Gauging interest in a new wheel idea.
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Oh, good lord, don’t get me started!
Finding a vendor to make 5” tires is easy. So long as you’re willing to accept casters, foam, solid, low speed and other unacceptable compromises.
I’ve heard from Haggy that they walked away from a 5” due to the chemicals used to demold the part. It was reportedly a strong skin irritant if memory serves.
My personal experience is struggling to find someone willing to make something acceptable for high speed. A 5” wheel will turn 6-7 times faster than a bike wheel and heat build up is a concern…as is wear.
High speed is relative as we had to drop our expectations to “bursts of 30mph” but the jury is still out.
Indeed that’s what’s been the big hurdle is getting the test fixture made to validate the durability, reliability and speed rating on the tire. Despite having paid for the mold a year ago, the test fixture reportedly wasn’t finished until last week. Really frustrating since I offered to pay for or even make the fixture to speed things along.
Someone mentioned airless in the thread above. There are definite benefits to that direction but it also renders the tire changes really difficult, probably requiring some sort of mechanical help to the the tire off and on the rim. By allowing the outer side of the rim to screw off, changing tires becomes very easy, even if you’re out for a ride. But the break between the inner and outer rim make tubeless not an option.
That said, I have another solution path I’m pursuing.
Anyway, I’m SUPPOSED to have a batch of 20 coming this week for validation to pull the trigger on production. Fingers crossed.
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5x1.5” tubed. Aluminum rims made in Oregon. Pics on our Instagram.
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Gang -
As it stands, we’re working towards a purchase of 100 sets made up of 5" pneumatic tires and tubes, aluminum rims and wheel pulley (CNCed in Oregon), bearings, belts and free shipping. Targeting $349, which is higher than we’d hoped but basically at cost due to NRE and molds. But, with enough interest, we can consider upping the order and possibly getting costs down a little. To that end, I’d like to get a read via the poll below on who is definitely in and who is considering purchasing. We don’t take peoples money until we have product in hand so this is not a gofundme ask.
Please resist any urge to grouse about the cost. As stated, we’d love to offer these for less but, simply put, it ain’t a cheap exercise to create and offer 5" unobtainium with US made rims.
Thanks y’all.
- Definitely In!
- Interested but…
0 voters
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The 5” tire rims will have standard 22mm bearing seats. The 7” tire UAV rims will have 28mm. That said, you could always machine your own rims with the larger seat and just purchase the tires and tubes.
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Damn, I tried to keep the voting as open as possible. I will attempt to modify. Thanks for the heads up.
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I don’t understand how you could design a rim to accept both 22 and 28mm bearings and still fit the same axle. Open to ideas.
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- Definitely In.
- Considering But…
0 voters
what wheel pulley sizes are you going for?
possibility of the hub to be mounted on a kegel pulley?
wheel pulley is 48T
no, the rim will only fit our pulley (or one machined to fit our rim).
the pulley mount pattern won’t be one of the existing ones?
no, its an aluminum rim, not a plastic core. check out our instagram for images.
What kind of pulleys are they? Bolt On or bearing style?
Bolt because we need them retrofittable with the current wheel/pulley system.
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Interested but…
These are so unubtanium as you say if this doesn’t go so well if we buy were kinda stuck with x4–1 off expnsive wheels.
A lot of folks stuck with boosted stuff now too, right?! Yeah, there’s always a risk.
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Different. As you can mod most of that stuff to work with other parts, been around pretty long, blah blah. When your wheels wear down your left with shiny hub paper weights.
If i could buy some extra set of that fancy rubber your getting made then id be intrigued.
I expect those parts were not created with mods in mind. This creative bunch will find a way to do something completely unintended with every part, I expect.
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I am very interested, I just think it’s too expensive and the pulley too big. Somewhere between 249-299$ and an 40t-44T and I would be definitely in.
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