Monday, January 25, 2016

What Should Be Known About Wire Wheels

By Anna Collins


A wire wheel simply refers to a wheel in which the rims are connected to the hubs by wires. They are known by several other names including tension-spoked, suspension, or wire-spoked wheels. Suspension wheel should not be confused with vehicle suspension because the two are very different. Wire wheels function by maintaining the rim in shape while they support the load applied. They function in a similar manner to tensioned flexible wires.

The invention of these products occurred in 1808 and was done by an aeronautical engineer by the name George Cayley. Even though Cayley proposed the product, its functioning, and its production, he never applied for a patent. A patent was later applied and issued to a Theodore Jones in London in October of the year 1826. The use of the product on bicycles was first patented by a French by the name of Eugene Meyer in the year 1969.

The first successful commercial use of these products was on bicycles. They began to be used shortly after the bicycle was invented and rubber tires were adopted for use on vehicles. With the introduction of this wheel on bicycles, a lot of improvement was introduced. The improvement came from the amount of weight that could be bored and the level of comfort.

The older wooden wheel was insufficient in a number of ways, especially since it lacked elasticity, something that prevented it from being able to absorb road variations. The early manufacturers of bicycles manufactured millions of tension-spoked wheel every year. They used the common crossed-spoke patterns in which crossings of adjacent spokes were determined by how many spokes were present. However, other patterns were also available including no-cross, one-cross, and two-cross.

The aforementioned patterns produce more stability and strength. Their usage has persisted for more than one century now. On the contrary, irregular patterns consist little structural merit and have mostly been considered to be art forms. Professional racing and Olympic games saw the first cast wheels containing 5-6 rigid spokes get introduced in the 80s. The introduction was for them to be used on specialized applications including time trials. Other applications remain widely performed by wire-spoked products.

Stainless steel is the main material used in production even though several other materials are also in use. Stainless steel is a preferred material because it is much stronger and elastic. Because of the strength of steel, the wheel remains un-deformed under great load. The Chinese have recently started producing products that are made from plastic.

The number of wires in a product is usually varied. Some products have more wires than others. The main factor that determines the number of wires is the application the wheel is meant serve. For instance, products installed on cars have more wires than those installed on motorcycles and bicycles. The higher the number of wires, the stronger the device is.

Beauty is one of the properties of these products. They are widely used on motorcycle because of their retro appearance. Today, the world has many producers who sell their products at different costs.




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