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news
New airtight bike frame can be used to refill your tyres
“A very light, simple and ecological replacement for the hand pump,” say its designers. It’s the Choka airtight bike frame – you can pump it up (yes, the frame) and then refill your tyres from it when you’re out and about.
Industrial designers, Claire and Joel, are looking to raise £90,000 for the project on Kickstarter.
“We dream of a better world, without disposable CO2 cartridges but with a lighter and more efficient solution than hand pumps,” they say.
So they hit upon this idea where they’d weld an aluminium frame airtight so that it could be used as an air reserve.
You can inflate the Choka frame with a normal track pump. The recommended pressure is 280 PSI / 12 bar.
Then, if you find you need to refill a tyre, you connect it to the frame with Choka’s hose, open the valve and inflate. Claire and Joel say you can do two or three tyres with each frame-load of air.
They’ve made two prototypes, Aghata (short for aggressive hard tail) and a gravel/road bike called Gravaël.
The aim with the Kickstarter campaign is to produce a first series of frames without outside investors.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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29 comments
“A very light, simple and ecological replacement for the hand pump,”....because, let's face it, the hand pump is THE principal threat to global warming...Who knew?
Plus if you're like me you will still need to carry a pump just in case. I currently have two pumps in each of my cycling rucksacks, after the bitter experience of one failing in Snowdonia and not having a spare....
Do not over-inflate.
I sort of get it if you have tubeless tyres that are hard to seat - there are already reservoirs on the market that fit in a bottle cage for this purpose. Also thinking of it as a refillable co2 cartridge that you can easily fill with a decent track pump at home (or garage forecourt, the larger volume means you don't need the insane pressure in a cartridge) is preferable to spending time at the side of the road with a mini pump (which it would be wise to carry anyway as you would with a cartridge). That said I can't see sufficient demand for their own frames or for big brands to pay a licence fee for it to make any money.
Soultion looking for a problem.
How do you get air into the frame - ah you need another frame.
Di I build the bike myself?
Self licking ice cream cone
But what do you do when your frame gets a puncture?
Another Kickstarter - tubeless frame repair kit.
That would be a total let-down.....
As the inflatable headmaster of the inflatable school said to the inflatable pupil "Not only have you let me down, you've let the school down, and worst of all, you've let yourself down."
Is anyone really that desperate to not have to carry a small pump with them?
Imagine the embarrassment of asking a fellow rider if he's got a pump because your frame is out of air
Has 1st April arrived early?
Imagine getting one of these and then puncturing your frame.
They could have filled it with helium and sold it to weight-weenies.
I'm guessing that the seatpin would still be adjustable..... so the gods help anyone who's seat pin binder bolt snaped - with the omph! provided by 280~180psi/ 19~12Bar that'd stretch the legs a bit.
One could always increase the power by stuffing in yet more air & mate it with some 'smart' pedals that released in the nick of time - to create the Ejector Saddle.
Will it make my bike lighter ?!
No - it will make it heavier. 1 litre of air at 15 psi (pressure at sea level). weights 1.2 grams. So imagine how much 1 litre of air at 280 psi weights - I reckon its about 18 grams. Thats awful!!!
So really it should be filled with another gas to make it lighter. Hydrogen ?
Fill it with butane?
Just when you think you've seen everything - this really does look like a solution in search of a problem.
Whilst I can sort of the see the disposable CO2 canister argument, this is not the solution - if you care about the environment, pump by hand or carry around a loaded air shot in a bottle cage!
Also pretty sure that should be 180PSI not 280PSI given the bar conversion.
Pretty much sums up what I was going to post, including the 180psi.
What would interest me, but only as a trial/novelty to see if it made a difference.
Building a full on race bike, down to 6.8kg with sealed down tube, top tube and rear triangle. Fill them with helium and see how "light" it was then.
Why do you think canisters of pressurised helium don't float away
Usually gas inside bottles is pressurised so much that it becomes a liquid. There is a lot of it in a small volume which makes it dense. High density makes things heavy. That is what I think, that and titties anyway.
A solution in search of a problem. It's a bit Heath Robinson - an elaborate solution where a simpler one (a light hand pump) already exists.
You could mount a rear facing nozzle on the valve for a turbo-boost sprint finish!
Or you could fit a turbine in the bottom bracket for that extra boost of power for a sprint or summit finish. No mucky electrics for the detectors to find either.
Something like that has been done as well.
How much PSI would the frame take? has to be enough for 2 flats, so you would probably need around 300 psi; so what happens if you have an accident and stress is put upon the frame will it grenade sending shrapnel of aluminum, or steel, or bits of carbon fiber into your body? 300 psi is a lot of pressure to put into something, some track pumps are rated for 200, but it would require a special pump, or an electric pump because it's no joke getting a track pump to 200 psi if you weigh 135 or such like the woman in the ad not alone another hand pump to 300.