fold

Good Morning!

I just registered today (Has been reading for 6 months tho)

Here is the bike: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Fedex...053503633.html


Question as a rookie commuter: Which wheel should I get? the traditional steel wire or better-looking 3-spoke? What's the cons and pros of these 2 types of wheel? which one is a better fit if I want to use high pressure tyres?


Thanks in advance!

Happy Daylight Saving time

fietsbob

So what do you expect for $230..? and a buying from a seller that wont answer these sort of questions, about their product.

and the tube is a Balloon , its the tire casing rating that contains the pressure

little 12.5" wheels are Not High Pressure.. they are pretty large volume for their size [35psi] My Bike trailer has 47-203 tires thats 1.75" wide

Spoked wheel, shows a Steel hub with loose Ball bearings, IDK what is in the other Un seen wheel .. Buy and find out,, and report.

and nothing about the straight or hooked bead design of the inside of either rim.




My Bike trailer wheels are molded plastic they roll on cartridge bearings .. Maybe the 3 spoke wheels use a cartridge bearing

you have to open the box in your house to find out.

fold

thanks for the info fletsbob

fold

Someone told me that in general steel wire wheels might be able to handle higher pressures while the fixed 3-stroke ones have lower pressure limits. Don't know whether it's true tho.

nfmisso

That is an overly broad statement. I can design either technology to be stronger or weaker than a particular design of the other technology.

The parts cost alone for the wheels that I assemble for use on my personal bikes cost is about the same as the whole bike you are considering......

fold

Thanks, @nfmisso !
Here is the rim's link from factory's page: ×ÔÐгµ³µÈ¦ 12´ç ³¬ÇáÂÁºÏ½ðÒ»ÌåÂÖÕÛµþ³µVɲÂÖ×éµúɲÂÖì±-ÌÔ±¦Íø
it says " Aluminum Alloy " BTW...

nfmisso

The rims are not "hooked" meaning relatively low pressure (<50psi) safely. There are no specs on the website, so it is a total crap shoot. They are selling them for less than $10- (USD) per rim plus less than $5- shipping. The condition of the caliper in the picture is SCARY. I would not purchase anything associated with the company just because they use an abused caliper in their pictures. It makes you wonder how bad the stuff is that they are not showing you....

agmetal

Left-side drive? That's different....

fold

thanks for the info, @nfmisso. I've ordered the hooked ones instead.

rhm

Rims and tires work together. While it is true that a good quality hooked rim can hold a higher pressure tire than a plain rim, this only matters if you have several tires to choose from and one of them is of much higher quality, and takes higher pressure, than the others. With 12.5" tires, this probably is not the case.

I can't follow your links right now, so can't research this myself, but what is the material of the 3 spoke wheel, and what are the brakes? I assume the 3 spoke wheel is not steel, so won't rust. Steel is also not good with rim brakes (caliper brakes). How is the other wheel in that regard?

fold

hi @rhm, there are only 2 options:
1. 3-spoke aluminum alloy, not hooked
2. hooked aluminum wheel, with steel wires
I ordered the 2nd one. Others who bought the hooked ones were able to upgrade with big apple tires.

rhm

Oh okay @fold, that sounds like a good call. Big Apples are good. Make sure you match the tube size to the tire as well as you can, and make sure you have a good rim strip. I used to commute on 16" wheels and most of my flat tires came from the rim side, often from the gap between the spoke heads. Drove me to bigger wheels!

fold

@rhm, thanks again for the valuable advice!

ClarkinHawaii

please elaborate, thanks

CliffordK

I've found that the forged 1-piece BMX rims are often much heavier than the hub and spoke rims. Also, some pumps are difficult to work with 12" rims. You need the maximum space to get the pump head on. Are the spoked rims roomier?

I've looked at those ultra-compact folding bikes online and like the design. However, I believe they are all just 1-speed, and pretty simple bikes. I don't think i could ride one more than a few hundred yards as single-speed. So, no doubt I'd be quickly looking for a gearing upgrade. And, it will be much easier to customize if used with spoked wheels.

rhm

Okay, but I have to admit this doesn't make complete sense to me either....

I commuted on a Downtube Mini folding bike, with 16" wheels and a Sturmey Archer eight speed hub, for about three years (9000 miles or so). I ran through tires faster than most bikes, and eventually settled on the Big Apples. If the tube was too fat, made for a tire over 2", it would be very hard to seat the tire on the rim. If the tube was for a smaller thickness, like 1.5", it was ready to seat but would flat a lot. I tried a lot of different rim strips.
Somewhere over 8000 miles the Sturmey Archer hub failed and the bike shop couldn't get a replacement with 28 spoke holes, so they built me a wheel with 36 spokes. Now there was something about that wheel that caused an unacceptable number of flat tires. It wasn't the tire; the holes wee always on the rim side. I went over it all with a file and fine sandpaper, removed every possible irregularity. As I said, I had always got a lot of flats with the 16" wheels, but the new wheel was worse than the old one, and the only difference was the spoke heads were closer together.

fold

@rhm it must have been posted in the forum before. Just want to double check - rim, tube and tire sizes: Tire Sizing Systems

fold

just bought a new folding bike with 14" wheels. Upgraded from original tubes 14x1.75+- and tires(Kenda 14x1.75) to the schwalbe ones. tubes: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
tires: https://www.schwalbetires.com/node/4408 big apple 14x2.0
These are low-pressure tires, 45 psi, fit my one-piece+no-hook rims. The ride is much better after - softer with better grip.
These rims are able to handle tires up to 2.25(bike frame could even go up to 3.0) but I failed to find any good ones for bikes except some Kenda tires that I try to avoid. There are quite some 14x2.25 tires for Honda scooters though. Not sure how they will perform on my bike...

Yeah, the one-piece rims are super heavy BTW.

fietsbob

My Carry Freedom City, folding Trailer has 2 3 spoke nylon-fiber wheels with sealed bearings,

I put Thorn resistant tubes in.. left the stock kenda 12.5" tires on.. aint broke why fix it ..

I need to get an angled stem extension to make pumping the air in , easier..