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Wheels?

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Ed Minas

Wore out three sets of tires already!
I am building a trike sort of and I am ready to purchase wheels. Does anyone have knowledge of the strength of Fat Tire wheel sets vs a standard 2-1/4 wheels.
Worksman cycles has a standard width HD wheel that can accommodate 200 lbs on its own. Thank you in advance.
 
I am building a trike sort of and I am ready to purchase wheels. Does anyone have knowledge of the strength of Fat Tire wheel sets vs a standard 2-1/4 wheels.
Worksman cycles has a standard width HD wheel that can accommodate 200 lbs on its own. Thank you in advance.
Any bicycle wheel can accommodate 200 pounds on it's own. The problem with using a wheel in a tricycle application is the "side load" on the wheel.

You need the stiffest rim possible. Use a wheel with the most spokes possible. We ended up using 48 spoke wheels for our tandem rear wheels. The number of spoke count, is more important than the added thickness of the spokes. The rear wheels on the latest version of the Schwinn Town and Country tribike was the 24 x 1 3/8 S-5 S-6 tubular rim. But it only had 28 spokes, and combined with the narrow rim width it did not take much "kid" abuse.

John
 
Any bicycle wheel can accommodate 200 pounds on it's own. The problem with using a wheel in a tricycle application is the "side load" on the wheel.

You need the stiffest rim possible. Use a wheel with the most spokes possible. We ended up using 48 spoke wheels for our tandem rear wheels. The number of spoke count, is more important than the added thickness of the spokes. The rear wheels on the latest version of the Schwinn Town and Country tribike was the 24 x 1 3/8 S-5 S-6 tubular rim. But it only had 28 spokes, and combined with the narrow rim width it did not take much "kid" abuse.

John
Wow John Thank you for that insight. This is what I am building

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I like your funky project.

I think a 20 by 2.125 bicycle rim will accept a 17" motorcycle tire which is 2 1/2" wide. You might even find something you could use off of a old moped (Peugeot, Motobecane, etc).

John
 
I like your funky project.

I think a 20 by 2.125 bicycle rim will accept a 17" motorcycle tire which is 2 1/2" wide. You might even find something you could use off of a old moped (Peugeot, Motobecane, etc).

John
Once again thank you John. Does speed have an effect on wheel folding? This project will have a max speed of 5 miles an hour.
 
Interesting "rainy day" question. My guess is that the lower the wheel speed, the more damage would be caused by a wheel side load. Just look at how flat the right side of a Road Bike (ten speed) wheel is and they do not have much side load "taco problems". It would be my guess that the road bike's higher wheel speed distributes the side loading to all 36 spokes around the entire wheel.

Many years ago, there was a Sulkey Racing track west of Phoenix, AZ. Our family's bike shop did the wheel repairs for some of the stables. The Sulkey's had the same challenge that we are discussing on your project. The wheels were held at a ninety-degree angle to the ground while they were going around the turn, lots of wheel side loading. The commercially built Sulkeys had a Bendix Sulkey Hub. It was just a wider version of the common Bendix quill heavy duty hub we still see today on bicycles and motorbikes. It was not the Bendix trailer hub, it still used a 3/8" axle and was supported from both sides.

IMO, the larger the spoke angle (to the ground), and the wider the spoke flanges are, the more wheel side load strength. It goes without saying, you need at least 36 spokes, and a strong rim. I still think you could repurpose something from a Moped and save some money.

John
 
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