Motorcycle rim closest to 26" bicycle rim

[Noamsal]

i just wrecked my back wheel today, and want to upgrade to a motorcycle rim, but i don't want to change the overall diameter of the wheel (26" bicycle wheel). i ride off-road with a downhill bike and have a bafang geared 500w motor, and i want to have a rim and tyre in motocross style, any recomandations?

 

[striker54]

See here:
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=55458

 

[Chalo]

i just wrecked my back wheel today, and want to upgrade to a motorcycle rim, but i don't want to change the overall diameter of the wheel (26" bicycle wheel). i ride off-road with a downhill bike and have a bafang geared 500w motor, and i want to have a rim and tyre in motocross style, any recomandations?

Motorcycle rims are pig-heavy and much weaker for their weight than bicycle stuff. They are set up for really thick spokes that don't give you any advantage in the e-bike application, but are much heavier and a nuisance to lace and service.

If you can even fit a moto rim in your bike, consider one of these instead. It's a double-walled, 65mm wide, roughly 1100 gram rim that amounts to twice as much beef as a typical freeride rim. But it is designed to work with normal bicycle spokes and tires, which are are much better than moto parts for any e-bike under about 5hp. And even a 3"+ MTB tire weighs a fraction as much and has a much lower rolling resistance than a moto tire the same size.

You'll be squandering the limited power of your 500W motor by using motorcycle rims and tires designed for at least twenty times as much power. If what you want is a motorcycle, just get a motorcycle (and try not to hurt yourself).

 

[cheekybloke]

a 24" mtb rim and a 20 motorcycle tyre is 26.5" o.d. I have some and they are very nice, 20" tyres are pretty rare as they are for vintage bikes
Darren

 

[John in CR]

i just wrecked my back wheel today, and want to upgrade to a motorcycle rim, but i don't want to change the overall diameter of the wheel (26" bicycle wheel). i ride off-road with a downhill bike and have a bafang geared 500w motor, and i want to have a rim and tyre in motocross style, any recomandations?

Motorcycle rims are pig-heavy and much weaker for their weight than bicycle stuff. They are set up for really thick spokes that don't give you any advantage in the e-bike application, but are much heavier and a nuisance to lace and service.

If you can even fit a moto rim in your bike, consider one of these instead. It's a double-walled, 65mm wide, roughly 1100 gram rim that amounts to twice as much beef as a typical freeride rim. But it is designed to work with normal bicycle spokes and tires, which are are much better than moto parts for any e-bike under about 5hp. And even a 3"+ MTB tire weighs a fraction as much and has a much lower rolling resistance than a moto tire the same size.

You'll be squandering the limited power of your 500W motor by using motorcycle rims and tires designed for at least twenty times as much power. If what you want is a motorcycle, just get a motorcycle (and try not to hurt yourself).

Chalo,

I've been sold on your approach to wheels ever since you helped LFP solve his wheel issues at extreme power. My issue though is tires. I'll dodge the potholes, but I want to feel secure that I don't get a front blowout at 70 or 80mph on the highway as well as handle the side loads of 350lbs going down a curvy mountain descent. Is there a bike tire that will give me confidence on the streets? This is for a mid-drive rig so the tire won't see the impacts of a heavy hubbie in-wheel, and while I normally give little consideration to weight, motorcycle components pile on the weight in a hurry. While it will have motorcycle type power on tap with feet somewhat forward to reduce ride height and wind resistance, I'd still like to aim for something in the no-man's-land between a bicycle and emoto that you as a cyclist purist could sign off on as still being a bicycle at heart without a pedelec power restriction. ie a street machine that I can pedal around a lot to save the small battery capacity for use only to embarrass wise a$$es in their smoke belching machines.

 

[Ch00paKabrA]

I have a M/C rim with a MAC and it works well. The reason I went with a M/C rim was because I wanted a mor enduro type of tire and I was running 24" rims. If you want to stay away from the M/C tires because of weight the 24 X 3.00 Tire would probably be a good fit.

If I had found some of the tires that I know know about, I would just have stuck with the 24" rims.

For City riding, there are countless tires available. My preference is the Electra Fatti-o 24 x 3.00

For full on DH, you have 2 choices - the Halo Contra and the Duro wildlife - leopard. Both are 24 X 3.00. They are the same tire but the Contra is $20 cheaper. http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/us/en/halo-contra-24in-tyre/rp-prod12381

The tires that tip the scales for me though, I just found recently, and they are more of a hybrid. They are modeled after a 70's style dirtbike tire before there were those deep knobbies. Those are the Felt Berm Master 24 x 3.00. http://www.felt-stuff.com/parts/cruiser/felt-cruiser-tire-berm-master-black.html

If I had it to do all over again, I would not do the M/C tires. They are just really heavy.

The only other thing I would mention is if you do decide to go the 24 x 3.00 route, get the Electra Fatti-o tubes. They are twice as thick as regular bicycle tubes. They are actually more like motorcycle tubes. My LBS sold me a 24x 2.75 and said it would stretch and it did; then it blew when I hit the first hard pot hole. The Electra tubes are just that much better. When my M/C tires wear out, I will go back to 24 x 3.00 tires.

Good luck to you no matter what you decide.

 

[Chalo]

My issue though is tires. I'll dodge the potholes, but I want to feel secure that I don't get a front blowout at 70 or 80mph on the highway as well as handle the side loads of 350lbs going down a curvy mountain descent. Is there a bike tire that will give me confidence on the streets?

Sorry I missed this before. The key to what you're talking about is air volume. So all else equal, a bigger tire is better, as long as it fits appropriately on its rim. The caveat to that is fatbike tires are early in their development, so they're crude compared to say MTB tires.

While on one hand, no bicycle tire is built for the speeds you're talking about, on the other hand the forces acting on a 15 lb. motorcycle tire at 80mph are vastly higher than those acting on a 2-3 lb. bicycle tire at the same speed. A lot of the differences in construction are there to keep the tire from pulling itself apart with its own mass.

If I were going to try the kind of riding you describe with a bicycle tire, I'd start with a high quality 2-ply tire like the slick Maxxis Hookworm 26 x 2.5" or knobby Maxxis Minion 26 x 2.5" built on the same casing. But let me be clear: 70mph and higher speeds probably should not be undertaken on any bicycle. The tires are probably not the weakest link in terms of safety.

Driving too fast on rickety lightweight motorcycles is definitely not going to be the transportation revolution that saves the world, most especially in cities where point-to-point speeds range from 10 to 20mph. If you can go slightly faster than your average speed, you're really not giving up much in transit time, but you reap big benefits in safety, quiet running, pleasurable trips, and efficiency. I'm pretty sure most car drivers would not want to go so fast if they had to do it in open top cars without windshields. The cars have desensitized them to the folly of what they do.