3DM Avila 75mm 73A: drilling & generic wheel pulley

alienpowersystems were selling retainer rings - basically I used the current kegel hub of ADS. its worked well and rides like a dream - only problem is: the urethane is so soft and so thick, that the core with the bearings can bent within the urethane shell, so when I brake or accelerate hard, the whole wheel is pulled in that direction, cants a litte relative to the core/truck axle and the belt is going sideways for 3-4mm, ultimately touching the motor mount. nothing serious, but still a little annoying. i wanted to switch to 32T anyway, that will reduce the torque a little - just waiting for ads 15mm gear to arrive. anyway, enjoy the pictures … this will is the grippiest and smoothes wheel Ive ever ridden! :blush:

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since the pulley kept bending within the wheel too much, I never really used the avilas much at all. this weekend Ive been out a lot on my LDP board (no motor!), which I upgraded with a new bossa platform and 3dm avila 73A and I immediately fell in love again with these wheels. there is really NOTHING in the world that rides as smooth as these wheels! :heart_eyes:

so I kept thinking about these super soft wheels and then I thought Id give it one last try and basically use epoxy resin and pot the pulley with the wheel. the idea behind it is: if I give the pulley a really strong bond to the whole surface of the wheel, it will probably take the torque much better and distribute it over a much larger surface without bending as much as before.

to get a strong bond, I took the wheel and roughed up the pulley side with really rough grit. also roughed up the APS pulley, tried to center it as good as possible.

did the same with the retainer ring and the urethane between bearing and retainer, where the 5 screws start to pierce the urethane.

now the new idea is this pipe that you saw in both pictures: it has exactly 22mm diameter like a bearing. I covered most of it in clear tape and just left the small bearing width part free that goes into the wheel bearing seat!

once seated, it seals off the inner wheel core and I can pot pulley and tomorrow the retainer ring with epoxy resin and still get bearings into the wheels!

you can see the result of the pulley side already - its still fresh and I was generous with epoxy - really aiming for a strong bond of roughed pulley with roughed urethane on the inside and outside of the pulley. the 5 kegel pulley “Horns” are fully encased in epoxy now.

tomorrow Ill do the same thing on the retainer side, which will hopefully stabilize the whole thing enough to make this wheel really useable. big question mark for tomorrow is: will I get out the clear taped pipe? :sweat_smile:

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it seems to work - done with one side and was able to pull out the pipe with a lot of force (clear tape was stripped right off). the tunnel is large enough to effortlessly insert a bearing, so im quite happy. the epoxy urethane aluminium mix really resisted the force without a sweat - a little surprised how good urethane bonds with epoxy.

the epoxy noticeably stiffed up that part of the wheel though, not sure if I basically just supported the wheel a little too much now so that the pulley is stable, but the plush is gone. if thats the case Ill remove some of the epoxy - its a material that has very low resistance to abrasion while urethane is the polar opposite in that regard.

filled up nearly the full wheel cone with epoxy - it feels a lot stiffer to the touch at that side of the wheel now:

the bearing epoxy tunnel from the pipe - looks a bit messy because of the clear tape leftovers which I havent removed yet. just checked if the bearing was able to go through and then went on working on the other side!

other side, same thing, however I didnt fill up the cone of the wheel much - most of the epoxy is now in the inner cone below the retainer to support retainer and screws better. I might remove the surface epoxy with some grinding, same with the other side. epoxy just gives up fast vs. sand paper while urethane is hardly affected at all.

curing in the oven as we speak to reduce the cure time a little :slight_smile:

i fiddled a little with granddads lathe (which I have no clue about, but I knew I cant do much harm on epoxy).

front side - removed all excess epoxy ontop/sides of the retainer:

removed a lot of epoxy from the pulley side too - I want plush at all costs!

added the pulley - ordered a 32T from APS already, since 36T will be too large for these small wheels. but for testing it should be fine!

finally look at the gorgeous epoxy channel, seamlessly transitioning into the bearing seat :slight_smile:

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Hi I was planning on buying these wheels but havent decided well enough and need a good explanation. My question is, which of these wheel is better on really rough rough slightly paved roads? I heard on the silverfish forums that the 73a avilas do great (costs 95.73$ to ship to my country) but I was also wondering since the height and urethane of the Kegels (costs 80$ shipped to my country) at 80mm is huge doesnt that also negate the bumpiness and rattles of the harsh road conditions? And also are the kegels faster as well? Looking forward for your input on this and thanks a lot for the reply. Cheers

How did the wheel mod hold up? I have a long distant pumping set up with 3dm’s that I am thinking of turning electric. Don’t think I will ever look back after I became electric half a year ago.

it held up, but 90mm abecs were just a lot better for this electric business! :slight_smile:

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