But pulling to a stop to change your tire pressure isn’t quick or easy at any time, and less so in a race environment. “Exactly,” agrees Gertjan. “In the heat of competition, stopping is stressful. Sometimes the cartridge wouldn’t work, it could be cold, so my fingers wouldn’t be as nimble. Many problems!” And presumably, not everyone stopped in the same place, or stopped at all? “Right again. So if I was in a group and we were riding well together, that became another difficulty. Because of all these challenges, I started wondering why I couldn’t change my tire pressure at will, on-demand, inflating or deflating it in response to changing surfaces, and all without stopping. In fact, while riding at speed.”
For most people, an idea like that might have intrigued them for a while, before getting quickly forgotten - an interesting concept but impractical. Not Gertjan. What was his first step? “All this was about ten years ago. At that time I was working as an advisor for real estate and building companies,” he explains. “I had a technical background, but nothing sufficient to the challenge of creating a concept like adaptable bike tire pressure. However, in the weeks following the race, I kept noticing how if I could only inflate the tires on my mountain bike - maybe with a handy button on the handlebar - and deflate them the same way, my riding would be so much more enjoyable. Once I saw it, I couldn’t imagine not having a system like that. So I started doing some internet research to see if the idea existed. It didn’t, although there was a product from the US that inflated the tires with a sort of exo-skeleton concept, but only until the on-board co2 lasted. My idea was to have the tire inflate endlessly via a pump in the hub. That was totally new.”
