Custom rims needed
 

Hello,

I live in Vancouver, BC and I am looking for a rim manufacturer close to me ( Canada or US).
The bicycle wheel I need the rim for was designed with no spokes, no central axle (nor hub for that matter) and is designed for the micro-cellular polyurethane tire.

Can you please help me to find a rim manufacturer?





Thank you anticipated for your time and effort!

Have you tried Google? Pictures, please.

Hey JanMM,

Thank you for your quick answer. The problem with the Google search is that returns all the China, India, Vietnam, etc manufacturers.
I tried as well to narrow the search with "Canada" string but they are mostly retailers.

As for the pictures I will be very happy to oblige but the problem is that the bicycle is still in the prototype phase, hence no drawings, calculations, information can be released about the bicycle without a NDA being signed.

Despite the fact that we already have an international patent on it, we are trying to protect the idea as much as possible until the marketing and promotion time will arrive.

What I can tell you is that the bicycle we are developing is totally out of this world... No spokes, not hub, no suspensions, not in the way that we know them at the present moment with the existing technology, no chain and no air chamber.

Our idea was assessed by a panel of Cambridge professors in physics and they all agreed this idea is going to revolutionize the whole bicycle concept.
So did my grandma... .. she loves it too.. .. LOL!!!!


Best regards,


SR

Try this link for a list of manufacturers. Just working my way down, at least a couple of them have addresses in California (don't know where they actually manufacture):
http://www.mikebentley.com/bike/wheels.htm

The spokes in a wheel hold the rim circular and keep it from buckling when loaded. If you are using a rim in a non-conventional way, don't be surprised if regular rims turn out to be completely inadequate.

If you are making a one-off version of this thing, the cheapest way to get a custom rim may very well be to machine it out of solid plate, or to roll and weld a bar shape and then machine it into a rim.

Hey StephenH,

Yes I am aware about the fact that a regular rim will render inadequate for our purpose, hence the need to custom build one. I was trying to find someone to machine them but the problem is they do not know anything about rims. Therefore I need the rims to be build by a professional

Best regards,


SR

Why don't you contact a metal fabrication shop?

I can believe this... . I've contacted so far over 15 rim manufacturers and so far no answer back.

Any ideas?

Why don't you contact a metal fabrication shop? Do I need to water this down to a machine shop or even more dumbed down to metal shop?

Can't say for sure without some idea what you're trying to make, but there's nothing a good metal fabricator can't do. If you have drawings and can explain what you want, somebody can build it for you.
Is this a rim-drive bike, by any chance? If so, it's been done....

No, this is not a drive bike rim.

So, are you going to contact a metal fabrication shop? You may have to look outside of your area, but they are out there.

Hey DD,

To tell you the truth I am a tad reluctant to the idea of making the rim to a metal shop that have no hands on experience with the rims. They wouldn't know anything about vertical, radial and lateral loads, rim geometry, wheel dynamics, etc.

They would not have the technology to weld it perfectly and definitely they would not be able to center it.




With best regards,

SR

You know this how? I've seen some fab shops that make the NASA JPL look like a high school metal shop.

Really? The machinists in your area are a bunch of dumbasses? I must be accustomed to the NASCAR or aircraft fabricators that know more about vertical and lateral loads, rim geometry, etc. in their big toe then you do in your entire body. My Grandfather was a machinist who worked for Pratt and Whitney, later United Technologies, and his work was on 707s, 727s, 747s, raced the Indianapolis 500, and went to the moon, not to mention the Space Shuttle. You think these people are ignorant about load capacity?

If you are serious about this, go find one and ask him what he can do. (Yes, it could be a woman too). Not all machine shops hone brake rotors all day. I know one fabricating cassette bodies for SRAM out of a single block of Cro-Moly billet in Timmonsville, SC. You may have to ask to talk to a master machinist or fabricator to get what your looking for.

Your lack of information makes giving an educated answer nearly impossible.

If you came into our shop and asked these questions without providing some rudimentary drawings we'd be sending you back out the door as although we can build damn near anything to very high specifications, we're not mind readers.

The guys in our shop have a few hundred years of experience between them and have worked in nearly every area of manufacture and fabrication but still need to know what you are trying to build

A conventional wheel builder probably won't be able to help you since you are looking for an unconventional wheel but someone who specializes in carbon fibre and injection molding might be of more help.

How will you be powering the wheel ?

Here ya go!

These guys do custom rims! ;)

http://www.choppersus.com/store/cate...eels---Billet/

Wowwww... . Pretty irritable aren't we.. .. Nothing personal SF, but based on real life experience I know for fact that a race driver is different than a taxi driver which is different than an ambulance driver.

I wouldn't want the ambulance driver to drive my race car in a competition as I wouldn't want the race car driver to drive my child to the hospital. Now...are there some race car drivers that know how to administer IV and/or CPR, that know the emergency medical procedure, and ER admission procedures? Maybe. Are there any ambulance drivers tat have a race car experience... .. maybe yes... .. but what are the chances... .

This is only my opinion... ... But again, I've been wrong before

And you said something that will prove that once again...
Now that you said that and when I come to think about it...makes perfect sense.

And since you raised some valid points, here is the design of the rims I need.
http://www.mcthongs.com/images/rimsDesign.jpg

You don't want to see me when I get irritable.

:D

That's it?!? Nothing more?

Can you guys make those rims at your shop? For now we need only 4 of each for laboratory and road testing.
Any link for your shop?


Regards,

SR

Heh.

I have what I would like to call a life that involves and revolves around some beautiful children and a rather beautiful woman that is quite simply, incredible.

So... what kind of materials are you thinking of using for the wheel build and how is it going to be powered if there is no hub or axle?

And...do any of those professors at Cambridge ride a bike?

Understand that the skepticism stems from the fact that many people have tried to revolutionize the bicycle and failed.

"To tell you the truth I am a tad reluctant to the idea of making the rim to a metal shop that have no hands on experience with the rims. They wouldn't know anything about vertical, radial and lateral loads, rim geometry, wheel dynamics, etc.
"They would not have the technology to weld it perfectly and definitely they would not be able to center it."

First off, you don't go to a metal fabrication shop expecting them to calculate loads, dynamics, etc. That's engineering. That's the design work that comes up when you say the wheel "was designed". If it hasn't been done, it needs to be done before you can fab anything. If you don't have those loads, then you can't calculate a reasonable cross section for the wheel. You also would need those loads to figure out what alloys are acceptable

It looks to me like to build the detail on the right, you'd need to have a custom extrusion, then roll it into a circle and weld it. But I don't know if that shape could be successfully welded. For just a few samples for test purposes, eliminate the hole and make that a solid shape. Then both rims can be made by rolling bar stock, welding, heat treating if necessary, and then machining. But someone's got to tell the shop what kind of bar stock, what kind of heat treating, and what dimensions to machine it to.

As material I was thinking aluminum with the profile presented here:
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=371149

I am already used to it. They can "Heh" all they want.. . I know exactly where I am coming from and where I am going to...