How does one find a factory in China to make parts?

I am not sure if pneumatics are a good idea at that size. I did not like the skike 5" too much and upgraded to 6" with thicker rubber. The smaller the diameter the thinner the rubber becomes and wear is a bitch. I’d rather think about something like this: A tubeless urethane “air” tire

4 Likes

Couldn’t you just request harder wearing rubber?

That airless tyre is definitely the one though! :slight_smile:

1 Like

the way I see it is that you only need space for the bearing and a few mm to fit the srews for a pulley, then the rest can be huge thick tire.

2 inches for structural parts, 2 inches of some dank rubber.

1 Like

You forgot the valve…always quite huge and creating wobble on small wheels. 100mm can’t be made. Your tire would get very very slim, since width and diameter are linked. Those tires are not radial structured low pressure car tires. They are almost circular in section, not square. Small tire=slim tire. In that case the air volume inside the tire is so small that you would not get the bonus of ride comfort pneumatics usually offer. A urethan wheel would simply perform better. Expect a MOQ of a couple thousand and some quite expensive moulds to be cut. Then you need moulds for hubs, since you need to sell thousands with your thousand tires. Thousand customers send 3000 e-mails, so be prepared for a lot of conversation: Where is my parcel, could I get a discount, do you have them in red, my parcel is missing, what is the price for 20, my tire is not spinning round, what is the price for shipping to xyz, where are my products, can you mount them to truck xyz, I have a business, can you deduct VAT…

30K invest + a lot of time, couple of flights to EA, prototyping, mould adjustments, minimum one year till product is finished, outcome doubtful.

Frank

3 Likes

My 6" wheels are not circular in section - in fact they are more rectangular than your larger 7" or 8" wheels. I agree with the rest of what you said but that shape thing is wrong.

Frank, width and diameter of the cross section may be linked, but in terms of hub diameter, it’s completely independent of each other.

Case in point: There are 5" pneumatic wheels/tyres

These are approx. 24" pneumatic tyres, they both have the exact same 1" width.

There’s no reason the same dimensions cannot be scaled down to fit on smaller hubs like it can for bigger ‘hubs’.

1 Like

@Mobutusan was looking into putting a full polyurethane wheel on these type of rims. I think @psychotiller 's . Seems pretty ideal. like a rollerblade wheel. but the tires aren’t detachable. forget detachable. get the rim and put it in the mold and pour pu around it. when it finally wears out cut it off and put it back in the mold for more rubber no obstacles with the air yet same large diameter and maybe lower rolling resistance (I read the air tires for boards have bad rolling resistance). I bet with a nice latex tube and the right tire the resistance could be much lower though. very noticeable on a bike with the right tubes and tires

1 Like

Rolling resistance on my new version sixshooters is amazing!! Ask anyone who’s ridden them. I like your idea of pouring over the hubs…Never thought about that. Totally doable.

1 Like

The rolling resistance in the 6 shooter is way better than the skikes I used before and almost as good as flywheel. There’s a difference but after 10 mins you won’t feel it.

1 Like

you may not feel it, although you could, but you would get better range. in the bike world two tires will look the same and have the same weight but possibly very different rolling resistance. its pretty easy to reveal how it will do by the suppleness of the tube and tire off the wheel in your hands. more supple rolls better and really saves a substantial amount of energy. but the latex tubes lose air quickly and need to be pumped daily. a pain. at least a thin butyl tube is worth it

Do you have a problem with having to put air in your tires @mmaner or @mccloed or @caustin or @Crushkrew or @treenutter ? Try a set Evo! You’ll see. The generalizations you speak of do not appy to my wheels. and the rubber compound of these new tires is lasting forever!!!

I was saying the latex tubes, that have less rolling resistance, need to be pumped daily and that’s a pain.

But we are talking about super tiny diameters and looking a the Skikke tire, you will see that you can’t make it a lot smaller, since the valve needs some space. To increase the width of the tire, you would need to have a smaller diameter hub keeping the same outer tire diameter, which is hardly possible because of the valve. In consequence you can’t make a tiny but wide tire. A Bike has plenty of space and you could even make a quite fat tire, as you see an Fat Bikes. The cross section is always nearly circular - 60-80PSI force it into that shape. A rectangular shaped car tire has radial steel banding to allow that special shape + you drive on low PSI pressure. If you want a more oval cross section, you need a very stiff 4-6 Ply tire, which is heavy and takes away a lot of ride comfort. The other method is to mould a lot of rubber over the actual circular tire - ads tons of weight and rolling resistance. The stiffer a tire is, the less comfortable it is to ride on, the more rolling resistance you get.

Frank

1 Like

Nope, this isn’t a problem for me. It’s just a regular part of maintenance of my esk8, the same way I charge it, clean bearings, check bolts for snugness, check belts, etc. Just like riding a bicycle - a little basic maintenance is required if you want the best ride possible.

For me, the extra step added to assure proper tire inflation is totally worth the ride quality of pneumatics.

The wheels I use (@psychotiller’s sixshooters) can run flat, and although I’ve never had a flat on them, it’s good to know that I could get home if needed. This saves me from having to ride around with a spare tire and tube, like I did previously with skikes.

2 Likes

I have three working sets and I’m not sure I have added air to any of them. :+1:

2 Likes

And I was saying that problem doesn’t exist with my wheels. We can all move forward and stop talking about the old shit as if it’s still an issue. Can’t we?

The new tires we’re using are 4ply. I’m not sure what compound it is, but it’s good. Real good. My hubs are wide and offset allowing the tire profile to flatten out. This gave more room for components. Made corner grip crazy and widened our contact patch which lowers your psi (the amount of weight you are putting on the ground per square inch) Which lowers your roll resistance.

Everything @trampa said above is true and we did most of it anyway and found that we ended up with a 6" billet pneumatic that rolls exceptionally well and is lighter than the Abec 107 and not much heavier than the 97mm flywheel.

And they will run flat if needed.

1 Like

Agreed! Riding on air is nice and strips out any vibrations. I’m loving the fact that you can ride on dirt and tramac, which you can’t do on a urethane wheel, no matter of size. Can’t wait for our custom low profile 6"ers to arrive.

Frank

1 Like

I was saying that when youre using an air tire the rolling resistance will vary depending on the tube and tire. latex tubes, which are the best, take pumping every day. I’m not saying you have any problem or talking about your wheels in particular just air tires in general. I bet the large wheels you sell have less rolling resistance than a pu wheel of the same size if solid bike tires are an indication. I had them. took half an hour to put on and went one block and took them off

1 Like

@psychotiller Im curious to know how many you have? Do you have tens of thousands just laying around?

1 Like

Yup. Just laying around :joy:

2 Likes