Urethane to License Bicycle Tire Technology to Taiwanese Firm

An Irvine company has agreed to license its technology for an airless polyurethane bicycle tire to a Taiwanese company, which intends to market the product in China.

Urethane Technologies Inc. did not disclose the terms of the licensing agreement with Fore Better International Development Co. of Taiwan, a real estate development company with apparel manufacturing operations in China. It did say that Fore Better will be able to buy as much as $2 million worth of Urethane’s common stock as part of a new offering of 1 million shares.

Urethane now has 6 million shares outstanding. Company officials said that Fore Better would not be able to gain a controlling interest in Urethane through the stock purchase.

Urethane’s bicycle tire weighs and performs about the same as a pneumatic model but can never go flat. It is made of a foam that is tough and resilient but lightweight because of its tiny air pockets.

T.R. (Roy) McClellan, president of Urethane, said the deal “is part of the company’s strategy of licensing this technology throughout China and the Asian market, which constitutes the world’s largest bicycle tire market.”