Wheels Spoke breakage

[ocscully]

Oscully, I have a question for you to ponder, (About a dished wheel) could you have the same spoke tension on both sides of the wheel if one of the Hub flanges was larger in Diameter, ALL spokes being the same length and the larger flange on one side of the hub making up the distance ?
Personally I think that Hub manufacturers should just extend one side of the hub out, leave the wheel on center of the flanges and design around the problem of needing a weak Offset wheel, or, make one of the Hub flanges larger in diameter, we see it all the time on motorcycles.....
I have a Lathe, lets design a prototype Hub ! ! ! ! dishless of course ! let me know what ya think, I'd like your input ! ! !

WheelMaster,

The short answer to your question is no. Larger flange dia. usually improves the spoke bracing angles which usually contribute to higher lateral and torsional wheel stiffness, but does not balance out the spoke tension. The Hi-Lo concept for rear bicycle hubs has been around for a long time. Hi-E http://derbyking.com/Detail/?n=29 and Phil Wood http://www.philwood.com
come to mind when you start talking about Hi-Lo Rear Hubs Phil Woods most extreme example of this is their Tandem Disc Rear Cassette Hub. Besides the flange dia. difference note that it is also 145mm wide and can be had out to 160mm wide. If you go to the Phil site and click on their Tech tab they list the dimensions for all there current hubs. Hi-Lo does contribute to a stronger/better wheel but not to the extent that a true dishless hub does (center of hub to flange being equal both sides)

You are correct in your statment that extending the left side of the rear hub axle is the easyiest way to equalizing the center to flange measurement on any rear hub.

As to your prototype hub I'll be glade to help with any questions you might have.

ocscully

 

[Irish John]

Breaking Spokes

I'm on my second rim now. I just got this new rear rim about 2 weeks ago and broke the first two the other day. The spokes always break on the left side, the side the motor is on. I have a Staton Robin Subura friction drive. I was told by the local bike shop larger spokes are not an option, they are not available. Has anyone else had this situation? In 2400 miles on bike and motor, I have broken around 12-15 spokes.

I hada new bike where the spokes just went pop and broke in mid shaft. It was well documented in the English speaking cycle mags. There were whole batches of spokes that came out of China with seriously flawed steel. I got my wheel respoked for free because the problem was so publicised. That was on the front wheel. I've not had a spoke problem with my rear wheel but I replace all 9 nuts & bolts on the rear sprocket wheel with Australian steel ones and then I tighten them very very tight. The chinese threads strip under hard pressure and hence are quite useless. The good Chinese steel goes to the meat cleaver factory and any left over from there goes to make bayonets!

 

[stude13]

you can strengthen your spokes by tying with wire where the spokes cross

 

[HoughMade]

I spent $82, including shipping, for 26x2.125 heavy duty chromed wheels with 11ga spokes from Husky. For a bike that is a one-speed w/ a coaster brake (quality Shimano coaster brake included), this is a great setup. True and smooth- very strong.

 

[Roy Carpenter]

Well, it's January of '11, (three years later), and the original spokes from "The Wheelmaster" are all still intact. I've had to straighten that old Sun Ryno Lite rim a couple times, and my hub is almost shot, but those ten guage spokes are invincable!