NuVinci lowers fuel consuption & lacing the hub.

H

Hardcarve1

Guest
Hi
Have ridden my Staton gear box drive with Honda 35cc & NuVinci hub for 500+ k's now with a few trips to work. When I use to run with a 16:18 sproket ration I would get to work and just under have way back home (40k's) on a tank of gas. I played around with ratios but always need to fill up on the way home.
Now I can do the full trip 55k on a tank, I run the honda at a much lower rev range than before and use the torque to maintain a nice cruse speed of about 40kM/h. It has taken a little time to get used to the required ratios to suit the motor as their is way more reduction and top end than the motor uses.

The other great thing is noise reduction, even though the Honda is relatively quiet I like to respect others on bike ways who are out enjoying the ride and not pass them with the engine screaming its bolts off. Thats when I go to the tallest setting on the NuVinci and push on the pedals to maintaine a modest speed whuile passing them. I used to reduce my motor to an idel befor the hub and pedal around them.

The shop that laced my hub did a 3X pattern that is falling apart at the nipples due to the kink that the spokes make with the rim. What have others done with the lacing pattern 1X or 2X. I have a 26" sun ryhno lite rim and from what the manual says it should only be laced 1X.

Thanks
Alex
 
I had the same problem with the 3x lace pattern from staton. Good thing to hear I'm not horribly abusive to my bike and it's happened to somebody else. Sorry to hear that this will be an issue for so many motoredbikers though. I got my hub re-laced to 2 cross with DT stainless spokes at a bike shop. There are no more kinks in the spokes and I think everything is going to be fine with it now.
I've also used many of the techniques you have while riding the NV hub. It's really nice to keep the engine humming at low RPM while still maintaining a good speed and keeping the noise down but once you want some hard acceleration you just let off the throttle enough to keep the clutch engaged but not push the wheel and you can bump the shifter down a bit and be right back on the gas and pedals.
The staton gearbox and hub does add significant weight to the rear end of the bike and makes it a bit top heavy but overall it's worth the sacrifice to have a system so versatile and bulletproof.
 
spoke "lacing" wheel building 101

The question is not necessarily what pattern you are using but how even the spoke tension is when you build the wheel. I have built four cross wheels that have lasted thousands of miles and I have seen some two cross that have been worthless after a two mile ride. The wheels I am currently using right now are Bontrager rims 26/ 1 with a thirty two hole Shimano hub and a three cross lacing pattern that is also set up it up to use a disk brake to mount the drive cog. I have gone through two motors now and I still have the same wheels.

I have gotten used to building 32 spoke wheels, but I still feel that 36 spoke wheels are actually stronger. I also prefer a four cross lacing pattern because to me I think it's a stronger way to go.The main problem with less than three cross lacing is that it doesn't allow the flex that the wheel needs. If you build too stiff wheel it has a tendency to tear itself apart and it's not a lot of fun to ride on.

Believe it or not I've been building bicycle wheels for over 25 years. I'm not quite as fast as I used to be, but I can usually get one together in about 35 minutes and that's not just laced that's tensioned trued and ready to go..

The main problem I see with motor bicycles is that the drive cog is usually mounted to the hub and the spokes. This is not a decent way to do things. To my way of thinking this adds way too much stress to the spokes that was not intended

mike.
 
Good to know that the NuVinci hub facilitates great gas mileage. I'll be using that on my twin 4.25hp 460 engines. These engines have good mpg figures, so they'll work fine for my setup.
 
Mike, I think the issue with the NV hub and lacing 3x+ is that the hub itself is much larger in diameter than a typical bicycle hub. Because of this the more spokes you cross the more they end up kinking and snapping at the nipples.
I do agree that generally more spoke crossing builds a stronger wheel. In my experience it's just not a good idea with the NuVinci.
 
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