I have just read an article about Michelin putting RFID* chips into tyres. I know it won't adversely affect the performance but Michelin reckon it could give them a big commercial advantage going forward if it gets picked up by car makers. I just wonder how long it will be before the bike makers pick up on it and start to make use of the technology.

https://www.fleetpoint.org/technology-news/radio-frequency-identification-rfid/michelin-to-incorporate-rfid-to-all-its-car-tyres-by-2023/

I was also wondering what benefits we could see as riders compared to non-RFID chipped tyres.

* - RFID - radio frequency identification chips are passive devices that are energised by the reading unit and give off a unique identification signal

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You will have to do without pocket handkerchiefs, and a great many other things, before we reach our journey's end, Bilbo Baggins. You were born to the rolling hills and little rivers of the Shire, but home is now behind you. The world is ahead.

These are not the same chips they're using in the Covid vaccine are they?

Stock control and manufacturing process tracking now but drive by roadside tyre checking a few years down the road. Or is that another paranoia conspiracy theory to add to the list?

I looked at this and it appears to have been used in lorry in the US for a few years. Looks interesting.
I have no idea how bike makers will react. I personally think it appears to be a good thing for lorrys, and hope it will be of use to cars and maybe bikes.

The potential problem is legislation.

Step 1 the Europrats make TPMS mandatory and part of road worthiness inspections. Not a problem in itself and probably a step forward if we stop a few trucks and cars having blowouts next to us. Will they mandate it on bikes? Probably yes because one exception drives yeah-but arguments.

Step 2.

Dunaplop have made a deal to give Honda a million nasty Brazilian tyres every year, each wrapped in a fiver. Why? Because they need to shift this **** to make it worthwhile keeping the factory open, the factory that makes 50000 better tyres they sell in the aftermarket at 500% margin.

Now here's a wheeze, fit them with RFID tags and make the TPMS refuse to accept anything else. The Europrats know its for your own good, no nasty Chinese tat or nice new knobblies a size smaller that move you off the type approved one. The switch to 900% margin and free champagne at every Brussels sex orgy paid for by tyre makers, well, if they didn't someone else would.

What the bike lobby needs to campaign for is free access. Force the TPMS system to accept any tyre with at most a disclaimer to say you accept non-OE.

Without this there will be no more tyre choice and a pair of tyres will be priced in comparison to buying a new bike (or better still renting it with restricted mileage and no going abroad).

Hopefully the UK follows the US where this access is enshrined in law rather than the EU where manufacturers can freely buy commercially advantageous legislation.

Personally, I'm selling TPMS so win either way

Andy

One extra safety feature:

If your tyres are over x years old the TPMS locks the MOT failing light on.

Who sets X? The government, based on advice from the tyre makers.

You know fresh rubber every year regardless of mileage is for your own good don't you :rofl

Andy

Interesting points you raise Andy.
I am not in the crystal ball business and don't know what lies up the road, I am sure there are many scenarios. I am not qualified to offer opinion as I don't know anything about it. Maybe clarity will come in time.
Be safe and be kind.

I'm not sure what purpose RFID would serve that wouldn't be served with a simple identification stamp on the side of the tire. Seems kind of superfluous to me.

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Bruce Clarke - 2020 Yamaha XV250

That's pretty much what I had in mind with my half tongue in cheek suggestion above. It's a lot easier to have the tyre tell you how old it is via electronics than have to grovel around looking for embossed marks that seem to get more eroded by kerbside 'scuffs' with every year that passes. It's another legislative step on a road that says 'we'll do it if it's easy to do irrespective of whether it'll actually benefit anyone. Just call it a safety feature.'

If they've been using them in US trucks for years they don't seem to be doing much good. I've never seen as much rubble from blown up truck tyres as there is along US interstate verges. I've even - twice - had a truck tyre blow up as we were actually riding past it. On a bike that's not a pleasant place to be with bits of rubber everywhere and steel reinforcing wire flailing around on the hub like a wire brush on an angle grinder. Despite doing many more miles on Euro roads I've never seen it over here.

Paranoia? Maybe.
Unreasonable cynicism? Probably not.

Give the hidden-unemployed jobsworth bottom-feeding pond-life oxygen-thief bureaucrats a tool to make their worthless, insignificant lives somehow more indispensable and you'd better believe they will exploit it to the max.

Meanwhile, in any town near you, old ladies are being mugged and priests are fiddling with children.

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Hear the challenge, learn the lesson, pay the cost.

All new cars in the UK have had to have a tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS) for some years so that boat has already sailed. As far as I am aware there has not been any move to extend this to bikes - certainly it isn't fitted to my Moto Guzzi which is just a few months old.

Whether the functionality of the TPMS is part of the MOT, I have no idea but I suppose if it has to be fitted then it should be working.

As regards old tyres - the UK government has had regulations since 2018 that mean that it is an offence to have tyres older than ten years on certain commercial vehicles - https://www.gov.uk/government/news/commercial-vehicle-operators-using-old-tyres-to-face-investigations

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You will have to do without pocket handkerchiefs, and a great many other things, before we reach our journey's end, Bilbo Baggins. You were born to the rolling hills and little rivers of the Shire, but home is now behind you. The world is ahead.

And what a complete pia they are. Our current Mini has them, as did the previous one. With the previous one they went wrong - twice. The car went back - twice- under warranty to have them fixed but they were back flashing warnings at us within weeks. The ones in the 2yr old current car started playing up about six months ago and the dealer was supposed to fix them during a late summer service. That lasted until about a month ago. The warning now takes over the whole screen and you can’t use the radio until you work through the menu to cancel it.

And no, it’s not the tyres actually being flat. I’m pretty anal about that.

Try swapping wheels left to right.

The Mini uses VDO or Huf valve mounted sensors. The signals are already weak due to restrictions to stop them microwaving people through their foil hats or blocking Channel 5, so a low battery and anything extra between sensor and receiver is enough to cause a loss of signal. Its a BMW so the threshold to be invited to the dealers is always low. Get the weakest signal closest to the receiver and you have the best chance.

Once they start to go its all down hill. Signal re-acquisition burns battery and low battery loses the signal.

Any tyre place with a sensor tool should be able to check the batteries, the hand held tool is pretty universal, no need to use the dealers if they are out of their depth.

Andy

If you'd stop reading the Daily Mail, you'd realize that the "Europrats" are the ones making sure this sort of thing does NOT happen.

I'm on the advisory group where the industry is picking the rules. The civil servants havn't a clue, its specialist technical stuff. To include the manufacturers makes sense, we know what is possible and what isn't. The job of the politicians is to look at why the industry wants certain rules, (its so we can sell more and exclude our competitors) and represent the public . This is the part the EU is terrible at. So no Daily Mail, just monthly email circulation and a webinar a couple of times a year.

The consumer goods repair is likely to be a victory for a coalition that includes component manufacturers. Sell a switch to Sony you get pence. Sell one to a repairer you get pounds. Whoever built that coalition did a good job working the system. On automotive stuff that section is too weak, its why they still get away with locking out OBD-2 etc.

Andy

So what you're saying is, it's not the "Europrats" letting manufacturers reject third-party tires - it's you personally?

(Incidentally, they're so terrible at it that they expressly banned printer companies from doing that with cartridges eighteen years ago.)