Wooden rimmed Reliance

[Gtpulse]

Maybe a little off topic for road but have seen a few threads for similar bikes recently. In a traditional auction with some other early bikes including a Dursley. This one looks like a really nice bike but needs a front wheel https://www.easyliveauction.com/cat...ge-and-classic-motorcycles-projects-lot-117a/

 

[KermitGKona88]

We need a British @Nabeaquam to step upto the plate...

 

[M_Chavez]

Does anyone have a link to a manual on how to build wooden rims?

I'm a reasonably skilled woodworker.

I'm more concerned about tensioning the spokes in a wooden rim. Much smaller margin for over tensioning compared to alloy.

 

[hookooekoo]

I'm more concerned about tensioning the spokes in a wooden rim. Much smaller margin for over tensioning compared to alloy.

I'm guessing it doesn't work very well without some kind of metal insert to spread the load at the spoke nipple. What if metal spokes were not used, and a wooden tri-spoke design was employed?

I've no idea how the tyre bead to rim interface works. Would it be possible to use a router to create the hook on a wooden rim?

 

[M_Chavez]

I imagine the whole thing is laminated, so might be possible to create the hook through different laminate layers, then tidy up with the router.
Will it be strong enough to hold the tyre - that is the question.

I reckon that the wood will flex like crazy, move out of true with changes in humidity, be very difficult to tension and the solution with fake wood rims recently published on this forum is much more practical.

 

[hookooekoo]

I imagine the whole thing is laminated, so might be possible to create the hook through different laminate layers, then tidy up with the router.
Will it be strong enough to hold the tyre - that is the question.

Perhaps you could remove the kevlar beading from some tyres, then use epoxy to bond that to the wooden rim and use it as the hook? Probably tack the kevlar beading in place using cyanoacrylate (super glue) first, then paint over with epoxy afterwards to make it really strong.

I reckon that the wood will flex like crazy, move out of true with changes in humidity, be very difficult to tension and the solution with fake wood rims recently published on this forum is much more practical.

Since disc brakes became common, does a wheel have to be perfectly true all the time? If a disc hub could be modified to fit into a wooden tri-spoke or quad-spoke then it might work quite well. As for materials, how about bamboo?

 

[KermitGKona88]

They used to make curved washers for spoke nipples I suppose they were meant to be used on wooden rims.

 

[M_Chavez]

I've had a wee think about it.
Wood is unstable. It is particularly unstable when the humidity or temperature changes.
Wooden rims will be constantly exposed to wet weather and heat build up from pads... All while running very low tension spokes. Not good.

I wouldn't run disks on a road bike with any rims. But combining wood with disks is quite weird.

I am tempted to get an alloy deep wall rim, mask the braking tracks, epoxy some base layer onto the alloy and then laminate some wood (any wood!) on top of it. Might do it when the days get shorter and the nights get colder.

 

[Gtpulse]

I've had a wee think about it.
Wood is unstable. It is particularly unstable when the humidity or temperature changes.
Wooden rims will be constantly exposed to wet weather and heat build up from pads... All while running very low tension spokes. Not good.

I wouldn't run disks on a road bike with any rims. But combining wood with disks is quite weird.

I am tempted to get an alloy deep wall rim, mask the braking tracks, epoxy some base layer onto the alloy and then laminate some wood (any wood!) on top of it. Might do it when the days get shorter and the nights get colder.

Pretty sure @Nabeaquam has done a thread on exactly this.

The wooden rims I’ve seen are made up of lots of curved sections laminated and jointed with kind of sawtooth type joints if there’s such a thing - like engineered wood. Doing this gets around the issue of wood stability - I’ve seen wooden windows made this way for the same reason.

 

[M_Chavez]

@Gtpulse
Even laminated rim will drift and will be very weak to begin with. Should be reasonably straightforward to make (at least for tubs), but building it into a reasonably maintainable wheel - probably not.

I've seen Nabeaquam's thread. Very inspiring. I would like to try taking it further and laminating wood over the base layer instead of staining it.