What Should Be Known About Wire Wheels

A wire wheel is a kind of wheel in which the hub and rim are connected to each other using wires. It also goes by several other names such as tension-spoked, wire-spoked, and suspension wheels. In this case, suspension wheel does not have anything to do with vehicle suspension. Hence the two should not be confused. The working of wire wheels involves maintaining the shape of rims while supporting the load. They work similarly 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.

Bicycles were the first items on which these products were first successfully used on commercially. Their use shortly followed the adoption of rubber tires and invention of bicycles. When they were introduced, a lot of improvements that lacked before were introduced. The first improvements were increased comfort and the mount of load that could be supported.

The older wooden wheel lacked elasticity and other properties, making it insufficient in various ways. Lack of elasticity made absorption of road variations impossible. Millions of tension-spoked wheel products were produced annually by early bicycle producers. They mostly used crossed-spoke patterns where crossings of adjacent spokes dependent on the number of spokes available. However, other patterns such as no-cross, two-cross, and one-cross were also in wide use.

The common patterns named above are considered to have more strength and stability. They have been in use for more than a century and their use seems stable and probably increasing. Irregular patterns have been determined to be simply art forms with very little structural merit. The introduction of cast wheels that contain 5-6 rigid spokes started appearing in professional racing and the Olympic games in the 1980s. They are applied in time trial and similar specialized applications, but wire-spoked product remain in wide use.

Production is mostly done using stainless steel. However, producers use several other materials too. The preference of stainless steel is because it has great elasticity and strength. With the high strength, the wheel does not get deformed when a lot of force is applied. Production using plastic has started in most Chinese companies.

There is a great variance in the number of wires a product may contain. The number is big in some products while in others it is very small. The application of the wheel is what mostly influences the number of wires incorporated. For instance, wires in motorcycles and bicycles will be fewer than in cars. Strength is often increased by increasing number of wires.

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.