Weight watchers - a tale of lard.

Joined
Oct 19, 2012
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2,384
Location
Wakefield, UK
Not my dieting but the next trike's. Two wheels at almost opposite ends of the lard spectrum but both nominally 20" wheels although you'd hardly believe that from their size difference. A pair of the fatties with 203mm rotors and 20mm axles cripples the scales at a hefty 9.24kg. A pair of the skinnies with lightweight road tyres, lightweight 160mm rotors and 12mm axles floats away at 2.7kg. I'll be sticking these orange Kate Moss-a-likes on the epod-a-like I start after finishing the current porker. There's nothing exotic about the weight saving - no carbon fibre, no titanium axle bolts, the hubs were £15 each, the rotors were just £2 more than the cheapest and the tyres were £17 a pair. It wouldn't be overly hard to find lighter ones though savings beyond this will likely be very small for many £££s.

 
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Joined
Feb 7, 2008
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4,575
Location
Nottinghamshire England
Lbs saved is inversely proportional to £'s spent
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2012
Messages
2,384
Location
Wakefield, UK
The 20mm axle bolts are enough to hold the Forth Bridge together and account for a large proportion of the extra mass. The fat wheels also use a fairly light alloy hub. If I'd made my own in steel you could probably add another kilo to a pair.
 

graucho

Super Moderator
Joined
Apr 21, 2009
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2,239
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Sarona, Wisconsin / Apache Junction, Arizona
Very good info... This is what makes DIY fun to me. Experimentation, wonderment of "what will be" during this build or the next.
When I first saw the wheels it reminded me of my chopper builds, in the sense of... I have a big back tire, a narrow front tire, the I make a frame appear in between.
 
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