Carbon Fibre Question

[RaeTrewBrowne]

Good day,

 

Please could those in the know provide me with some advice. I have the old Spynergy wheelsets (the UCI banned 4 spoke carbon ones) and I am wanting to convert the rear wheel into a full disc wheel.

 

I have a guy who can do it but I am wondering if it is going to effect the wheel balance etc. The wheel will function as normal as far as I can see as the Carbon cover will only really by for aesthetics and aerodynamics and wont contribute at all to the function of the wheel.

 

I will use the 4 spokes as the 'foundation' to lay the cover on so the spokes and outer rim etc will still be what 'drives' the wheel if that makes any sense.

 

Thanking you in advance for your assisstance!

[MTBer wannabee]

Firstly, I think its going to be really difficult to lay up on the rim itself. (how are you going to keep it straight?)

If it is purely asthetics, I would lay up the carbon on a glass table making sure the weave is nice and straight (hence why some carbon frames are painted to hide the crappy workmanship) Then I would do my best to use an equally spread amount of epoxy adhesive to glue the disc to the rim, concentrating mainly on the circumference. Putting too much will just make it heavy and defeat the point. We actually made sold carbon wheels using a polyurathane core that was sandwhiched between carbon layers and it is really easy provided your connection has the right equipment.

[RaeTrewBrowne]

awesome!! thank you very much! do you do this type of thing? if you have experience in it I would feel happier using someone like yourself?

[MTBer wannabee]

We mainly into prototyping of GRP (glass reinforced plastics) product. So it includes your glass, carbon and kevlar type materials. We have played around with many sporting goods such as paddles, flippers, wheel rims, aircraft etc. So i am no expert in any particular genre. In terms of wheel rims, i am not sure of the laminate stack needed to produce a robust wheel for SA roads.

I am just thowing out ideas.

PM me if you want to come and see some of our stuff, maybe give you some ideas.

[AndreZA]

But MTBer wannabee, it does not need to be robust seeing that he will only be closing up the gaps between the spokes. What if you, or the person doing it, only make a dish shaped sheet and lay it over the wheel and glue it to the spokes. And then just try and seal it wheel the cover meets the rim.

[MTBer wannabee]

But MTBer wannabee, it does not need to be robust seeing that he will only be closing up the gaps between the spokes. What if you, or the person doing it, only make a dish shaped sheet and lay it over the wheel and glue it to the spokes. And then just try and seal it wheel the cover meets the rim.

 

oops, in that particular case i was refering to making your own solid wheel from scratch. The process is fairly simple but i would hate for someone to get hurt because their wheel fell apart racing down a steep hill during peak traffic.

For the cover, I agree with you 100% and mentioned it in my first comment.