Bent wheel and need help

[zakking82]

I have a 26 inch torker lx. Ive been using it for muni. I know i just told you the main problem. I dont have the money to buy a new unicycle, It works for now, till i can save up. The torker uses a 26 inch 48 hole rim. I cant find any rims that will fit with out spending more then what my unicycle is worth. My question is would it be easier and cheaper just to get a new 36 hole hub and rim and if i do could where can i get bearing that will fit my torker. I believe they are 17 x 40 x 12. Any help would be appreciated.

[jtrops]

Use a 32 hole rim. With a 48 hole hub you skip every third hole on each side of the hub, and the wheelbuild is pretty straightforward. A plus is that 32 hole rims are everywhere, and you can get decent ones on the cheap.

Spoke length might be tricky to figure out, but that shouldn't be too bad, and you'll save money not having to buy 16 more.

[zakking82]

Thank you i would have never thought of that. I will give it a try.

[zakking82]

jtrops i did some research into your idea and everything pretty much said that if you did it that way you would have a really weak wheel. I am a bigger rider, i weigh 235 and need a strong wheel.

[aracer]

Originally Posted by zakking82

jtrops i did some research into your idea and everything pretty much said that if you did it that way you would have a really weak wheel. I am a bigger rider, i weigh 235 and need a strong wheel.

Not significantly weaker than a conventional 32 spoke wheel - the question I suppose is whether 32 spokes is enough for you, but then again if you think it's not, 36 is also likely to be dubious and you really need to rebuild with 48.

[jojoxie]

Try the wanted forum on a tandem cycle website. Tandems mostly use 26" and 48 hole rims. They are also often replaced because of the wear from brake pads. Someone might have a used one hanging around. I've got a rim you could have that I recently replaced on my tandem but I'm in Orkney UK.... postage costs

[zakking82]

i am thinking about buying a 36 hole hub off unicycle.com and i have a 36 hole rim that i can pull from a mountain bike i would just have to lace it.

[SalManilla]

How bad of a bend in the rim?

And when you say bend, do you mean it has a side to side wobble? or Is it more of a potato chip bend?

Many rims can be saved with the liberal use of a rubber mallet and a truing stand. We did it all the time at the shop I worked at. A good shop should be able to save you money and true up the wheel rather than sell you a whole new one.

[aracer]

I do also agree with SalManilla about trying to save your current rim though. It's not like you need the wheel to be perfect to clear brake blocks I presume.

[jtrops]

Originally Posted by zakking82

jtrops i did some research into your idea and everything pretty much said that if you did it that way you would have a really weak wheel. I am a bigger rider, i weigh 235 and need a strong wheel.

I'd like to see who is saying you'd have a really weak wheel. That makes no sense. True it won't be as strong as a hand built 48 spoke wheel, but neither is a stock Torker wheel. From everything I've read the spacing of the spokes at the rim is far more critical to overall strength than the spacing at the hub. Even so, look at all of the funky paired spoke wheels that bikes are sporting.

Good luck getting your uni back on the road. Given your weight it is a good idea to upgrade to the UDC CrMo hub from the Torker one.

I have a hub sitting around that I keep thinking of building into a road wheel. If I was ready to part with it I would just send it along. Maybe put a post in the trading post and see if anyone has a square taper hub they are ready to give up.

[zakking82]

I searched the topic of 32 hole rim on a 48 spoke wheel and it brought up a number of forums that just straight said no. With my weight i dont know if it would be reliable.
The rim is slightly "Potato Chip" bent but in one spot it is just a wave about 1/8th of the wheel around and it waves about and 3/4 of an inch back and forth. on top of that in the cent of the wave it has twisted.
I would appreciate it if there was some spare parts that no one needed that they could send me. I may put a post in the trading forum tomorrow.

[jtrops]

Originally Posted by zakking82

I searched the topic of 32 hole rim on a 48 spoke wheel and it brought up a number of forums that just straight said no. With my weight i dont know if it would be reliable.
The rim is slightly "Potato Chip" bent but in one spot it is just a wave about 1/8th of the wheel around and it waves about and 3/4 of an inch back and forth. on top of that in the cent of the wave it has twisted.
I would appreciate it if there was some spare parts that no one needed that they could send me. I may put a post in the trading forum tomorrow.

I just did that google search and came up with threads about building 48 hole rims to 32 hole hubs. That would result in a very weak wheel like I was talking about. The spacing at the rim is far more important. If those are the threads you found I understand completely.

One thing you may consider if the rim isn't actually dented you can unlace it, reform the rim, and rebuild with the same rim. I have done this countless times for various reasons, and you can have a wheel that is as strong as anything. A lot of the time a taco'd wheel is the result of uneven tension, of course a bad landing on a uni can do it to any wheel. If yours was due to poor tensioning rebuilding the same rim could be a real option.

At the shop I worked at for 10 years we had different tools for cold working a rim to get it into shape. Most of the time we would detension, and work the rim without unlacing. On occasion it was just easier to get the hoop free of the wheel before straightening it.

[saskatchewanian]

I can't see any reason why a 48h hub built into a 32h rim would be any weaker than a regular 32h wheel. I have two wheels built that way and haven't had any problems with either.

This is what it looks like at the hub

and obviously it looks normal at the rim.

For spoke lengths just calculate them using numbers for a regular 3x 32 spoke build. I did all the math to calculate it with the slight variance due to the mis-matched wheel but the differences in spoke length are less than half a millimetre. The UK UDC has a good spoke calculator.

You also have some spoke length fudge factor since you can lace it like I did, or if the spokes are a bit too long skip the hole between the first crosses instead.


Oh, I hope you either know how to wheel-build or are willing to learn. most bike shops don't like mixed wheels or unicycle wheels because it is outside the "norm" and they don't necessarily know how to deal with them.

now go find yourself a good cheep downhill rim in 32h drilling.

[zakking82]

Ok thank you guys and Eric what i am worried about is my weight on the wheel i am using it for muni. Im not doing big drops but i am worried about with a 32 hole rim if it will hold up. I dont see why it shouldnt but i want to be sure before i spend money for a nice 32 hole rim. Also i have 36 hole mountain bike rim and i was looking at getting a 36 hole hub to go with it and just swapping bearings. Would this be stronger or about the same as going with the 32 hole rim.

[saskatchewanian]

All else being the same a 36 spoke wheel will be stronger than a 32 spoke wheel. What rim are you thinking of using?

Just curious, if your rim is toast, how is your hub and cranks?

I can't remember but do the LX frames have pressed or machined bearing cap holders?