Some cyclists prefer style over safety, including when it comes to safety lighting. Cyglo Tyres appears to offer both, ditching the bulky bulb on the handlebars for LEDs embedded in the tires themselves. When spinning, they form a perfect circle of colored light. The best part is that the lights are powered by the spinning wheel itself. But there seems to be at least one significant design flaw.
The design by James Tristram (which is not on the market quite yet) has a major flaw -- the fact that the bulbs are embedded into the tires. Yep, the very thing that makes it cool also makes it wasteful.
Tires wear out. And they're already problematic enough to recycle. What happens when they also have e-waste mixed in with them? And, as Wired points out, this causes a problem for the perfect market -- fixie riders who have to skid to a stop and wear out about a tire a month. While they like to fix up their rides, these expensive tires will probably not be popular if simply due to the issue of cost.
Cyglo Tyres recently won an inventor's contest on a BBC television show, and has secured patents. They're currently looking for an investment partner to get the product into production. However, without addressing the issues of durability and recyclability, we're not sure they're the best idea to make it to the manufacturing line.
From Treehugger.com