Why aren pneumatic tyres filled with latex foam?
Air is free and in plentiful supply. Why waste money on latex foam when you can quite easily compress air, the only cost of which is the compressor itself? Also, from a practical standpoint – should you need to inflate a tyre it is more likely that someone will have a $20 foot pump which will inflate the tyre just fine than the few hundred dollars worth of equipment needed to refill a tyre with latex. Tyre construction and quality has improved over 100 years – tyres don’t fall apart quite so regularly unless they are very badly maintained. Most tyres are now designed to either be self-sealing incase of a puncture or to deflect some of the damage by using inner ply to prevent severe damage to the tyre.
