Tadpole trike front wheels

Hey everyone,
I'm building a SWB RWD tadpole Trike and i'm just about where i need
to get some front wheels.
I was wondering, do i need any special wheels, or can i just use some
standerd bike wheels?

if your intrested, I have a website set up at
http://leavtrike.port5.com and i update it just about every time I get
some work done.

i'd really like to hear some opinions about my design so far....

Thanks,
Leav

(Leav) wrote in message . com...
Hey everyone,
I'm building a SWB RWD tadpole Trike and i'm just about where i need
to get some front wheels.
I was wondering, do i need any special wheels, or can i just use some
standerd bike wheels?


Hiya-

No, you can't use standard front bike wheels- usually you will want to
have front hub brakes and you *need* large front axles so they can be
supported on one side. Your best bet is to have a pair of 20" wheels
built on "downhill" mountain bike hubs that use 20mm diameter axles
and disk brakes.

The smallest axle you should use is 12mm diameter- and then only if
you use straight (unthreaded) axles and cartridge bearings. Many
years ago I built trikes that used moped hubs laced to bicycle rims:
http://www.pacifier.com/~jwills/Gallery/index.html
The axles were 12mm diameter, but threaded along their entire length.
They broke pretty quickly.

Jeff