Avon tyres safety wheel promotional film.

[Automobiles]

This should have been adopted.....

[Automobiles]

Way back in the 70s, the Avon Rubber Company, a UK tyre manufacturer, developed the ‘Avon Safety Wheel’. This allows ANY tyre fitted to run flat, at least for enough time to pull up safely in the event of a blowout, and even then gingerly take it to a tyre service centre.

No special tyres, just a slightly different design of wheel.

It works by not having a deep well in the centre of the wheel, but instead a flat, shallow trough. To allow a tyre to be fitted, there is a deep groove in the centre that the tyre’s bead can drop into during fitting. Once the tyre is on, but not yet inflated, the grooved channel is covered by a steel band, closed by a worm screw.