Oh, good lord, don’t get me started!
Finding a vendor to make 5” tires is easy. So long as you’re willing to accept casters, foam, solid, low speed and other unacceptable compromises.
I’ve heard from Haggy that they walked away from a 5” due to the chemicals used to demold the part. It was reportedly a strong skin irritant if memory serves.
My personal experience is struggling to find someone willing to make something acceptable for high speed. A 5” wheel will turn 6-7 times faster than a bike wheel and heat build up is a concern…as is wear.
High speed is relative as we had to drop our expectations to “bursts of 30mph” but the jury is still out.
Indeed that’s what’s been the big hurdle is getting the test fixture made to validate the durability, reliability and speed rating on the tire. Despite having paid for the mold a year ago, the test fixture reportedly wasn’t finished until last week. Really frustrating since I offered to pay for or even make the fixture to speed things along.
Someone mentioned airless in the thread above. There are definite benefits to that direction but it also renders the tire changes really difficult, probably requiring some sort of mechanical help to the the tire off and on the rim. By allowing the outer side of the rim to screw off, changing tires becomes very easy, even if you’re out for a ride. But the break between the inner and outer rim make tubeless not an option.
That said, I have another solution path I’m pursuing.
Anyway, I’m SUPPOSED to have a batch of 20 coming this week for validation to pull the trigger on production. Fingers crossed.
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