Wire wheel

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Wire wheels on a Victorian era penny-farthing bicycle Penny Farthing Ordinary Coventry Transport Museum.jpg
Wire wheels on a Victorian era penny-farthing bicycle
Wire wheels on a Bleriot XI, which made its debut in 1909 Bleriot XI.jpg
Wire wheels on a Blériot XI, which made its debut in 1909

Wire wheels, wire-spoked wheels, tension-spoked wheels, or "suspension" wheels are wheels whose rims connect to their hubs by wire spokes. [1] [2] [3] Although these wires are considerably stiffer than a similar diameter wire rope, they function mechanically the same as tensioned flexible wires, keeping the rim true while supporting applied loads. The term suspension wheel should not be confused with vehicle suspension. [3]

Contents

Wire wheels are used on most bicycles and are still used on many motorcycles. They were invented by aeronautical engineer George Cayley in 1808. [4] Although Cayley first proposed wire wheels, he did not apply for a patent. The first patent for wire wheels was issued to Theodore Jones of London, England on October 11, 1826. [5] Eugène Meyer of Paris, France was the first person to receive, in 1869, a patent for wire wheels on bicycles. [6]

Bicycle wheels were not strong enough for cars until the development of tangentially spoked wheels. They rapidly became well established in the bicycle and motor tricycle world but were not common on cars until around 1907. This was encouraged by the Rudge-Whitworth patented detachable and interchangeable wheels designed by John Pugh. These wheels owed their resistance to braking and accelerative stresses to their two inner rows of tangential spokes. An outer row of radial spokes gave lateral strength against cornering stresses. These wheels were deeply dished so that steering pivot pins might lie as near as possible to the center-line of the tires. Their second feature was that they were easily detachable being mounted on splined false hubs. A process of assembling wire wheels is described as wheelbuilding.

On automobiles

From the earliest days automobiles used either wire wheels or heavy wooden or pressed steel spoked artillery type. The development of the quick detachable hubs of either Rudge-Whitworth or Riley design did much to popularise wire wheels and incidentally led to the fitting of "spare wheels". After their wooden spoked artillery wheels proved inadequate many US manufacturers paid John Pugh of Rudge-Whitworth royalties to manufacture wire wheels using his patents. Artillery wheels fell out of favour in the late 1920s and the development of the cheaper pressed steel wheels by Joseph Sankey replaced wire wheels wherever the premium price of wire wheels was not justified by their weight saving.

Sports cars

Before 1960, sports/racing cars usually had Rudge-Whitworth centerlock wire wheels equipped with splined hubs and a quick-release "knockoff" (central wing nut) locking cap [7] that could be unscrewed by striking a wing of the nut with a special alloy mallet or "knockoff hammer". [8] Some jurisdictions, including the United States and West Germany, prohibited eared hubcaps for safety reasons in the late 1960s. In response, some manufacturers (e.g. Maserati) preferred to hold the wheel on the splined hub by capping with a single conventional unwinged hex nut requiring a special large spanner. [9]

In the 1960s, even lighter cast alloy wheels became usual—at first with splined hubs and knock-off caps—and now predominate. New versions of wire wheels are still made but often with standard hub bolt patterns covered by a center cap to fit without adapters.

On motorcycles

At one time, motorcycles used wire wheels built up from separate components, but, except for adventure, enduro or dirtbikes, they are now mainly used for their retro appearance.

On bicycles

The first commercially successful use of wired wheels was on bicycles. They were introduced early on in the development of the bicycle, following soon after the adoption of solid rubber tires. This development marked a major improvement over the older wooden wheels, both in terms of weight and comfort (the increased elasticity of the wheel helping to absorb road vibrations). [11]

In England, the engineer William Stanley developed the steel-wired spider wheel in 1849, an improvement over the cumbersome wooden spoked wheels then fitted to the tricycles that his employer was making. [12] [13] [14]

Bicycle manufacturers build millions of wheels annually, using the common crossed-spoke patterns whose crossings of adjacent spokes are governed by the number of spokes in the wheel. Wheelbuilders of racing teams and in good bicycle shops build wheels to other patterns such as two-cross, one-cross, or no-cross (usually called radial). Many of these patterns have been used for more than 100 years. It is claimed that crossed patterns have more strength and stability, and that irregular patterns are art forms and have little structural merit. [15]

In the 1980s, cast wheels with 5 or 6 rigid spokes began to appear in the Olympic Games and in professional racing. These have advantages in specialized applications, such as time trials, but wire-spoked wheels are used for most purposes.

Spoke tension and tire pressure

Typically, each spoke is pretensioned to about 100 pounds of force, on an unloaded wheel. When the bicycle is loaded with a rider, then the spokes below the hub have less tension. With every rotation of the wheel, there is repeatedly changes in the spoke tension that can contribute to broken spokes because of fatigue failures. Fatigue usually causes spokes to fail. [16]

With the proper air pressure, the tire will absorb light bumps and vibrations and roll faster than a hard, inflexible tire at higher air pressures in the 120-130 psig range. Heavier riders require slightly higher air pressures. [17]

Reaction to load

The reaction to a radial load of a well-tensioned wire spoked wheel, such as by a rider sitting on a bicycle, is that the wheel flattens slightly near the ground contact area. The rest of the wheel remains approximately circular. [18] [19] [20] [21] The tension of all the spokes does not increase significantly; instead, only the spokes directly under the hub decrease their tension. [15] [22] [23] [24] The issue of how best to describe this situation is debated. [25] Some authors conclude from this that the hub "stands" on those spokes immediately below it that experience a reduction in tension, even though the spokes below the hub exert no upward force on the hub and can be replaced by chains without much changing the physics of the wheel. [20] [15] Other authors conclude that the hub "hangs" from those spokes above it that exert an upward force on the hub, and that have higher tension than the spokes below the hub, which pull down on the hub. [23] [26]

Despite being composed of thin and relatively flexible spokes, wire wheels are radially stiff and provide very little suspension compliance compared to even high-pressure bicycle tires. [27] [28] [29] [30]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wheel</span> Circular component rotating on an axle

A wheel is a circular component that is intended to rotate on an axle bearing. The wheel is one of the key components of the wheel and axle which is one of the six simple machines. Wheels, in conjunction with axles, allow heavy objects to be moved easily facilitating movement or transportation while supporting a load, or performing labor in machines. Wheels are also used for other purposes, such as a ship's wheel, steering wheel, potter's wheel, and flywheel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tire</span> Ring-shaped covering that fits around a wheels rim

A tire or tyre is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide traction on the surface over which the wheel travels. Most tires, such as those for automobiles and bicycles, are pneumatically inflated structures, which also provide a flexible cushion that absorbs shock as the tire rolls over rough features on the surface. Tires provide a footprint, called a contact patch, that is designed to match the weight of the vehicle with the bearing strength of the surface that it rolls over by providing a bearing pressure that will not deform the surface excessively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spoke</span> Part of a wheel extending radially from the hub to the rim

A spoke is one of some number of rods radiating from the center of a wheel, connecting the hub with the round traction surface.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bicycle brake</span> Braking device for bicycles

A bicycle brake reduces the speed of a bicycle or prevents it from moving. The three main types are: rim brakes, disc brakes, and drum brakes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bicycle wheel</span> Wheel designed for a bicycle

A bicycle wheel is a wheel, most commonly a wire wheel, designed for a bicycle. A pair is often called a wheelset, especially in the context of ready built "off the shelf" performance-oriented wheels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Touring bicycle</span> Bicycle designed or modified for touring

A touring bicycle is a bicycle designed or modified to handle bicycle touring. To make the bikes sufficiently robust, comfortable and capable of carrying heavy loads, special features may include a long wheelbase, frame materials that favor flexibility over rigidity, heavy duty wheels, and multiple mounting points.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wheel sizing</span> Measuring a wheel rim diameter to find the wheels size

The wheel size for a motor vehicle or similar wheel has a number of parameters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caster angle</span> The angle between the vertical axis and the steering axis of a steered wheel, in side view

The caster angle or castor angle is the angular displacement of the steering axis from the vertical axis of a steered wheel in a car, motorcycle, bicycle, other vehicle or a vessel, as seen from the side of the vehicle. The steering axis in a car with dual ball joint suspension is an imaginary line that runs through the center of the upper ball joint to the center of the lower ball joint, or through the center of the kingpin for vehicles having a kingpin.

29ers or two-niners are mountain bikes and hybrid bikes that are built to use 700c or 622 mm ISO wheels, commonly called 29″ wheels. Most mountain bikes once used ISO 559 mm wheels, commonly called 26″ wheels. The ISO 622 mm wheel is typically also used for road-racing, trekking, cyclo-cross, touring and hybrid bicycles. In some countries, mainly in Continental Europe, ISO 622 mm wheels are commonly called 28″ wheels or "28 Incher".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wheelbuilding</span> Process of assembling wire wheels

Wheelbuilding is the process of assembling wire wheels. The components of a wire wheel are the rim, spokes, nipples, and hub.

The spinner on automobile wheels historically refers to knock-off hub nuts or center caps. They may be the actual, or intended to simulate, the design used on antique vehicles or vintage sports cars. A "spinner wheel" in contemporary usage is a type of hubcap or inner wheel ornament, that spins independently inside of a wheel itself when the vehicle is in motion, and continues to spin once the vehicle has come to a stop.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zipp</span>

Zipp is an American company that is best known for designing, manufacturing, and marketing carbon-composite bicycle wheels for road cycling, triathlons, track racing, and mountain biking. The company's product range also includes handlebars, stems, seat posts, tires, inner tubes, handlebar tape, and bags.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rim (wheel)</span> Outer part of a wheel on which the tire is mounted

The rim is the "outer edge of a wheel, holding the tire". It makes up the outer circular design of the wheel on which the inside edge of the tire is mounted on vehicles such as automobiles. For example, on a bicycle wheel the rim is a large hoop attached to the outer ends of the spokes of the wheel that holds the tire and tube. In cross-section, the rim is deep in the center and shallow at the outer edges, thus forming a "U" shape that supports the bead of the tire casing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rudge-Whitworth</span> British bicycle, motorcycle and sports car manufacturer

Rudge Whitworth Cycles was a British bicycle, bicycle saddle, motorcycle and sports car wheel manufacturer that resulted from the merger of two bicycle manufacturers in 1894, Whitworth Cycle Co. of Birmingham, founded by Charles Henry Pugh and his two sons Charles Vernon and John, and Rudge Cycle Co. of Coventry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Borrani</span>

Ruote Borrani S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of automobile and motorcycle wheels. They are known for supplying Rudge-Whitworth design centerlocking wire wheels to many Italian racing cars, sports cars and luxury cars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Motorcycle tyre</span> Tyres of a motorcycle

A motorcycle tyre is the outer part of motorcycle wheel, attached to the rim, providing traction, resisting wear, absorbing surface irregularities, and allowing the motorcycle to turn via countersteering. The two tyres' contact patches are the motorcycle's connection to the ground, and so are fundamental to the motorcycle's suspension behaviour, and critically affect safety, braking, fuel economy, noise, and rider comfort.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mountain bike trials</span>

Mountain bike trials, also known as observed trials, is a discipline of mountain biking in which the rider attempts to pass through an obstacle course without setting foot to ground. Derived from motorcycle trials, it originated in Catalonia, Spain as trialsín and is said to have been invented by Pere Pi, the father of Ot Pi, a world champion motorcycle trials rider. Pi's father had wanted his son to learn motorcycle trials by practicing on an ordinary bicycle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Motorcycle wheel</span> Component of motorised two-wheelers

Motorcyclewheels are made to cope with radial and axial forces. They also provide a way of mounting other critical components such as the brakes, final drive and suspension. Wheels, and anything directly connected to them, are considered to be unsprung mass. Traditionally motorcycles used wire-spoked wheels with inner tubes and pneumatic tyres. Although cast wheels were first used on a motorcycle in 1927, it would not be until the 1970s that mainstream manufacturers would start to introduce cast wheels on their roadgoing motorcycles. Spoked wheels are usually made using steel spokes with steel or aluminium rims. Cast wheels are predominantly made from an aluminium-alloy, but can also be made from more-exotic materials, such as magnesium content alloy or carbon fibre.

A centerlock wheel is a type of automobile wheel in which the wheel is fastened to the axle using a single, central nut, instead of the more common ring of 4 or 5 lug nuts or bolts.

References

  1. Forester, John (August 1980). "Held Up By Downward Pull". American Wheelmen. Retrieved 2012-06-26. how the tension spoked wheel carries its load
  2. Brown, Sheldon. "Bicycle Tires and Tubes, How a Tire Supports its Load" . Retrieved 2012-06-26. The tension-spoked wheel and the pneumatic tire are two examples of what are called preloaded tensile structures, brilliant, counterintuitive designs working together remarkably to support as much as 100 times their own weight.
  3. 1 2 C. S. Walker (1920). "Wire Wheels". Society of Automotive Engineers. pp. 425–432. Retrieved 2012-06-26. As the wire wheel is a "suspension" wheel, the car weight is hung or "cradled" from scores of resilient, flexible spokes.
  4. Ackroyd, J.A.D. (2011). "Sir George Cayley: The invention of the aeroplane near Scarborough at the time of Trafalgar" (PDF). Journal of Aeronautical History (6): 152. In the same month, March 1808, the notebook records his invention of the tension wheel in his search for "the lightest possible wheel for aerial navigation cars". His idea is ".. to do away wooden spokes altogether, and refer the whole firmness of the wheel to the strength of the rim only, by the intervention of tight strong cording.."
  5. See:
    • Notice of Theodore Jones' patent for wire wheels: Repertory of patent inventions, etc., no. 17 (November 1826), page 320.
    • Illustrations and description of Jones' wire wheel: Luke Hebert, ed. (April 20, 1828) "Patent suspension wheels," The Register of Arts, and Journal of Patent Inventions, 2nd series, 2 (29) : pages 65-66.
  6. Bulletin des lois de la République française (1873) 12th series, vol. 6, page 648, patent no. 86,705: "Perfectionnements dans les roues de vélocipèdes" (Improvements in the wheels of bicycles), issued: 4 August 1869.
  7. New Directions in Suspension Design: Making the Fast Car Faster Taylor & Francis, 1981, USA. ISBN   0-8376-0150-9. Colin Campbell: “The center-lock wire wheel is traditionally associated with vintage sports cars and racing cars, and for those of us of advancing years the blood is still stirred by memories of split-seconds saved by the deft application of copper-headed hammers to eared hubcaps.” p.5
  8. Wilson McComb. "Principles of the Centre-Lock Wire Wheel" . Retrieved 2013-05-18. Let us take a closer look at this assembly, referring to the central portion of the wheel as the "wheel center", which is fitted to the "hub" and fixed in place with a 'locking cap'.
  9. Egan, Peter (2016-03-21). "The Smiting of the Knockoffs". Road & Track. Retrieved 2020-03-21.
  10. "San-Sou-Pap Motorcycles". Cyber Motorcycle. Retrieved 2021-05-08.
  11. Herlihy, David V (2004). Bicycle: the History. Yale University Press. pp.  141–142. ISBN   0-300-10418-9.
  12. McConnell, Anita (2004). "Stanley, William Ford Robinson (1829–1909)" . Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/36250 . Retrieved 9 September 2009.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  13. Owen, W.B. (1912). Sir Sidney Lee (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography - William Ford Robinson Stanley. Second Supplement. Vol. III (Neil-Young). London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 393–394.
  14. "Good week to go for ride". The Croydon Guardian. 10 June 2006. Retrieved 9 September 2009.
  15. 1 2 3 Brandt, Jobst (1981). The Bicycle Wheel. Avocet. pp. 12–20. ISBN   0-9607236-2-5.
  16. Max Glaskin (28 April 2015). "The science behind spokes". Cyclist. Retrieved 2021-12-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  17. Spencer Powlison (13 August 2021). "A Beginner's Guide To Bike Tire Pressure" . Retrieved 2021-12-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  18. Forester, John (August 1980). "Held Up By Downward Pull". American Wheelmen.
  19. Whitt, Frank R.; David G. Wilson (1982). Bicycling Science (Second ed.). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. pp. 106–138. ISBN   0-262-23111-5.
  20. 1 2 Ian Smith. "Bicycle Wheel Analysis" . Retrieved 2008-12-31. I conclude that it is perfectly reasonable to say that the hub stands on the lower spokes, and that it does not hang from the upper spokes.
  21. C.J. Burgoyne and R. Dilmaghanian (March 1993). "Bicycle Wheel as Prestressed Structure" (PDF). Journal of Engineering Mechanics. 119 (3): 439–455. doi:10.1061/(asce)0733-9399(1993)119:3(439). ISSN   0733-9399.
  22. Wilson, David Gordon; Jim Papadopoulos (2004). Bicycling Science (Third ed.). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. pp.  389–390. ISBN   0-262-73154-1.
  23. 1 2 Tom Fine (September 1998). "Hubs hang from the rim!" . Retrieved 2010-03-16. I still say, without any doubt, that the hub hangs from the upper spokes.
  24. Henri P. Gavin (August 1996). "Bicycle Wheel Spoke Patterns and Spoke Fatigue" (PDF). Journal of Engineering Mechanics. 122 (8): 736–742. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9399(1996)122:8(736).
  25. Kraig Willett (5 September 2004). "Hang or Stand?". BikeTech Review. Retrieved 2010-03-16. A little known semantic debate ... has been raging on the usenet newsgroups for quite some time. The point of contention in this debate is whether or not a loaded bicycle wheel "stands" on the bottom spokes or "hangs" from the top ones?
  26. Samuel K. Clark, V. E. Gough (1981). Mechanics of Pneumatic Tires. U.S. Department of Transportation. p. 241. The system of load transmission is analogous to that of a cycle wheel where the hub hangs by the steel wire spokes from the top of the rim, which is loaded at the bottom.
  27. John Swanson (2006). "Performance of the Bicycle Wheel, A Method for Analysis" (PDF). BikePhysics.com. Retrieved 2012-06-25. Radial Stiffness: There's almost -no- vertical compliance in your wheel and people who insist that they can feel the vertical stiffness or "harshness" of a wheel are mistaken. The radial stiffness of a bicycle wheel is ~ 3-4000 N/mm. This equals a deflection of 0.1 mm under a 40 kg load. Sorry princess, but that gets obscured by the amount of deflection in the tires, fork, saddle, handlebar tape, frame, and even your gloves.
  28. Henri P. Gavin (1996). "Bicycle Wheel Spoke Patterns and Spoke Fatigue" (PDF). Journal of Engineering Mechanics. Retrieved 2012-06-25. radial wheel stiffness (N/mm): 2500-5000
  29. Ian (2002). "Spoke Patterns". astounding.org.uk. Retrieved 2012-06-25. A radially spoked wheel is about 4.6% stiffer than a tangentially spoked one. Alternatively, if you apply 1000N (about 100kg, 220lb) to each of the wheels, the tangential (four-cross) spoked one deflects 0.0075mm (0.0003 inch) more than the radial spoked. Since the tyre is likely to deflect several millimetres at least (if 3mm, that's 400 times more deflection) I conclude the spoking is unlikely to make a discernible difference to the vertical stiffness of the wheel.
  30. Jobst Brandt (1981). "Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Glossary: Radial spoking". Sheldon Brown (bicycle mechanic) . Retrieved 2012-06-25. There is no change in radial elasticity between a radial and crossed spoke wheel with the same components, other than the length of the spokes. A 290 mm spoke is 3% stiffer than a 300 mm spoke of the same type. Since spokes stretch elastically about 0.1mm on a hard bump (not ordinary road ripples), the elastic difference between the radial and cross-three wheel is 3% x 0.1mm = 0.003 mm. Copier paper is 0.075 mm thick, and if you can feel that when you ride over it on a glassy smooth concrete surface, please let me know. You have greater sensitivity than the lady in "the princess and the pea" fable.