I purchased the wheels to try them out with my eLofty but I don’t like it. Not enough torque and the consumption is a disaster (over 20 Wh/km on the road where I typically do below 10 Wh/km with TB110).
I still kinda like the wheels. I now have an experimental setup with the airless in the front and TB110 + riser in the back and though it looks ugly it’s more comfortable than TB110 both sides and the consumption is still reasonable (maybe 10% higher compared to TB110).
So I’d like to give them a try with belts, which should fix the torque and hopefully also improve the consumption.
3D printed would be great but I haven’t found any existing design that would fit the wheels and I don’t have the skills to do the modelling.
Regarding consumption, I now get 12-13 Wh/km with the airless wheels only in front. That’s 2-3 Wh/km more compared to TB110 both sides. So I’m hoping for around 15 Wh/km with airless both sides, which would be OK.
I think you’ll notice a bigger drop when you add them onto the rear. It takes a lot more to get those bigger wheels rolling. In my experience, the range is barely better than 6" pneumatics, which are a way better ride (comfort + grip). Only benefit is no tubes, imo.
source: been running 6" airless on my big board for a few hundred miles now. Going back to thane, probably 100 or 107mm for the range and torque (6" tires like to overheat this poor FSESC 6.6), I don’t think I’ll even miss the ground clearance, as this board originally ran on 90mm wheels.
I actually do like them better than TB110 on bad roads. And I have a lot of bad roads around, unfortunately. They are a little more comfortable and don’t get stuck in a big hole.
Now, obviously these were designed specifically for TB110 wheels and the wheel side of the pulley is not flat but rather copies the shape of the wheel. Nevertheless, it kinda worked and is rideable:
I went for a test ride. Did 12 km with some bad roads, some offroad, some steep hills. Consumption: Less than 16 Wh/km overall. Not bad at all!
I think these airless wheels are a bit underrated. If I should put them on a comfort scale where TB110 are 1 and 8" pneumatics are 10, the airless would easily go somewhere around 7. And the extra consumption is actually not that bad though it certainly is noticeable. Will definitely do more riding with this setup.
Here’s my test ride log:
Also, moonbug brought my attention to these pulleys of his that look just perfect! I immediately jumped on them.
Oh no worries at all. I didn’t have high expectations. You get what you pay for and these were pretty cheap. They didn’t work at all with eLofty. I have the 72kv version. Maybe with the 58kv…
They do seem fine with belts though. Plus, they seem pretty much indestructible. No risk of flat tire and I think they will work really nicely with moonbug’s pulleys. This was a good deal for me.
BTW, here’s one more log with the airless wheels. This was on mostly good and flat road but I went quite a bit faster. The consumption was about the same as on the previous ride:
No risk of flat tire and I think they will work really nicely with moonbug’s pulleys. This was a good deal for me. 