Frame: ALUXX-Grade Aluminium
Fork: Advanced-Grade Composite, Alloy OverDrive Steerer
Drivetrain: Shimano Sora 18 speed
Brakes: Tektro R312 dual pivot
Wheels: Giant SR 2 Wheel Set
Taking the pain out of punctures
Last week, I did something I’ve never done before on a bike. I deliberately cycled through a pile of broken glass. It was hard to overcome the aversion instinct I’ve built up over decades of urban commuting. But I spotted the glinting shards in my path and wantonly rode straight through the middle of it, laughing with delight as I did it.
The reason is that I am now the proud owner of a pair of Tannus tyres. These are not so much puncture proof, as bomb proof. You could attack them with a butcher’s knife and it would make little difference. Made of a highly durable polymer similar to that used in the rubber soles of training shoes, Tannus tyres are completely solid. There is no rim tape, no inner tube and no valve. There is no air, therefore there can never ever be a puncture.
Of course it’s not a new idea. Most of us will have ridden bikes with solid tyres when we were kids. But Tannus prefers to call its revolutionary tyres “airless” rather than “solid” to show just how different these sophisticated new tyres are from those old rubber sluggers.
Tannus is a Korean company which started out by making the various composite materials needed for shoe soles. For a few years it experimented with creating puncture-less tyres, but there were always issues with them peeling off the rims, stability on cornering, adhesion in greasy conditions, coping with extremes of temperature and dealing with the heaviest of riders. The first prototype was made in 2004, but it was another seven years of testing before the first tyre was ready for sale – the Aither 1. Then in 2015 an upgraded version of that was released – the Aither 1.1.
It’s this tyre that has transformed the fortunes of the company – and of riders across Europe. They are now available in more than 500 shops, with distributors in the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Hungary and Poland. In the two years that they have been on sale in Britain, more than 25,000 pairs have been sold. I reckon on having at least two punctures a year. If that’s fairly average, that means we cyclists in the UK have been spared at least 100,000 punctures since 2015 - think of the hours saved, the frustration avoided and also the environmental burden of all those discarded inner tubes no longer wasted.
Tannus tyres come in 12 bright colours. I very tediously opted for black. They come in a range of sizes from 700 x 23 and up. You can also fit them to a Brompton. The tyres attach to clincher rims and are held in place with a series of little plastic pegs. It takes about 30-45 minutes to fit a pair. You can do it yourself, but most Tannus dealers will do it for you. Having watched mine being fitted at Nip Nip in south London I’m very glad I left it to the experts. (It’s important to know your limits when it comes to bike mechanics.) Edward who did the honours for me told me the tyres should be good for at least 6,000 miles – and there was no way I wanted to ride that far on wheels not properly set up.
Tannus has priced the tyres cleverly – £99 for a pair. A decent set of puncture-proof tyres will cost you around £80, plus inner tubes. And I doubt you’d get 6,000 miles out of them. Weight wise, the 700 × 28 comes in at 430g per tyre, compare that to Schwalbe’s Marathon, for example, at 560g, excluding the inner tube and rim tape (plus tyre levers, pump and spare inners you have to carry in your pockets).
So, we have a lightweight, zero-maintenance tyre guarantee to give me a trouble-free ride through the most miserable weather. But what are they like to actually ride?
Edward tells me that they feel the equivalent of 100psi, so they will certainly be firm. He reckoned it would take about 20 miles for the tyres to bed in and for me to feel comfortable on them. But I’d say it took a fraction of the time. In fact within a few pedal strokes I forgot I was riding airless tyres. They just felt like freshly pumped, high-pressure road tyres and seemed to handle in the same way.
However on the second day I commuted in it was much colder and the tyres somehow felt a lot less forgiving. They felt stiff and unyielding. Smooth tarmac was fine, but gnarly surfaces really seemed to shake the fillings from my teeth. I also couldn’t escape the sense that there was an element of drag to them, somehow they didn’t sing across the road like normal pneumatic tyres do. Was it me or were the tyres still bedding in? I stuck with them and over the next weekend went for a decent 50k ride. It was warmer and the roads were smoother. Gradually I felt more and more confident and comfortable on the wheels. Cornering is exactly as you’d hope and there is plenty of traction even in the wet. And when one of our group double punctured I became more and more convinced of the worth of my tyres.
My advice is that if you buy a pair, keep going. Tannus may tell you how quickly you will adapt and initially that is of course true, but I’ve been riding pneumatics for 40 years, so allow a few weeks to get used to them – and you’ll be very glad you did. Two weeks in and I can honestly say I now don’t notice. I’ve been told they are up to a km per hour slower, but riding with my normal group I can’t say I was any further behind that I usually am…
Tannus tells me they’ve tested the product endlessly, in fact the Ukrainian track team all now use them on their road training bikes. They are lighter than most tyre, tube and rim tape combinations, they have enhanced elasticity to ensure a better feel while riding, good grip, and rolling resistance is similar to pneumatic wheels. Tannus concedes that the tyres are slightly slower over distance, but it’s negligible. For professionals where seconds count that clearly matters, but for commuters and Sunday riders that’s a hit I think we can all take.
I’d also say they are a total boon for triathletes. Speaking from experience I know how maddening it is to puncture on the bike stage and waste all that hard training. Fitting Tannus tyres might cost you a PB over a long race but that seems like a decent compromise for knowing you will always finish.
For more details, go to Tannus. You can have them fitted at Nip Nip and other dealers across the UK
Email Martin at martin.love@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter @MartinLove166
