Drilling holes

[Uncle Stretch]

Ok I see people running a car tire for a back tire on a bike. I know someone knows how to drill the rim with holes to lace to a hub. I'm no math genius so dont come up with divide the number of holes by pie and multiply by 266 or some such nonsense. There must be some simple way to layout the holes. On another site a guy said he printed out a strip with the holes and marked them, but never said where he found the spaceing. Done some extensive searches and found zilch. Help! :shock: :shock:

 

[cashman]

Unc, get a dime store protractor and a straight edge. Get an old rim and lay it on a flat surface and mark where the center of the hub is. Place the protractor on the center mark and using the straight edge, see how many degrees according to the protractor there are between each hole. Then lay out the new rim and use the protractor and the straight edge to mark where each hole will go. Keep the straight edge indexed to the center mark and make sure that the protractor doesn't shift any while laying out the holes. This should get you close. Thanks!!!

 

[udallcustombikes]

I laced up two rims for my monster trike. I used the method from Atomic Zombie. 15" rim with the center cut out. Then find a 20" bike rim with the number of spoke holes you want. Take and lay the bike rim on top of car rim and tape them together. Use a square to transfer the all of the holes to one side of the car rim. Then flip it and repeat. I used 28 holes per side. For the inside I used a pair of 3/4" washers with an o.d. of 2". AZ has a template to download that when printed puts the holes in the right spacing. Use a piece of 3/4" round stock as an axle and space your washers 1" further apart than the rim is wide. Your holes for the spokes on the rim should be just to the inside of the little bead lock hump. I will try to find my instructions and see if I missed anything.

 

[Dman]

What are ya buildin Uncle Stretch??? :shock:

 

[Uncle Stretch]

Thanks to both of yall . I read everything I could on that atomic zombie ,and never saw where anybody showed you how to do it. I finally got sleepy.... :lol: I thought since so many of them had used a car rim that someone would explain how to drill the holes.
I want one of those bikes with the car tire in the rear.
Worksman makes their back hub on a three wheeler that comes apart. I figure I could change the tube to something wider and then lace it to a car rim.....then I have a Honda 125 three wheeler that said it was dying to donate a motor...If it still runs....it did a while back. Seems like something can be built to incorporate these parts and make something. I havent formulated a complete plan yet ,but I'm working on it. Maybe start from the back and work forward. :wink:

 

[thatismytruck]

Not having read the Atomic Zombie post, I'll just try and take a common sense whack at it. You need the diameter. The diameter should be measured where the spokes enter the rim. The rest is easy smeasy.

Circumference = 3.1415 X diameter
distance between spoke holes = circumference divided by desired number of spokes.

Decide where you want to put the first hole and measure from there.

for example - 16" diameter. 40 spokes

C = 3.1415 X 16 = 50.264 inches
distance between spokes = 50.264/40 = 1.2566

An oddball distance, but you get the idea.

 

[udallcustombikes]

I would take a 36 hole 20" rim and mark every other hole on each side of the rim and then just lace it up like a regular rim. Nice part is the rim is so ridged you don't have to worry about truing it up, just gotta keep the hub in the center. I am looking forward to seeing your take on this style. I got The Evil Genius Guide to Bikes, Trikes, and Scooters (about $15) and it has the full plans for a bunch of bikes including the Gladiator Trike that uses these wheels. Most major book stores have it or you can order it on Amazon.

 

[Uncle Stretch]

Ok Skip my GED just hit me in the face. I was looking for the redneck version of that....You know take the screen off of a mark 3 toaster and mark every other hole and you will get 36 holes . You know something simple like that. I like Udall's plan of taping a 20'' rim next to the car rim and squaring the holes and drill....now just gotta find a 20'' rim with 36 holes....think most are 28 or some oddball number...be my luck it will be on a 1968 stingray .....oh well

 

[Uncle Stretch]

Gee Udall I was hopeing for the total money for the build to be $15 and now you want me to spend the entire funding for my project on a book.....still have a $35 1980 300SD Mercedes book that I had to buy one time.... :roll:

 

[udallcustombikes]

Check BMX wheels, lots of those are 36 spoke.

 

[JLarkin]

Run a piece of tape around the centerline of the rim (where the tube would go). Make the tape's length butt up to itself end to end. Then remove the tape. Lay it out flat on a counter. Measure the length of the tape. Divide the length by 36. This will give you the distance between each hole. Mark your first hole at the beginning edge of the tape (the first hole on the tape would only be half a hole since the center of the hole is where the tape starts). Then mark the rest of the holes onto the tape. Now put the tape back on the rim. Does the last hole have the same distance between it and the first hole as all the others? If so you did it right.

Keep in mind this will give you radial lacing. You will want to stagger the holes but the centerline of each hole should remain the same. The good news is a car wheel is so heavy that you won't have to true it, just tighten all the spokes to the same note basically.

 

[user 135]

Jlarkins- Sweet and simple. AND obivious.

 

[Uncle Stretch]

So there will be just 18 spokes on one side of the rim and 18 on the other side and they will run straight to the hub?

 

[user 135]

I think he used "radial" mistakenly. Mark the holes on the tape then figure out your stagering (4 inches from centerline). Then figure out your spoke calculation as normal(2 cross, 3 cross).

 

[deorman]

Say tex, he gave the easy tape trick, you've seen ? thousand spoked wheels. The way you tossed off the last few builds, I kinda thought there'd be pic's by the time I got home. :wink:

 

[deorman]

Depending on the shape the rim, you might want to fake a "dimple" inside the rim with a large bit, pointed to the side of the hub that the spokes go to. No wonder you ain't finished. :|

 

[Uncle Stretch]

I have spoked quiet a few. Not a thousand ,but I figure probably 40 sets or so. i just cant for some reason get my mind around this one. I will have the rim tomorrow....dad is kicking in a 15'' one and I will make a hub out of these two worksman hubs off of the rear of a three wheeler. Maybe once I get this stuff all together I can envision what the heck I'm trying to do. The ones on the Atomic Zombie have the very edge of the car rim on each side with the spokes...Not going into the middle. I'm not sure that anything is laced 3x . I think its just one run of spokes to the hub. The days of two or three day builds is over. I will take my time from now on and maybe I wont finish them so quick and need another project in a week.

 

[udallcustombikes]

When I built mine, I had 28 spokes on the inside and another 28 on the outside. The rim I used was a 15x7 and the actual width was 8". I had the "hubs" spaced 9" apart on the axle so both sides of the wheel were dished out.