Build your own wheel hubs with hand tools

[Dan_]

Article attached.

[scottiniowa]

I would like to know how many people have tried this as well as how many were successful at it.  

His illustrations are certainly good, truly for those with more time than money.. (if it turns out good) 

Now for the Zombie site- clearly a vast offering of plans. Good on him.

[Dan_]

I would like to know how many people have tried this as well as how many were successful at it.  

Scott,
Let us know how yours turn out...

[Steve]

A guy up in Oregon did an Ultravair conversion with a welder, drill-press, grinder and cutoff saw... He put it on his second Ultracruiser build... There are photos on the UV Yahoo group... A residential home builder by trade...

[stevejahr]

He has an entire forum of bike hackers many of whom have done this successfully.  Note one of the big benefits to doing this is the ability to make a broader hub for better lateral strength (what you need for side loads).  That was his original inspiration for making hubs this way.  He put them on the rear of a delta trike where they carry most of the weight and side loading.

He used to sell machined disks all cut and drilled for use in your own hubs.

[Dan_]

He put them on the rear of a delta trike where they carry most of the weight and side loading.

Width for side loading is true, and a consideration for us.  

However bike wheels handle a lot of side load as designed, and if you plan to land your tail dragger like you are supposed to,  (lined up) side load is not going to be much of a problem...

We have had the plastic wheels survive a forced landing with side loads that collapsed the landing gear.  

Weight is distributed better by more spokes, and a cross 3 or cross 4 pattern.  

The weight of the vehicle is seen as tension in the spokes and hangs from the top of a wire spoke wheel.  

The more spokes that can share and spread that weight the better, and a somewhat wider hub is icing on the cake....

[scottiniowa]

Scott,
Let us know how yours turn out...

Smiling Dan! Well, I might build, but I have all the "easy tools" in the machine shop, so would use the lathe, indexer, drill press, CNC beds, everything needed.  ;-)

[ParQld]

I bought 2 Pee wee 50 Rims off ebay for $45 AUD each. not sure I would bother to make my own, but a nice project for someone.

Paul

[stevejahr]

I should have mentioned that most trikes use 20" wheels, much like the LE original design, as they reduce the side loading.  The wider hubs used on Atomic Zombie bike designs often use the bigger 26" mountain bike rims.  The larger diameter/radius makes it more important to increase the hub width.  They also roll over the bumps better than the little 20 inchers.