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The Michelin TRX, (and the related TDX), is a radial tire introduced by the Michelin Group in 1975. It is one of the first volume-produced low-profile tires. Although technologically advanced, and reasonably successful, the tire's requirement for a non-standard rim ultimately condemned it to a relatively short commercial life. It has thus been called the "Betamax of the tire industry." ==Background and development== As passenger car performance increased during the 1970s, the need arose for improved tire capability. One of the possibilities was to reduce sidewall height, low sidewalls being common at the time on crossply racing tires, but not usual for the better-performing radial tire.〔Pirelli 1975 Pirelli created a wide tyre with a reduced sidewall height like a slick, but with a radial structure.〕 The problem was that reducing sidewall height compromised tire comfort, in part due to the roadwheel rim profile used. Michelin therefore decided to introduce the world's first tire and roadwheel system, where the two were designed together.〔For the first time, the tyre and its rim complemented one another perfectly, working as a single unit. The rim underwent a fundamental transformation, the essential characteristic of which was a flatter, lower flange. This new design of the rim and tyre bead resulted in a gradual curvature of the casing, without the "5" shaped flexing inherent in traditional designs.〕 This would enable both lower sidewall height, (for better roadholding) whilst retaining comfort due to better stress distribution within the tire, enabled by the redesigned wheel rim and tire bead. The "TR" was for "tension répartie", since tire stresses were better balanced in the new design, whilst the "X" was a reference to previous Michelin products such as the famous "X" radial. TRX tires thus require the use of wheels that were specially designed for them; standard tires do not fit TRX wheels and vice versa. To avoid potentially dangerous confusion, Michelin used metric sizes for TRX roadwheels instead of the standard imperial wheel size (normally stated in inches). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Michelin TRX」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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