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How about plastic wheels?

Plastic wheels roll closer to production (http://www.autoblog.com/2007/06/22/plastic-wheels-roll-closer-to-production/)
These wheels, for instance, are made of plastic. To be specific, the material is glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) and it one day may replace alloy, aluminum and, for the lucky few, carbon fiber...
http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2007/06/plastic_wheel_main.jpg

I likes! Not only should they be much lighter, but they should also be a lot cheaper than today's billet wheels as they can be injection molded.

Cool! If the strength to weight ratio proves good, maybe we'll see them for bikes too. Although I won't use them for commuting -- you need metal to trigger the stoplight sensors.

The only problem left to be solved with these wheels is bead retention. They dont do worth a flip when curbed or when dropped in a pot hole. My grandfather worked for years with his skills in plastic mold injection and force fiber injection/poylmer. he was working back in the 1950's to make these wheels useable on the then current sprit cars and Indy class roadsters with FI cars also. Some testing was done later on Can-am cars.

Trust me,,, its the bead.....

psy