The designer of reTyre -Paul Magne Amundsen - had the idea after noticing that, although most students rode bikes, very few of them had winter tyres – crucial for safety in the icy conditions of a Norwegian winter. Amundsen and colleagues designed a modular tyre, made up of a base tyre and different ‘skins’ which could be zipped on and off to suit different weather conditions.“We realised that we needed to make some kind of studded winter surface that mimics a tyre, looks like a tyre, but is easy to take on and off. When you want to attach a new skin to the tyre, you slip on your?surface layer, and that surface sits very snugly on the tyre, so you have the performance that you’d expect from a normal tyre."Not only does reTyre’s system make it easy to change treads depending on the weather, it also makes it easier to replace a worn tyre without going to the shop. The hope is that making it easier (and cheaper) to switch tyres could also increase the number of people who choose to cycle.

One thing is certain, in order to meet ambitious climate goals, there need to be far fewer trips taken by car. According to research by the UN Environmental Programme, switching from a car to a bicycle saves?150 grammes of carbon dioxide per kilometre. But with the resurgence in cycling, there is also a new focus on safety. For this purpose reTyre has developed a modular tyre system that allows users to simply zip different types of treads on and off – allowing easy and rapid adjustment to different conditions.

Cycling just one day a week can reduce an individual’s carbon footprint by about?half a tonne of CO2?over a year. Cycling also reduces pollution, saves money over driving and brings health benefits to the cyclist. Innovations like these that make cycling easier are not only good news for individual companies, but also for the planet and for the health of individuals.