Michelin Tweel

[KSagal]

Originally Posted by [email protected]

On the Segway, it's not clear to me that there won't be another, perhaps more serious problem.

Segways have separate motors for each wheel.

The Segway control algorithm (essentially) assumes that the two tires have the same, constant radius from the axle. Under some conditions, that will not be the case with Tweels. It seems to me that uneven terrain will affect that parameter more with Tweels than with the regular tires (even on the X2/XT with 4 psi pressure).

Not sure it's a problem, either - not enough information.

I sometime wonder about some of the issues posted about.

the weight issue on tweels is a factor, as they are set for a certain specific weight, and their tolerance is only about 10% if I remember properly... On a 2500 pound car, a few hundred pounds of fuel or fat guys would not be a problem, but several fat guys and a tank of fuel will bring it over the 10%.

On a segway, however, the example used was a 140 pound person vs a 250 pounder. Allowing for 120 segway, that difference is more in the range of 30%, clearly outside of a tweel tolerance.

The tweel does flex, but I do not think the segway will have over much of a problem dealing with that. On current tires, if one has less air pressure than the other, it will have a different diameter, and therefore, one tire's rotation might be linearly longer than the other, yet still the segway can deal with it. IT may pull a bit to one side, but it deals with it. ON the tweel, it will flex, but unless the tread buckles, it will simply reshape itself as it rolls, so I believe the linear distance traveled per rotation should be pretty close to current levels.

I believe there are other factors in play other than technical ability to do the job. There are clearly factors beyond our current knowledge that are stopping these tires from being more available as replacements. Cost may be one, actual long distance performance, or any number of factors may far from what we think they are.

I still think they look interesting.