Tadpole trike front wheels

[Leav]

Hey everyone, I'm building a SWB RWD tadpole Trike and i'm just about where i need to get some front
wheels. I was wondering, do i need any special wheels, or can i just use some standerd bike wheels?

if your intrested, I have a website set up at http://leavtrike.port5.com and i update it just about
every time I get some work done.

i'd really like to hear some opinions about my design so far....

Thanks,
Leav

 

[Jeff Wills]

[email protected] (Leav) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> Hey everyone, I'm building a SWB RWD tadpole Trike and i'm just about where i need to get some
> front wheels. I was wondering, do i need any special wheels, or can i just use some standerd
> bike wheels?
>

Hiya-

No, you can't use standard front bike wheels- usually you will want to have front hub brakes and you
*need* large front axles so they can be supported on one side. Your best bet is to have a pair of
20" wheels built on "downhill" mountain bike hubs that use 20mm diameter axles and disk brakes.

The smallest axle you should use is 12mm diameter- and then only if you use straight (unthreaded)
axles and cartridge bearings. Many years ago I built trikes that used moped hubs laced to bicycle
rims: http://www.pacifier.com/~jwills/Gallery/index.html The axles were 12mm diameter, but threaded
along their entire length. They broke pretty quickly.

Jeff