I’m thinking about buliding an ultimate wheel in the near furture, but I’m unsure of some key logistics that may come up. For those of you who know of any problems that may occur while I try and put together one of these things, please, don’t hessitate to email or post. As it stands right now. I’m looking to bulid something like a 29inch wheel. I haven’t decided on how far away from the center the pedals will be, but I’ll make that choice later.
See any problems with my idea already? is 29 too big?
Are you building the type of ultimate wheel with a plywood disc inside the rim?
I have a 28" UW of that type. I find it a little too heavy, but otherwise ok.
UWs are pretty easy to make.
I’d say 29 should be fine. Large wheels ride much nicer than small ones. The only issue I can think of is that 29er tyres tend to be quite wide so there will be a lot of rubber for your leg to rub on. To make it easy to ride you want a wide rim and a reasonably narrow tyre but you should be able to ride anything given time.
For a wooden UW there is not much to it. Make sure you cut a big enough hole for the valve. Cutting a handle hole near the rim will make it much easier to carry. Use plywood and strong pedals and pedal plates, the forces are higher than you might think.
Just take the frame off your coker or 29er to see if you like the UW wheel size. A “cranked” UW is much harder to ride than a non-cranked (disc) UW. I have a 24" disc UW made from 1" thick lexan (clear) and it is very heavy -but really easy to ride. I was recently taught that pinned pedals seem to help quite a bit on a UW.
The pedal position (equilivent crank arm length) is important, but purley a personal preference. Which length cranks do you like -make the UW pedals in the same position.
Enjoy,
Jer
If you’re going for a larger sized wheel, why not use a 700c rim, but then use a real skinny tire? The less it projects beyond the rim the easier it will be on your legs or pants.
Ken Fuchs had what I believe was a 27" ultimate wheel on which he used wheelchair rubber (like the old big wheels we used to ride). This made the rim wider than the tire, so you had a nice chrome surface rubbing your leg, if anything. This was a lot less wear & tear than a grippy tire.
But the larger sized piece of plywood was definitely heavier. I strongly recommend a spoked version, with four or six big spokes, big enough to attach your pedals to.
Has anyone tried using rings (like those used on wheel chair wheels for the rider to push) to make the UW easier on the parts it rubs? would it be awkward because the pedals don’t have enough Q?
a guy at a bike shop here used a cheap rim, cut it in half and then zip tied it to a 24 inch ultimate wheel for that exact purpose. worked fairly well.
Re: Ultimate Wheel
On Wed, 2 Feb 2005 05:35:10 -0600, “nickjb” wrote:
>Cutting a handle hole near the rim will make it
>much easier to carry.
Maybe for such a large wheel the handle hole should be nearer the hub
so that you don’t have to carry it that high?
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
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