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TECH NEWS
Hutchinson tyre sensor and smartphone app could change the way you monitor tyre pressure
My car has a sensor that alerts me when the tyre pressures are too low, but I've never come across similar technology in the bicycle world. Until today that is - French tyre manufacturer Hutchinson has developed a sensor that fits inside the rim and can detect the tyre pressure. It can also detect sealant level and alert you of a puncture.
It’s still at prototype stage - that’s a 3D printed mockup in the photo above - but they had a working example inside a tyre on the stand relaying data from the sensor to the free smartphone app it has developed.
The sensor sits inside the rim at the valve, it works with any standard tubeless valve, and weighs just 12g and uses ANT+ and Bluetooth to relay data to the app. Tyre pressure is monitored every second or so to an accuracy of 0.01bar. The sensor switches off after 20 seconds of inactivity and this help to provide a claimed battery lifespan of three years in normal use.
The obvious benefit of the technology is providing a really easy way of seeing what pressure your tyres are without needing to attach a pump or pressure gauge to the valve.
But it can also detect a puncture, more useful for slow leaks rather than blowouts for obvious reasons. More usefully it'll detect current sealant level using a humidity sensor and let you know when you need to top it up, with the current level displayed as a handy percentage.
This is a really interesting development and I hope Hutchinson is able to fulfil its promise of delivering a production version next year as I think it has genuine practical benefits.
There’s more. Accelerometers can detect wheel speed and lean angle which Hutchinson says can help to determine the right tyre choice for any given terrain or riding style. That’s probably of more use to mountain bikers than road cyclists perhaps.
It's some way from production readiness, but Hutchinson says it’s confident it’ll be released during 2018 since it has proofed to itself that the technology works, it's just a case of preparing it for mass production. No idea on price but expect somewhere in the region of between €50 and €100.
David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes.
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15 comments
For all of the people complaining about the extra weight...
You really don't need to be that concerned because how many of you are actually running tubeless?
If you are that worried about weight, you're likely not going to want to have the added weight of tubeless compatible wheels and sealant. You'll be running lightweight tyres with the ultra lightweight latex tubes, and these won't be compatible.
For everyone that DOES run tubeless and would find this usefull and isn't worried about 12g per wheel... please don't feed the trolls.
I like the idea but the price may kill it off. I'd not pay £100 for the convenience of not checking my pressures.
According to the listing on Amazon a cateye wheel magnet weighs 23 g so can't imagine this having any effect
So...is this for people who don't have fingers?
So it's TPMS for bikes?
Biggest issue will be balancing the wheel from the offset weight, and this is only for tubeless.
I'll wait for the 5g CF model
I like the look of this.
I normally check my tyre pressures before any ride so this will save me having to do that and being able to know when to top up the sealant would be a big help.
So add 12g at the valve and you now have an even more unbalanced wheel, they really haven't thought this through have they ...
No thanks.
Never mind the balance, what about the weight? Twelve whole grams per wheel and two wheels equals 2X12 which equals ... um...ahh ...fifty, no wait, forty, no, goddammit. Anyway, it's quite a lot of stuff to lug up the climbs.
Aren't most rims made with a tiny bit more weight opposite the valve? Even so, you'd be hard pressed to detect an out-of-balance bike wheel in typical usage as they don't spin fast enough.
Here's Jobst Brandt's opinion on the subject: http://yarchive.net/bike/wheel_balancing.html
Knock yourself out, adding 12g in one area to a lightweight rim that's going to be doing in excess of 35mph (my minimum top speed even when riding to the supermarket) is not something that I want.
Whilst JB is a hugely important resource i think I'll take real world experience over his clear bias toward anything that he doesn't agree with. That link clearly highlights that, even when a blind test was done he immediately went on the defensive calling them (the respondants) liars. he even goes so far to try to defend his thoughts by stating the 150lb rider could not go as fast as a 200lb rider, even though the speeds were given as 43 and 48mph, not that that differential is in itself relevant to the subject matter.
If you feel that adding an uneccessary weight to your wheel in one spot is a good thing, go for it, but it will have an effect on rim balance at high speeds on lightweight rims, the type of rims that some riders that would think this a good idea/necessity would be riding.
But the long valve extensions (110mm) to go on my 60mm rims weigh 11g, and so far as I can tell are completely un-noticable in operation, and I regularly top 50 mph. Certainly cornering at 50 mph on smooth tarmac it is un-noticeable. Do you have any blind tests (other than the above "me and a friend...") that confirm your suspicions? A light weight rim and tyre weigh about 500g. 12g is only 2-3% on top of that. I'd be fairly surprised if most bike tyre manufacturing falls within that kind of tolerance.
I like this idea. As it has an accelerometer, it could easily be used to replace the typical spoke magnet type speed sensors although I suppose that would impact the battery life if it has to keep transmitting during a ride. I wonder if there's any practical way they could make it self-charging - maybe induction from a magnet attached to the frame.
Replace a spoke magnet with a frame magnet....ah....um....
Use a pump with a pressure gauge?
Ant+. So hopefully it someone will integrate with wahoo and Garmin for puncture warning and pressure readout. Nice