Bike Have a Flat? Porcupines to the Rescue!

Porcupines have quills and those quills create punctures that much we know.  A puncture can ruin your best bike ride or take you out of a race seeing that most of us ride sans the team car with a jackrabbit mechanic who springs forth from a poorly-made and overly-bedazzled Slavic hatchback to flip off the flat and provide you with all new rubber.  The porcupine quill is very similar to the hypodermic needle and a group of researchers in Boston are studying the quills of the prickly rodent.

Before we delve deeper, a little background…  Of the 29 rodent species on earth the porcupine is the third largest (cheers to the capybara at number one with the beaver just behind) living mostly in North America with a scattering of “quill pigs” in Southeast Asia and Africa.  In Europe a few can be found in Northern Italy.  They are considered a delicacy in Asian kitchens--the SBT crew will pass. The porcupine’s quills, called spines, are actually a form of hair covered in thick layers of keratin, a structural protein.  The thinnest keratin-based structure is spider silk.   

The quills are serrated like a good knife blade and if you have ever tried to cut a sandwich with a butter knife you will soon reach for the more effected serrated blade.  The researchers have noticed the quills of the porcupine have barbs and act like serrations.  In short, they are much better at creating punctures.  Soon they feel, quill-like hypodermic needles will replace the straight-bladed “sharps,” common in medical practices today.   

The punctures are also helping doctors create better ways to seal wounds and other lacerations.  They are using this “barb technology” in wound closures.  For years wounds have been closed stitch by stitch pulling skin together.  Sometimes staples are used.  Now experiments are being conducted with barbed and serrated-like mesh that will close openings.    

They are calling it “quill tape” and it acts like a side of Velcro allowing some give and flexibility.  

It is not a stretch to see this type of technology filter down to your corner bike shop.  We have all had punctured tires and tubes.  We may someday soon find ourselves along the side of the road with another flat but this time we will pull from our seat bag a form of quill tape and repair the rubber.  The study’s authors claim it is the ten times stronger than the tapes they currently use.

One of the researchers frequently looks to nature for guidance, "We turn to nature, because evolution is the best problem solver," says study leader Jeffery Karp.  So, the next time you have a flat think of the porcupine and thank him for the technology coming soon to a seat bag, bike shop and bike garage near you.

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