The Tannus “Armour” is a rim and tyre protection system aimed at those using a tube setup as opposed to tubeless. It's meant to improve mounting, provide the rider better flat protection and the ability to ride at lower PSI's without getting a pinch flat for both road riders and mountain bikers.

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Tannus are best known for their airless tyres. Developed with their patented Aither technology, they say the tyre will feel and perform like pneumatic tyres, yet are 100% puncture proof. This new Armour tyre system is designed to be used both on and off road, as the company make their way into the mountain bike market. 

The Armour sits between the inner-tube and tyre, at its thickest point, the top of the Armour is ~15mm, which, combined with a tyre, provides in excess of 20mm of puncture protection. The walls of the Armour are ~2mm thick and totally encase the inner tube, providing additional lateral protection from punctures to the sidewall as well as pinch flats. The Armour design allows riders to lower their tyre pressure, whilst at the same time ensuring ultimate protection to their rims. Tannus says if you get a flat tyre, you can also run on the Armour without any problems under 10km/h.

Tannus CEO and Head of R&D Youngki Lee, said: “We have the ability to change the properties of the Aither material for different performance. In comparison to the Aither airless tyres, the Amour foam compound is lighter, provides better rebound and shock absorbing. The development focus was an easy to mount, yet durable and lightweight insert, which has a better rolling resistance than others in the market. Extensive lab and field tests confirmed the superior design and function already."

The system will be available in 2019 for 29” and 27.5” mountain bike sizes as well as several 700C sizes (35-40).

Due to be available for sale this April (2019), the Armour is priced from £29.99, distributed by Moore Large, Weight wise, the Armour is between 250g for the 700 x 35-40C and 290g for the 29”, with the 27.5” weighing 270g.  

We've got some in for test are looking forward to comparing this set up to others on the market that cater for tubeless setups. It will be interesting to see if placing the foam next to the tyre in the place of potentially more compliant air affects the ride quality. 

• www.tannus.co.uk

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