First Gecko Bicycle Tyre availability plus Earthshot Prize 2024 official nomination

Hello Gecko Newsletter Subscribers

Welcome to our first Gecko Rubber Newsletter.

First Gecko bicycle tyre availability

We are now producing the first new Gecko ‘ultra-lightweight’ bicycle tyres. These are the 700 x 40 tyre size to fit to the standard 700 clincher wheel (to be installed onto bicycle wheel rim specification ‘ETRTO’ 622mm  (bead seat diameter) x 19mm (inner rim width).

The introductory price for one of these these 700 x 40 bicycle tyres will be £66 GBP plus VAT (tax) and shipping and they should be available in limited batches by the end of April.

These tyres have the traditional ‘Gecko Hybrid’ tread pattern (see image above) and are suitable for ‘on road’ and ‘light off road’ use. They are 40mm wide (so please allow clearance for this tyre width within your bicycle frame)

If you are interested in purchasing the new Gecko 700x40 tyre please could you email us indicating how many tyres you would like to purchase and confirming your address (for shipping purposes) to info@geckorubber.co.uk

Once we have confirmation of numbers we will email back confirming allocation and with details on how to purchase the tyres. Also, when we send out the tyres we will also send out details on how to fit them (which usually takes less than 2 minutes).

Other tyres sizes will become available later in the year and we are planning to send out information on what these sizes will be by the end of July (as we should have confirmed our plans for scaling up by that time).

For those of you who have already ordered a pair of the 700 x 40 (43) tyres via the Kickstarter campaign, you don’t need to respond here, your tyres are already allocated.

Gecko Rubber Earthshot Prize 2024 official nomination

Please see below some details regarding our recent official nomination for the Earthshot Prize 2024 (Thanks again to Tom Turner at Abel & Imray and all at CIPA for their help in gaining Gecko Rubber’s nomination)

In the last two years we have developed a new ultra-light materials technology that is delivering significant performance and environmental benefits to the new Gecko 100% puncture proof fully recyclable bicycle tyre.

Some possible reasons for the nomination are:

·      A high impact project, with billions riding bicycles around the world. The zero maintenance and long service life (achieved because Gecko tyres will not go flat, crack and fail through puncture damage by using long life materials in a 100% puncture proof construction, as well as having an excellent ride quality, which will encourage a stronger uptake of cycling and boosting sustainable transport.

·      Compared to conventional pneumatic rubber tyres, Gecko single component cellular rubber tyres generate 70% less CO2 (known from an independent Life Cycle Analysis), last more than twice as long and are also not harmful to the environment as e.g. they don’t use toxic PAH antioxidants to extend the tyre's service life, (PAHs are widely used in traditional pneumatic rubber tyre technology and are known to cause harm e.g. to marine life from worn particles found in the streams, rivers and oceans.). The new ultra-light Gecko tyre also does not use fossil fuel-derived carbon black fillers and they don’t use natural rubber (NR) where there are currently sustainability issues.

·      The new Gecko ‘single component’ cellular rubber technology is extremely cost effective (with far simpler, lower energy manufacturing), is ultra-light (i.e. half the weight of the ‘first-generation’ Gecko cellular rubber technology) and now with high comfort and grip, with low rolling resistance and they are easily installed. The Gecko tyre technology is also secured by robust patents around the world, thanks again to Tom at Abel & Imray.

This official nomination may lead us to the Earthshot Prize final (late 2024) and it will certainly give us important global exposure as we scale-up our project over the next year.  

Please see the Abel & Imray news release below:

https://www.abelimray.com/news/abel-imray-clients-take-aim-at-the-earthshot-prize

Thanks for your support,

Best regards,

Richard and the Gecko Team