Also, the dishing allows the wheel to compensate for expansion of the spokes due to absorbed moisture by dishing more.[3]. Spokes can be made of wood, metal, or synthetic fiber depending on whether they will be in tension or compression. Rims become warped, or out of true, when the spoke tension is out of balance. [4] Metal spokes can also be ovalized or bladed to reduce aerodynamic drag, and butted (double or even triple) to reduce weight while maintaining strength. Think of a bicycle wheel. Multiply 22.5° ("angle between adjacent flange holes") by the number of crossings to get the angle a—if 3-crosses, the 32 spoke wheel has an angle a of 67.5°.

Which Mountain Bike Wheel Size Is Right for You? LiveAbout uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. For use in bicycles, heavy wooden-spoked wheels were replaced by lighter wheels with spokes made of tensioned, adjustable metal wires, called wire wheels. The bent version has the advantage of replacing a broken spoke in a rear bicycle wheel without having to remove the rear gears. A spoke is one of some number of rods radiating from the center of a wheel (the hub where the axle connects), connecting the hub with the round traction surface. [1] Spoked wheels were also found in Sintashta culture, dating to ca. Spokes can be made of wood, metal, or synthetic fiber depending on whether they will be in tension or compression. To disrupt, foil, or cause problems to one's plan, activity, or project. There are some very good answers here from an engineering standpoint. Fixing a Lateral (Side to Side) Wobble Flip the bike upside down, or put the wobbly wheel in a truing … Tangential spokes are thus necessary for the drive wheel, which has torque at the hub from pedalling, and any wheels using hub-mounted brakes such as disk or band brakes, which transfer torque from the rim to the brake in the opposite direction—(via the hub) when braking. For spokes with bent ends, the nominal spoke length does not include the width of the spoke at the bent end. The box has a depth of d, a height of r2-r1cos(α) and a width of r1sin(a). Wire spokes can be radial to the hub but are more often mounted tangentially to the hub. Look at the wheel from along the axis. For example, a 32 spoke wheel has 16 spokes per side, 360° divided by 16 equals 22.5°.

Tangential spoking allows for the transfer of torque between the rim and the hub. Instead of individual wire spokes, a continuous thread of Kevlar (aramid) was used to lace the hub to the rim under high tension. The other key role of the spokes is transferring the power from your legs to the rim to make the bike go. Enormous force gets applied to the hub of a rear wheel by the chain and gearing when you pedal down hard, and together the spokes carry the power that has gone from your legs to the chain then out to the wheel. The threads were encased in a translucent disk for protection and some aerodynamic benefit, but this was not a structural component. All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. Spoked wheels are still popular on motorcycles and bicycles. On the flange, the angle between the radii of adjacent holes is 360°/m (for equally spaced holes). What does put a spoke in wheel expression mean? The spoked wheel was in continued use without major modification until the 1870s, when wire wheels and rubber tires were invented.[2]. For wheels with crossed spokes (which are the norm), the desired spoke length is.

What Bike Spokes Do and How They Function. Tensioned spokes are usually attached to the rim or sometimes the hub with a spoke nipple. No one ever notices them when everything is working well, but without proper setup and operation, all sorts of trouble will break lose. Rather, the rim is evenly pulled inward by the spokes, which are laced through the hub, the center part of the wheel that rotates around the axle. Thus, multiplying the "angle between adjacent flange holes" by k gives the angle a.
Imagine holding a wheel in front of you such that a nipple is at the top. Celtic chariots introduced an iron rim around the wheel in the 1st millennium BC. Starting at the hub in the center of the wheel, spokes radiate outward to the rim, where they attach to nipples, which are like little nuts that screw onto the spoke ends.
The spoked wheel was invented to allow the construction of lighter and swifter vehicles. Thanks for the A2A. This term removes the effect of the hole size. Overtightening a single spoke can pull a wheel out of true. Do-It-Yourself: Rebuild a Motorcycle Engine, Transfer your leg power from the hub to the wheel.

You would think the rise of cheap electric cars would put a spoke in Big Oil's wheel, but they actually seem to be embracing the change. Wheel builders and bike mechanics must balance this tension so that the rim is perfectly flat, or "true.". These are also used in wheelchairs, motorcycles, automobiles, and early aircraft.