Custom star bikewheel

As a bicycle mechanic I like to experiment with different designs for bicycle
wheels, especially since I got in contact with building custom bikes like:
Chopper, Cruisers and Full Customs.

I have written this instructable to my best knowledge, however no rights can be
drawn from the contents off these pages.
U build and/or use the shown wheel at your own risk.
Be warned, you will during this tutorial alter some parts in such a structural way
like drilling extra holes  that all warranties provided by the manufacturers will
be void.

Step 1 Tools & Parts

1. Materials used:
rim: Alesa 26inch ( 22x559 ) aluminium
hub: Shimano fronthub HB-MN72
spokes: Union steel plated 14g 262mm
nipples: Union nickel-plated brass 14g
This hub is chosen because of the large flanges, this way there is enough space between the spoke holes to drill an extra hole between them.

If you want to use a donorwheel look for one with nice large flanges and you can measure the spokelength to go and buy the 33 extra spokes + nipples you need, the donorwheel must have a standard 3 cross spokelayout to meet the requirements for making this wheel.

2. Tools used:
Dremel multitool
Drills 2,5mm, 4mm and 8mm
Spoke wrench Park Tool
Hand drill
Clamp
Hammer
Caliper
Marking tool steel
center point
truing stand
a Dremel drillingstand ( not in the picture )

Comments

[Biohazard1194]

Looks awesome. I'll see if I can't get some spare rims and spokes to make this. Just incase I mess up and end up ruining a rim I still have the original.

[jcg]

Try to find second hand rims, it doesn't matter if they have a wobble in them because your respoking (probably not the right word) anyway. So on top of making awesome wheels your fixing something too. And it's cheaper.

[enyceckk]

This wheel has a Mercedes Benz logo on it.

[PyroBuilder15]

I know what I'm doing tonight to my bike.

[unaffiliatedperson]

this would look awesome on the cruiser i found in the dumpster i found the other day. thanks for posting.

[maurice1993]

hey, I simply can't use the original wheel, un-assemble, make this, and then, re-assemble?

[MasterRed]

Yes you can the spokelength is the same, so basicly you can just relocate the spokes in an existing wheel. And if you want to you can go to a bikeshop and buy the extra 33 spokes in the same length as the ones already in the wheel to make it the same as in my instructable here.

[maurice1993]

hmmm sound cool...... for sure I'll do this in my next bike!(when I buy it... I'm on foot... cryiiiin)

[minhocaloka]

woot man!!!=D

awesome!=D

¬¬ i'll try!!!=P

[Unmortal]

i geuss the wheel is very save bechause if ya ride a bike the wheels need to carry you around and not be like yellie puding and in this instrutabal are very much spokes that go to the center of the hub thos empty space wont be a problem i geuss you can make money with this in the neterlands bechaus we use bikes almost al day and this is just art!!

[geppetto425]

This would be cool on a Unicycle!!!

[mikepenton]

Definitely - there's going to be an article on funky wheel builds in Uni - The Unicycle Magazine soon :)

[vanpaun]

I didn't know you guys were on here! sweet!

[ntappin]

we are everywhere.

[Alecw35]

It would be neater if it was a plain undimpled rim I've seen factory custom motorcycles with similar wheels

[mynameisjonas]

very nice! have you been using this wheel?

[MasterRed]

Not this is one but something similar I have been using in my hobby chopperbike project HERO. In fact the idea to make this spokelayout came to me when I was making the frontwheel for this bike. And as you can see this bike has some extra weight to it, but I haven't encountered any problems with it yet, not even with the 50K cruise I cruised with it last summer.

[SerJ]

hey MasterRed :) the 50K cruise was a big laugh :) - and never thought id find your bike on Instructables, but happy i did! its in my top 5 favourite bikes ever :)
anyone wanting to see more pics and vids from the Amsterdam event , heres the link:-

http://FBIChoppernation2008.blogspot.com/

See you next summer! :)

[MasterRed]

Yeah it sure was, I really like riding with all these same (crooked;-) minded people. Thanks for my bike being in your top 5 ever. Sure thing I'll be there, just thinking what else I am going to do to my HERO bike before the FBI starts. My next project is going to be a slow build ( years I would say ) so that won't be ready for this years FBI event.

[rachel]

Whoa! How did you make that? Do you have more pictures? It's so worth an instructable or, if you haven't time/energy, a forum topic.

[MasterRed]

Yep you are right that it would be worth an Instructable but...but...but...... there you go time is the one thing I have in short supply.
Go here to the chopperbicycle.net forum to read the (kinda)full story on how this bike was made.

And overhere on the Freakbike-forum is some extra info on the things I've done to the bike after I finished it for the BBO ( Biker Build Off )

Maybe I will start a forumtopic over here this weekend when I am @home.

[mynameisjonas]

very nice!

[krode]

Since you have extra valve holes anyway, why not add a deflated tube utilizing one of the extra holes. That way, you have a redundant tube already installed and ready for inflation if you get a flat. I think there's an instructable on that here somewhere...

[cornflaker]

That would be kind of hard to figure out which one to pump up would it though? lol I guess it wouldn't be too bad if you tire wasn't too flat though because you could see which one still had pressure in it.

[MasterRed]

Yes that would be nice.
Here is the instructable by Chr1s on that.
Bicycle-dual-inner-tube-system

[myuu]

This is the one I've been doing for a few years now, it's a 36 spoke cross lace or "snowflake".

[Archergal52]

This is one of the most thoroughly documented instructables I've seen. I've never been interested in building wheels, but I think I learned a LOT about it here. Well done!

[MasterRed]

Comments like this make it all worth while. Thank you

[rhubarb]

This looks like a variation of a 3(or 4) leading, 3(or 4) trailing lacing pattern. You can do a version of this with similar effect without drilling out your hub flanges or rims. The photos attached are of a 3 leading / 3 trailing wheel I built up around an old Bendix coaster hub. As you may notice, the spokes are interlaced. I'd only recommend doing so with a rather large hub flange, as the spokes are put through some sharp angles. The cool thing about this lacing pattern is that it is that uses the same length spoke used in a standard 3 cross lacing, so you can usually use the same spokes that are already on a built wheel.

I got the information on this wheel at http://www.terminalvelocity.demon.co.uk/WheelBuild/

Check out the site if you're interested in exotic patterns.

[MasterRed]

You are right, basically this is an 3 leading 3 trailing pattern but because off the extra holes I made in the hub and rim this wheel is an 6 leading 6 trailing pattern. I was and still am very surprised how many people did these sort off lacings before I started making them, I've did most off mine without knowing they where done already but the more I post them over on different forums and websites the more people I start to know who have the same passion. Here is one for ya that I haven't seen anywhere else: 3 rims / one hub / 108 spokes / basically an standard 3 cross pattern but then stacked 3 times. p.s. I like your website about your hobby

[xerxesx20]

As if the standard spoke count doesn't make for a b*tch to clean, looks pretty good though! :-)

[inertia18]

Can i use this on motorcycle rims, if its possible. I like to try it sometime with my front wheel.

[Koil_1]

This is really awesome. However, wouldn't it be easier to just not mark or drill the holes for the missing spokes?

[MasterRed]

Yes and no, Yes you could leave the 2 extra holes in the rim out by counting 12 off the original holes from the valve hole when marking the rim. And no for the hub because you would really need to pay very good attention when starting to layce the wheel where you start so that you end the right way. For estatics I agree that the extra holes should be omitted in the hub although I like the extra valve's with caps on the rim.

[theatre_tech_guru]

i love it

[watermelonhead]

that's cool. what would be cooler, though, is if you added one of those spinny hubcaps, like on gangsta cars. :]

[mweston]

Wow, this is really interesting. I think I have a few ideas for this - you could make a ton of different designs with the spokes...

[MasterRed]

Yes you can, here are 2 more photo examples off wheels with out off the ordinary spoke lacing's that I did.
The first 2 pictures are from a wheel with a twist spoke layout.
I have made an .pdf tutorial on this wheel also that I offer for download on my website as I do with the Instructable here, in time I will put it up as an Instructable also.
The third photo is the frontwheel I mentioned in the reply to mynameisjonas's comment.

I've done some radical wheels with 72 spokes with 2 rims put into 1 wheel and also 2 rearwheels with 108 spokes with 3 rims laced together, but for these wheels I haven't got tutorials............. yet ( but if time permits me I will do them someday )

[mweston]

Great job on those as well, they are all very cool, I might try something like the last picture, It will take some planning but hopefully I will get to it soon :-)

[monterto]

very cool lace pattern, how strong is it vs radial lacing?