Custom aluminum welded wheel

[iamsofunny]

I keep breaking my spokes
So I spent today cutting and welding to alleviate this problem.
Sincerely
iamsofunny

 

[ohzee]

man that is impressive - so she nice and true ? I tell ya sure would love some wheels like that.
Wish they made more then the 20" MP in the cast rim or whatever it is.

Great looking work

 

[iamsofunny]

Yea I wish golden motor made a cast 24 and 26 model too
It's true enough for me. I could have made it a little better, but I've never been picky about the wheel alignment.

 

[neptronix]

That's kinda badass. Hope it holds together for you.

 

[biohazardman]

Nice job that looks great! I have not done allot of welding but did try aluminum once. It likes to melt into a pool real fast. Usually just a couple seconds before you are ready.

 

[amberwolf]

That looks nice--I need wheels like that on CrazyBike2 for cargo use!

I *could* weld up a steel rim that way, I suppose. But I suspect that without rear suspension I would just break or flat the rim itself, in between the new larger "spokes".

 

[iamsofunny]

Tomorrow I'm going dh riding with this wheel
I'll let you know if the rim is still a circle.

-iamsofunny

 

[Hyena]

Wow that's... keen!
The first thought is that it'd be a nightmare to get true but I guess with minimal tension on the rim itself you haven't really got any forces working against you. Assuming it was dead round to start with and the heat of welding it didn't warp it too much. I've ridden some pretty wobbly rear wheels with missing spokes and once you're up and moving you tend not to notice it too, especially with disc brakes, so you'll probably be right.

The rest of the bike looks home made / cut and shut too is it ?

 

[iamsofunny]

Yea I made the whole bike from aluminum tubing and some scraps of plate
I'm going to make another one when my shock arrives from yasusu

 

[iamsofunny]

I did a couple runs down the trail
It is still in one piece

 

[bzhwindtalker]

haha I love this kind of stuff, good work man!

 

[NeilP]

Show off. you just want to show you can make a nice job of ally welding..so jealous

 

[Ypedal]

now that is cool !!!. . i hope she holds up ! 8)

I'm not too worried about the aluminum bars, but the rim itself between the segments seem like the weakest link at this point.. but that is indeed well done !

 

[iamsofunny]

I took a photo of the best weld to show off, yes. You're lucky I didn't pose doing a good bicep flex
The motor is the weakest point. Although steel, it only sticks up about 3/8". I wish it stuck up about 3/4".
I weigh 136lb. If I was 200 I would have 10 spokes. It feels really solid anyway.
If you grab the wheel and yank on it it doesn't flex. The spoked wheel flexed like a floppy salmon. I literally broke 5 spokes last week and for some reason the wheel was not possible to true ??? wtf ??? it would just be kind of warped despite the rim not being warped... I dunno man... So I said "goodbye spokes". I tend to dream up a crazy idea, start cutting, then hope it works, rather than do drawings and such.

1 hour removing spokes
2 hours thinking of how to connect motor to rim, fiberglass... or... aluminum... hm..... aluminum definitely!
5 hours cutting, fiddling around and welding, fitting etc.

 

[SamTexas]

I hope it's true enough for you. I have a three 24" "Mag" wheels on my tricycle and I hate them. They are not true and they cannot be trued.

 

[iamsofunny]

I just guessed with the alignment on mine with a caliper. I would make a stick on the axle nut and spin it to get it perfectly vertical true next time before welding. ... therefore they are out 1/8" vertical and 1/16" leftright. I could do a better job but I wanted an instant solution to get riding right away. I have extra rims anyway. It rides smooth enough. I do trails mostly anyway so whatever :wink:

 

[Tench]

iamsofunny, you are so funny! thats brilliant, nice welding too, i hope it lasts for you.

 

[liveforphysics]

If the spokes aren't under tension, I think the rim loses much of its ability to distribute stress/load.

You did a very nice job though, and I hope it works great and lasts a long time foe you.

Samtexas- Do a search on putting plastic mag wheels in the oven on warm. Sometimes they just relax and straighten.

 

[waynebergman]

My best guess as to the weakest link in the wheel design and build is right where the spokes are connected (looks like it is a machine screw and nut and washer) to the hub flanges. Good going on the wheel build, hope it works for you. I have always thought the narrow hub flanges spacing and the huge flange diameter of our hub motors make for weak wheels but I am surprised you have had such bad luck with spoke breakage. Are you sure you have had even and correct tension on your spokes. I have always thought even spoke tension was more important than a wheel being perfectly round or perfectly true. The next worst thing is too tight tension for spoke failure. I am no expert but just my feeling from building a dozen or so wheels and maintaining them through the non disc brake years.

Good luck and keep us posted I will be following this thread with interest..............wayne

 

[SamTexas]

Samtexas- Do a search on putting plastic mag wheels in the oven on warm. Sometimes they just relax and straighten.

Thanks for the pointer. I'll look it up.

Mine are not really bad. Just enough for me to know they are not perfectly true. What frustrates me is that there's nothing I can do to make them better. Hopefully this trick will.

 

[iamsofunny]

I have a front GM 901 which I go mtb with sometimes and had no spoke problems so far.
The magic pie I ride way harder and faster on much more aggressive trails. These motors are meant for riding to work not so much jumping off logs and ripping down rooted, twisty and rocky trials.
But even when I true the wheel and have good spoke tension they come loose with all the corner chattering.
The new welded wheel takes out all the chatter on the powerslide corners. Now it just carves like a normal mtb wheel.

I'm going away for a month so I won't be posting updates until I get back
But I dare someone else to replicate and improve on this to satisfy the forum's curiosity

 

[Timma2500]

Nice work iamsofunny!

Paint it all black and from a distance it'll look like one of those expensive carbon fibre wheels! :wink:


Paul

 

[iamsofunny]

The unsupported segments of the rim were starting to bend so I added some ugly, horribly welded reinforcement. It was a mess trying to puddle that weld together. But it's stuck on there and not going to break.
This bike is now my offroad thrashing machine. Next bike I'll move the bottom bracket down an inch, move the rear wheel forward 1/2 inch.