Cycling UK Forum

I'm thinking of fitting 24" wheels to the front of a recumbent trike any reason I cannot use wheel chair wheels?

I have a couple of 24" rims (matching, black) off a project if you want to pay the postage ? You could then re-use your existing hub arrangement, and just buy new spokes to suit. Would need to know how many spoke holes your existing hubs have - IIRC, the spare rims are 36h.

Depends on the wheelchair, and the trike.

Most chairs have radial spoking, which is not suitable for anything other than rim brakes. Note that most wheelchair runs aren’t really designed for brakes either.

The thing to watch is the rim diameter. Wheelchair rims are often 540mm with restricted tyre options. BMX bike rims are generally 507mm with a wider range of tyres.

See: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/rim-sizing.html

OB

Wheelchair wheel hubs aren't made for mounting Disc rotors on which is a problem, but some have Drum brakes.

As others have said you would be better off building your own 24" wheels with dedicated trike hubs (disc or drum).

After fitting you may find the turning circle is greater as you cant turn as sharply because the wheels hit the seat sooner.

It has been done in an ICE trike.
Also I believe the ICE full fat has 24" wheels front & rear.

HTH

The wheels would have to be specially made, wheelchair wheels are simply not designed or made to cope with the lateral stresses of a trike cornering at speed.

There are some pics here: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=15204&p=1041540#p1041483
of an Ice Sprint 26 with 24" front wheels.

OB

Cunobelin wrote:The wheels would have to be specially made, wheelchair wheels are simply not designed or made to cope with the lateral stresses of a trike cornering at speed.

Wheelchair rugby wheels are pretty tough
But yes, they 'cheat' by cambering each wheel significantly.

Wheelchair wheels are at least as variable in quality as bike wheels, I suspect the worst builds are worse in the world of wheelchairs, because the lowest acceptable strength is lower.

Tilley wrote:I'm thinking of fitting 24" wheels to the front of a recumbent trike any reason I cannot use wheel chair wheels?

Judging by the wheels of the wheelchair from my Auntie:
-too weak rims
-wrong wheel size (you want 507 size rims, not 520 size)
-abysmal wheel building
-possibly wrong hubs

For good 24" trike front wheels, you need strong double walled rims and well build wheels, if you want the wheels to last. I've build and used a few sets of 24" and 26" front wheels on my trikes and ride them for about 35,000km now.
I can't feel a difference between my wheels sets with 32 or 36 spokes, but the 3cross laced wheels are stronger.



If your trike has drum brakes and you only find 24" (ISO 507) rims with 32 spoke holes: Ginkgo in Germany is the only vendor who offers Sturmey Archer drum brake hubs with 28, 32 and 36 spoke holes. They are also known for their very good wheel building! https://www.ginkgo-veloteile.de/ginkgos ... rum-Brakes

Cheers Marc and Hoarder, ideally I want disc hubs but I have spoken to ICE & KMX and neither sell hubs. So any suggestions of a supplier. Someone has suggested that a through bolted MTB front wheel hub can be used does anyone have experience of this?

Any sealed bearing hub should work.
You just need a tube between the two bearings to stop the inner races being pushed inwards when snugged up tight.
That's what the hubs on my ICE trike and Carry Freedom trailer look like.
This would give you the thicker axle than just a push through axle.

Luck .............

Tilley wrote:Cheers Marc and Hoarder, ideally I want disc hubs but I have spoken to ICE & KMX and neither sell hubs. So any suggestions of a supplier.

What trike model are we talking about?
ICE Trikes have ø12mm front axles, while KMX have (IIRC) ø15mm axles.

You can buy ICE disk hubs at ICLETTA (EU/German ICE importer): https://shop.icletta.com/en
Ginkgo offers trike disk hubs as well: https://www.ginkgo-veloteile.de/ginkgos ... front-Hubs

Tilley wrote:Someone has suggested that a through bolted MTB front wheel hub can be used does anyone have experience of this?

I wouldn't do that. MTB front wheel hubs are wider and then you get problems finding front axles in the right length.
M12 bolts ain't a good substitute (I tried).

Personally, I prefer 90mm drum brake hubs in my trikes and velomobile. I'm a commuter and disk brakes aren't up to snuff if you regularly ride in rain, snow, etc. I had disk brakes on my Rans Xstream and they drove me mad.
Drums are way easier to deal with and due to the bigger diameter of drum brake hubs, the resulting 24" wheels are stronger than wheels with disk brake hubs.

Tigerbiten wrote:Any sealed bearing hub should work.
You just need a tube between the two bearings to stop the inner races being pushed inwards when snugged up tight.

Do you know how precise the length of the distance tube between ball bearings has to be? We talking a specific length* with +/-0.01 to 0.02mm tolerance. 0.02-0.05mm too short and wheels turn with noticeable resistance while the ball bearings die in relatively short order. 0.05mm loo long and the ball bearings move in their seats.

*the distance tube in Sturmey Archer drum brake hubs is 39.20mm for instance. Occasionally, when I have to change worn bearings, I trim them a few 0.01mm to a more appropriate length for a specific hub.