The Health, Science & Technology Podcast Episode 1: Priority's Belt Drive Bicycles and the Tannus Airless Tire

Executive Summary

A few weeks ago, I started cycling on my road bike to regain the level of physical fitness that I had when I joined the United States Navy many decades ago. My body is the instrument that will execute my dreams, so it's imperative that I maintain it in peak condition. I chose the bicycle because it's an exercise that you can do well into your 90s and beyond, and it causes very little wear and tear on your joints, and other body parts, as long as you shift gears correctly, and maintain your bike in optimal condition.

I have two primary goals: to become a saxophone virtuoso, and for my small IT business to be a success. I know that if I maintain a high level of physical fitness, the probability of me achieving these goals increases. In this inaugural episode of the Health, Science, and Technology podcast, I'm going to discuss my research on two amazing tools that I plan on adding to my fitness regimen in the near future: the Priority Belt Drive Bicycle (specifically the Priority 600) fitted with Tannus airless tires on the front and the back.

All bicycles made by Priority feature an engineering marvel: transmissions that use carbon fiber reinforced belts instead of chains. When I purchase a Priority 600 bicycle in the future, I'm going to outfit it with another technological miracle: the Tannus airless tire. This innovative piece of engineering has produced a tire that's impossible to puncture: you can never get a flat tire because the tire is a solid airless mass. In this article and video, I'll share everything that I learned about Priority bicycles and Tannus airless tires.

Keywords: Health, Science, Technology, Cycling, Priority Bicycles, Tannus Airless Tires, Gates Carbon Drive, Fitness, Benjamin Piovesan, Ryan Van Duzer

0. Glossary

• Alfine 11: An integrated internal gear hub located on the back wheel of the Priority Apollo bicycle, which makes installing custom wheels for airless tires difficult.
• BBB Adventures: A YouTube channel featuring a husband and wife duo who documented their cross-country United States cycling journey, dubbed "The Apollo Mission," on Priority Apollo bicycles.
• Benjamin Piovesan: A nonagenarian cyclist from Merlingo, Italy, who rides 400 to 600 kilometers weekly and serves as a major inspiration for lifelong physical and mental fitness.
• Gates Carbon Drive: An innovative bicycle transmission system that replaces traditional metal chains with a carbon fiber reinforced belt. It doesn't require lubrication and lasts roughly three times longer than a standard chain.
• Priority Bicycles: A New York based bicycle manufacturer known for integrating Gates Carbon Drives into their models, including the gravel-focused Apollo and the Priority 600.
• Ryan Van Duzer: A highly positive YouTube content creator known for producing detailed and informative videos about the Priority 600 bicycle.
• Tannus Airless Tires: Puncture-proof bicycle tires constructed from a solid, patented, highly durable rubber compound, completely eliminating the possibility of flat tires.

A. Evidence That Cycling Works for Physical Fitness: Benjamin Piovesan, the 90-Year-Old Cyclist

Benjamin Piovesan is a nonagenarian cycling enthusiast who still cycles 400-600 kilometers (248-372 miles) a week at an age where most people are completely sedentary, if they're lucky enough to still be alive. I watched a very inspirational documentary on Benjamin Piovesan that was produced by his grandson, filmmaker Florent Piovesan. Once you start going down the cycling rabbit hole on YouTube, you'll find many people that will inspire you to make cycling a lifelong passion.

Benjamin Piovesan was born on November 16th, 1933 in a small northern Italian village known as Merlingo (Reference [A]). He didn't start cycling until he was near the age of retirement. His son, Patrick, an avid competitive cyclist, was the one who encouraged him to take up cycling, and it soon became Benjamin's all-consuming passion. He joined a bicycle club during the 1990s, and for the next several decades, cycling became his number one mental and physical activity.

What I learned from Benjamin's amazing story: to enjoy cycling, you must physically train your body AND you must mentally train your mind as well. Both disciplines will help you in any endeavor that you decide to undertake. When I force myself to ride my bike every day, whether I feel like doing it or not, I'm also training myself to do the work that I need to do to become a saxophone virtuoso and to run a successful small IT business. Cycling builds the mental and physical stamina to break through the barriers that you need to break through in all areas of your life to achieve your goals.

B. How I Went Down the Priority Bicycles and Tannus Airless Tires Rabbit Hole

At heart, I'm an engineer: I love to solve problems in the most efficient way possible. A couple of years ago, I went to Walmart and I bought an inexpensive Genesis model road bike. Since then, I've kitted it out and I ride it almost every day. The health benefits have been unimaginable: I've lost weight, I feel better, my blood pressure is lower, and I look better. Though my bike is an inexpensive Walmart model, I absolutely love it. I've added LED lights to the front and the back, LED turn signals, and mirrors. Even after I purchase a Priority 600, I'll continue to also ride my beloved Walmart model.

In the few months that I've been riding my Genesis road bike, I've already gotten about 3 flat tires. That got me thinking about the engineering problem of making a bicycle that's more durable and that requires less maintenance. After searching on YouTube, I found several stories about Priority bicycles, and their use of the Gates Belt Drive. Instead of using a chain that has to be periodically oiled, the Gates Drive uses a belt that's reinforced with carbon fibers that have exceptional tensile strength. The belt needs no lubrication, and it can last approximately 3 times as long as a chain. As soon as I found out about Priority's belt-driven bicycles, I knew that I had to one day buy one.

Initially, I fell in love with the Priority Apollo model: a gravel bike that can also be used for road biking in the city. However, I realized that if I bought a Priority Apollo with standard pneumatic tires, I would still have to eventually deal with flat tires, even if I went with more flat-resistant tubeless tires. The physics can't be denied: if you ride on pneumatic tires, you'll eventually get a flat. Enter airless tires from Tannus.

Tannus airless tires are made from a patented highly durable rubber compound and they're designed to be highly resilient. They're tires made of a solid mass: a flat tire is impossible because there's no air inside the tire. If you run over a nail and it becomes stuck in your Tannus tire, you simply remove the nail and continue riding. Now I was armed with the two pieces of information that I needed to move forward: Priority's highly durable belt drive bicycles and Tannus' highly durable airless tires. Now, I simply had to find a way to marry the two.

As I said earlier, I fell in love with the Priority Apollo as I watched video after video about it on YouTube. The most compelling of these videos were produced by an amazing YouTube channel: BBB Adventures. On May 14, 2022, the husband and wife couple announced on YouTube that they were going to bike across the entire United States, from the West Coast to the East Coast, on their Priority Apollo bicycles. They very appropriately named their journey "The Apollo Mission". Interestingly, the staff at Priority Bicycles loves space themes: they have a bicycle model named the Apollo, and they have another named the Gemini. The Apollo Mission is a highly compelling adventure consisting of 56 videos (Reference [B]). I haven't watched all of them yet, but I will.

As I started watching the BBB Adventures Apollo Mission, I noticed that they kept running into one problem: flat tires. On many occasions, they were down to one set of remaining inner tubes, and they had to make emergency stops to get new tubes. This is when the engineer in me realized that I too would have to deal with the flat tire problem unless I found a solution. Would the Tannus airless tire fit on the Priority Apollo? I went to the Tannus website, and as far as I could tell, Tannus doesn't yet make a tire wide enough for the Apollo's stock wheel. Just changing the wheel isn't an option because the Apollo's back wheel has an integrated internal gear hub known as the Alfine 11. As it currently stands, if I want to run the Apollo with Tannus airless tires, I'd have to have a bike technician build a custom wheel, and then install the Alfine 11 on that custom wheel. I immediately knew that I didn't like that solution: I like simple elegant solutions and that solution was simply too much work.

I called Priority's New York office and they told me how to get in touch with a local bike shop that was a Priority partner. I found one that's only about 20 miles from me and I called them. They confirmed that Tannus does make an airless tire that will fit on another popular Priority model: the Priority 600. I hopped back on YouTube and I watched every video that I could on the Priority 600 and I fell in love... again. The best and most informative videos on the Priority 600 are produced by a gentleman named Ryan Van Duzer (Reference [C]). He's extremely positive and I love his energy. After watching several of his videos on the Priority 600, I was sold.

C. My Plan Moving Forward

I'm going to continue riding and improving my Walmart Genesis bike. It's a fantastic bike and I don't believe that a bike has to be expensive to be good. I'm not a competitive bike racer, and I don't think that I'll ever be a competitive bike racer. I just want to be as physically and mentally fit as possible, and I see bike riding as a form of meditation. As I do more and more rides, I realize that each ride is extremely good for my physical, mental and spiritual health.

For the next several months, I'm going to save up money to buy my Priority 600. The local bike shop that I found said that they can install the Tannus airless tires on the Priority 600 with no problems at all. They'll also be able to do all of the routine maintenance that the Priority 600 will require. Thank you so much for reading/watching this article/video!

References

• [A]. The 90 Year Old Cyclist | A Short Documentary (shot on the BMPCC 6K Pro). Retrieved May 14, 2026 from here.
• [B]. BBB Adventures Apollo Mission (56 YouTube videos). Retrieved May 14, 2026 from here.
• [C]. Ryan Van Duzer's YouTube channel. Retrieved May 14, 2026 from here.

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