Hey folks, I’m looking at adapting go-kart rims to custom hubs that (hopefully) can just bolt right up to 12mm axles. Looking at bearings, I’m thinking if I’m going that far, might as well go for what they use in spindles and vehicles; either tapered rollers or angular contact bearings at the least, in order to handle side-loading better. Tapered rollers seem like the hardest option as you have to incorporate seals and lubrication into the spindle/hub body. Angular contact bearings are cheaper at the small sizes, however I’m unsure of how well they will hold up. Anyone looked into these for esk8 applications yet? I know you can get double-row sealed AC bearings in common sizes that would work, just wondering what makes the most sense.
1 Like
What are your goals?
Are you optimizing for longevity, range, freeroll, durability, ingress/weather resistance, cost, speed of manufacture, ease of repair, or resistance to parts shortages?
If I go this route I’ll be making sealed hubs that I bolt my rims to similar to a car spindle; I am going to go out on a limb and assume tapered rollers have the most rolling resistance, so for the short-term I’ll probably look at a pair of angular-contact bearings with one seal and one cap. Likely a 1/3-1/2 oil fill for lubrication.
What are your goals?
Bolt-on wheels to sealed spindles mainly; adjustability for wear would be a bonus.
1 Like
The solution I saw was buying these SRB hub adapters and then making adapter plates for the go-kart rim.
like @Fosterqc mentioned, 3ds uses tapered roller bearings in a system very similar to what you are describing. Also, i believe Kaly uses double row AC ball bearings in all/most of their wheels.
1 Like
This is really neat! I love the idea, however their bearing spec isn’t quite right; looking at these hubs however, I see how simple they are to make, so I may have to build my own if I don’t find a lower-effort solution.
you can swap on 12mm id bearings if you did not realize.
What would you rather? is it application specific?
Making your own bearing hubs like that would be ideal if you wanted to add the bolt pattern of some common Go Kart hub.
1 Like
I’m starting with readymade scooter rims with 6-bolt brake rotor mounts; gonna pull the bearings out of one and see what I can do with it; would need to be made narrower for the spindle and then re-bored for the bearing seat, then through-drilled for the brake rotor bolt holes so I can attach to corresponding threads on the wheel plates for my gear drive. That said, I reeeeeally like the idea of bolt-on rims with a permanently-mounted hub. It’s just for the sizes I’m looking for, the tires and rims are like onewheel width and I really don’t need tires that wide; they’d look cool, but I doubt they’d give any advantages in riding
1 Like