Vote for slicks from me !
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That doesn’t really make sense for a car wheel. They’re mounted inboard the fenders, so they do not receive the normal effects of aerodynamics like an open wheel car. The most important part then would be rolling resistance versus grip with wider wheels, and efficiency prioritizes rolling resistance.
For some reason I found that to be opposite from the tires I owned. My knobbly tires actually were 20% more efficient than the slicks I own, same 200x50 size and pressure. There’s tons of other factors obviously, but it was certainly a surprise to me. My guess right now is smaller contact patch from a more crowned tire on the knobbly.
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True, the super-efficient Aptera electric car actually uses 3 wheels, because rolling resistance was higher than the aerodynamic savings by having 4 wheels with the rear ones hiding behind the front ones.
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Softer tires make sense for esk8 because of the diameter relative to deviations in the road surface; compared to bike tires. The question is …how soft? People use pneumatics because they are willing to trade some efficiency and range for comfort.
What do cloudwheels use? Silicon foam?
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I think the answer is definitely yes, sounds incredible haha
Send me a pair to test and show off when they’re done 
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Anyone looking at go kart slicks for inspiration?
I believe these exist as tubeless. A smaller lighter-weight version would be pretty sweet. The go kart tires are quite bulky & heavy.
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They receive a lot of air from the bottom of the car. This air is trapped in the wheel and turbulence is created in the fender. It is studied that 25 to 30% of aerodynamic drag on cars comes from the tires.
And I also found this which corroborates the need for narrow tires:
“Yang et al. studied the influence of the wheel width on vehicle aerodynamic drag, and they indicated that when the wheel width was decreased by 5%, the aerodynamic drag could be declined by 2%”
“Moreover, Hucho and Sovran 3 concluded that aerodynamic drag produces 75%–80% of the total driving drag at 80 km/h driving speed.” this is from here
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We are looking more at people who commute. The thing is: Are there that many people commuting while raining? If so we have to design for that.
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That shouldn’t happen 
Were the slicks softer?
Dont reinvent the wheel. what is popular now is that way for a reason. You guys should focus more on how to get a bigger battery into your boards without bulking them up to much.
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Yes I am they look amazing better even after riding with some burned rubber.
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On the contrary the knobblies were softer, which plays into my crowning theory. The tires get rounder in cross section as it conforms to the tube more than the slicks with stiffer walls, which makes a smaller contact patch, reducing rolling resistance. It’s really weird because the drag is particularly noticeable with the slicks, especially coming out of a turn.
You sound like Kodak when they said the digital camera was a fad lol
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Yeah i sounded like a total boomer lol
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You’re technicaly right, absolutely. But i think the aerodynamics are negligible if you consider the massive human sail standing on top of the board 
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My experience with pneumatics is limited, but engineering a system that can accurately weight and balance an Esk8 wheel would be great! Perhaps at a designated pressure? Rather than trying to create a one size fits all solution, it would be nice to get a wheel and know if you inflate to X pressure it will be well balanced out of the box…
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@Miguel
As our wheel hubs are generally two halves that bolt together getting the tire on or off the rim will be another issue.
If you’re seeking a tubeless design, you’ll need to devise a way of ensuring an airtight seal between the two hub halves. Does your tentative design address this issue?
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Feels like really thin airless might be the key here. I love my pneumies but I hate flats (although interestingly the tires are stiff enough that I can still ride with no air if I load off that end).
If you did something that had a big carbon fiber rim and maybe an inch of airless design that might work?
budgetarily tricky I guess.
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These types of wheels have been shown to only be super effective at low speeds
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If you make the tire it’s own sealed unit, and basically have the “tube” built into it, that could be a solution? Seeing as hubs are two seperate halves, this is actually viable as it’s still possible to install, unlike a regular car tire where the rim is one piece you have to seat the tire over.
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