NO FLEX Hybrid mag wheels

[LewieBike]

I just wanted to follow this up with some observations since I've built a lot of wheels in my time as a bike tech.

Where Jayraye drilled the spoke "j" ends isn't going to appreciably strengthen or stiffen the wheel. This is a fact based on what makes most bike and motorcycle wheels strong in the first place is lacing and the triangulation of the width across the hub flanges. Going with heavier gauge spokes in this case will not help much.

Have any of you who have played around with bike wheels noted where the spoke's J ends anchor?, Well it's close to the outside of the hub width at the Hub/spoke flange, which is true for most wheels, (Derailleur rear wheel hubs are a slight exception here...) and generally they work in two pairs from opposing directions side to side and also axially. The more spokes and the heavier gauge does help with strength But in Jay's wheel the spokes are anchored quite close to the middle of the hub and they are also radially spoked, both of which don't really help the strength of the wheel except for forces pulling away from the hub center outwards. I'm finding that these mag wheels flexing is probably due more to the fact that they were made more as decorative bike bling and less about their actual strength. I would not want to be using these on anything more powerful than a 350 watt E-bike and I would not trust them at any speeds over 20 mph. especially on a heavy unsuspended bicycle.

If Jay is fine with this amount of danger in his life then who am I to judge. I'm just making some observations based on his claims for this wheel.

 

[Jayraye39]

I just wanted to follow this up with some observations since I've built a lot of wheels in my time as a bike tech.

Where Jayraye drilled the spoke "j" ends isn't going to appreciably strengthen or stiffen the wheel. This is a fact based on what makes most bike and motorcycle wheels strong in the first place is lacing and the triangulation of the width across the hub flanges. Going with heavier gauge spokes in this case will not help much.

Have any of you who have played around with bike wheels noted where the spoke's J ends anchor?, Well it's close to the outside of the hub width at the Hub/spoke flange, which is true for most wheels, (Derailleur rear wheel hubs are a slight exception here...) and generally they work in two pairs from opposing directions side to side and also axially. The more spokes and the heavier gauge does help with strength But in Jay's wheel the spokes are anchored quite close to the middle of the hub and they are also radially spoked, both of which don't really help the strength of the wheel except for forces pulling away from the hub center outwards. I'm finding that these mag wheels flexing is probably due more to the fact that they were made more as decorative bike bling and less about their actual strength. I would not want to be using these on anything more powerful than a 350 watt E-bike and I would not trust them at any speeds over 20 mph. especially on a heavy unsuspended bicycle.

If Jay is fine with this amount of danger in his life then who am I to judge. I'm just making some observations based on his claims for this wheel.

Not sure if you read the whole
Thread I was not trying to lace the wheels for strength I laced them to reduce side to side Flex the spokes that I added reduced Flex on these mag wheels by at least 50% they were much stronger and stable with the parallel spokes. but upon doing so and riding them for quite some time. I found that there are more serious failure points to these mag wheels. in this case the bearing being hollowed out of its seating and allowing play of the entire wheel on the axle. I have since toss these rims and I use a 12 gauge 48 spoke 2 inch wide aluminum wheel which seems to be a hell of a lot more stable but by no means was I trying to lace these to be a stronger mag wheel only to reduce side to side Flex. Which was a complete success