36 er ?

[ScooterMan101]

I just saw a website for a 36 inch wheeled bike.

It looks very artistic, however with some improvements like ... redesign to lose 4-6 Kg's , Make the Front fork with a little Vertical Flex, and design the rear to be longer with Vertical Flex ( what bike Mgf's call Vertical Compliance )
and even deeper rims like 30mm or so, made from carbon. ( I have heard there are affordable Carbon Rims Available when you know where to look for them, I will look into that later )

A design like this makes me want to get one ( with the above improvements ) and put a rear hub motor on it.

Think of the possibility of getting more speed, with lighter weight and less wattage hub rear motors , with such 36 inch size tires !

With a bike like this , weighing in at around 12 to 15 kg , before the electronics, it would be possible to get speeds we want from 1.5 kg or even 1 kg . 200-400 watt motors ?

Can't wait until a less artsy version , with the above improvements, more reasonable cost, is available .

http://www.truebikes.eu/

 

[amberwolf]

You still need the same wattage to maintain a certain speed, from air resistance.

You may need *more* power to get up to speed from a stop with the larger diameter wheel (this is why small diameter wheels get used to get more torque on startup).

 

[Lurkin]

Its a trade off and a relevant argument if your stop starting. For my commute, its usually pretty continuous, which means I want the the bike with less effort to maintain the same speed. A larger wheel requires less force to roll over obstacles along the way...

I've ordered a schwalbe marathon mtb tyre, which weighs twice that of other ordinary schwalbe mtb tyres to see if the outer of the wheel could be used as a flywheel. So yes, more energy for the same acceleration from stand still, but greater momentum once moving?

I would be interesting to see how nimble this is. The 29er has a tendency to dive into a corner/understeer at speed in tighter corners.

 

[The fingers]

That small chainring will come in handy for any hill you might have to climb. :wink:

 

[dogman dan]

36" mid drive makes sense to me. 36" hub motor doesn't, for the above stated reasons. To get back to decent hub motor performance, you will need a lower rpm hub motor than normal. If you do that, it will be ok. If you try to make the hub motor smaller, and do with less, I hope you really like pedaling hard. The same gearing will of course be possible to pedal faster. So a 48-14 gear will be capable of going faster with hard pedaling helping the motor.

If you are looking for more speed, then simply apply a motor so big and powerful that nothing matters. And enjoy 1% better efficiency from the wheel, while blowing out 2000w at the motor. Hey,, I saved 2w. Yay.

 

[2old]

Not to mention you need to be at least 6' tall to ride one AFAIK. Waltworks (custom steel frame builder) has been building them for years; think one of the biggest challenges is toe overlap with the front wheel.

 

[Hillhater]

I just saw a website for a 36 inch wheeled bike.

Think of the possibility of getting more speed, with lighter weight and less wattage hub rear motors , with such 36 inch size tires !
.eu/

You would get more speed if you just wore a lycra skin suit instead of that hoodie/ baggies you are normally seen in !

 

[Storapa]

I built a 36er many years ago for fun. I needed to make sure that my owner could ride it as well as me. She's 5' 2" and I'm 6' 1".

As far as the ride was concerned, it was much like a normal bike, but a lot smoother.

 

[dogman dan]

No doubt it rolls nice. But it won't make 200w enough to go 20 mph. A very low recumbent comes closest to doing that, not a taller bike.

 

[Storapa]

It did roll nice, it was a little heavy but the biggest drawback was the number of people who asked the same 4 questions:-

How big are your wheels?
Where did you get them?
How much were they?
Why?

DirtySixer make them commercially now and I'm sure I've seen one with a hub motor in the rear:-

https://dirtysixer.com/

 

[Punx0r]

Any chance of finding a decent suspension fork for a 36" wheel?

 

[Storapa]

I never found one. Dave at Dirtysixer might be able to help.

 

[DavidDirtySixer]

Hi, I had to register here to reply to you guys.
David here, founder of DirtySixer bikes.
We have been testing the erad mid drive with good success. It's not perfect, not the most powerful (I do not need that much power, I pedal)
Fork we have our MTB version using an MRP Groove.
Ask me any question but remember that we design and fabricate for tall riders only.

 

[spinningmagnets]

Its a quirk of the friction-drive design, but...a friction drive moving the tire tread works even better with a larger diameter tire (as far as hill-climbing)...and the drive will run at the same road-speed regardless of the tire diameter.

 

[MadRhino]

Might be fun to ride, sure not a daily commuter. I mean, a commuter bike should be made with readily available components. I too, believe it should be built with a mid drive. A hub would be a hungry power sucker in such a large wheel.

 

[BlackStridaAustria]

...and the drive will run at the same road-speed regardless of the tire diameter.

Thanks for the hint,
according to that it can't be that wrong to combine a truebike and this drive:
http://www.velogical-engineering.com/velogical-velospeeder.en

It was already mentioned here at the forum, after studying the installation manual I'm a little concerned about this:

The lateral runout tolerance (true) of the rear rim can never be greater than 0,5 mm....

Actually I'm a small wheel rider (and rarely builder), used to wheel sizes below 20 inch and I think the above mentioned runout tolerance seems pretty low for a wheel with a diameter of more than 90 cm - could anybody teach me, please?

Btw, regarding the required minimum body height I was told by Robert, the very friendly founder, that it is recommendable to be at least 165 cm (5 foot 5 inches) tall.
The winterly dressed lady, riding a bright red one at the first pic of their web page is in fact 175 cm (5' 9").
http://truebikes.eu/images/bg-01.jpg

 

[amberwolf]

The lateral runout tolerance (true) of the rear rim can never be greater than 0,5 mm....

Actually I'm a small wheel rider (and rarely builder), used to wheel sizes below 20 inch and I think the above mentioned runout tolerance seems pretty low for a wheel with a diameter of more than 90 cm - could anybody teach me, please?

THere's no reason a well-built wheel with the right spokes for it's hub and rim couldn't hold that kind of true, unless you're beating it up offroad or against curbs, etc., AFAIK.

 

[Chalo]

A 36 inch wheeled bike can be appealing in any number of ways, but there are very few foreseeable conditions under which it would be faster than a bike with more conventional sized wheels. On streets and groomed trails, such a bike would be, if anything, slower than a 26" or 29"wheeled bike.

I still want one. Many years ago, I tried to convince a manufacturer to make a decent quality aluminum rim to fit the 36" Coker tire, just so we could build better than novelty quality bikes with them. Not too long after that, I saw Unicycle.com had done it (sourced better rims and tires). My calculation of the parts-only cost for a pair of wheels at that time was $600, not including shipping. And not including the commercially unavailable frame and fork I would have needed to use such wheels.

 

[BlackStridaAustria]

@amberwolf
I see - thank you very much!

@Chalo
Not sure if you saw this page:
http://www.36er.bike/collections/36er-truebikes

 

[Hillhater]

Its a gimmick !..like the "Tall" bikes, and to most folk "fat" bikes also
No realistic or practical reason to use such a wheel size other than to be different and try to gain a nich market !
There are plenty of ways to spend or waste money on other bike stuff, without the need to go to these rediculous extremes.

 

[mountain biker]

Holy cow,..very cool. What is gear ratio...how fast is 100 rpm at wheel. How do u get on it? Crane?trampoline?

 

[The fingers]

Could put a 36" on the front of a chopper, with a 20" fat tire hubmotor on the rear just for looks. Might not handle too well. :?

 

[Storapa]

The great thing about owning a 36er was that it made everybody smile.

Everybody wanted to have a go, from young kids to old ladies.

Anything that excites people about cycling is a good thing.

To me, there was little difference to riding the 36er over a normal bike other than the ride was very smooth.

I built my wheel using unicycle parts. They came together easily enough and stayed nice and true. They won't fit on a normal wheel building jig though.

 

[Hillhater]

The great thing about owning a 36er was that it made everybody smile.....

Ummm ? .....Clown bikes do that too,...Tall bikes, oval wheels, reverse steering, reverse pedals etc....
None of then really practical.

...To me, there was little difference to riding the 36er over a normal bike other than the ride was very smooth.
.

Any bike can be made "smooth" .... depends on the choice of tyres, pressure, suspension ,etc etc.