I am considering adding a big banana seat to a mountain bike in order to carry two adults on the playa. Most of the weight would be supported by the rear wheel. I have not found any published load ratings, so I am concerned about overloading it. What is the easiest thing I can do? Thanks for any advice.
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North Carolina
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Re: Wheels and tires for heavy loads
Mon, October 8, 2007 - 9:55 AMtry a tandem rear...or a well built regular wheel.
I have used 40 spoke, and I have used 48 spoke rear wheels on load carrying bikes...but I built them myself. Not sure where you could buy them readymade, but I bet TomCat will know. -
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Re: Wheels and tires for heavy loads
Mon, October 8, 2007 - 12:30 PMI'd use a mountain bike wheel, maybe a rhino lite or an alex DX32 rim. A tandem hub has a beavier duty axle usu, but there are plenty of loaded tourers out there with a standard campy or ultegra hub holding up just fine. 36 hole minimum; 40 and 48 hole hubs are super rare and would probably restrict you to a high end tandem hub like a phil wood or chris king or DT hugi. Shimano makes a tandem hub but again, very hard to find, even if ordering them through a bike shop.
if it's a playa bike where safety is a distant third, I wouldnt worry about it. Build up a cruiser with a banana seat, and just go. the only upgrade I'd do would be the rim, like the above mentioned rhyno lite. anything with a double wall or better. Sun makes a MAmmoth or BFR rim, Velocity makes a real stout rim too. A downhill weight rim with a brake track is the direction you should go in.
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Re: Wheels and tires for heavy loads
Tue, October 9, 2007 - 1:28 AMon that stock cruiser rear, take TomCat seriously - double wall alloy only - no steel rims!!!
and when I was building 40 and 48 spoke wheels for myself it was a long time ago, and I was working in a shop so I had the time and wherewithal to collect them as I needed them...so yea, not the most practical advice :)
That being said I picked up a 40 spoker on ebay for $10 several months ago...so they can be found if you look hard enough.
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Re: Wheels and tires for heavy loads
Tue, October 9, 2007 - 1:30 AM<<<I'd use a mountain bike wheel, maybe a rhino lite>>>
reminds me, I can't remember what I put on the back of my xtracycle, but I think it was a rhinolite - 36 hole, well built - and it has held up very well under load.
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Re: Wheels and tires for heavy loads
Mon, October 8, 2007 - 11:31 PMThis year's burn I added a motorcycle looking, king & queen seat (red crushed velvet top and black leather sides) to my Electra Revel 3-speed beach cruiser. I attached it to the normal bike post and to a long sissy bar in back. I added foot pegs (drilled the frame) and it worked and rode fantastic and was comfortable for both myself and my passengers! I ran a 3" x 24" FatAss rear tire from Nirve (with a flame tread pattern, of course!). The 3-speed did help getting up to cruising speed.
I live at sea level, never checked the tire's pressure on the playa, as it rode great and looked properly inflated (but yeah, I had a pump and spare tubes). The only weird thing was getting going with a passenger, as the bike seemed a bit wobbly until I got up to speed.
It was great to offer rides to peeps and I highly recommend it to everyone! Ahhh, remembering lovely arms wrapped around me, bodies pressed together, the stars above and playa lights all around... .. .
/s\a|n/d\ -
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Re: Wheels and tires for heavy loads
Mon, October 8, 2007 - 11:33 PMp.s. - 36 spoke standard wheel that came with the Revel... -
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Re: Wheels and tires for heavy loads
Mon, October 8, 2007 - 11:43 PMnow that I read your post, a mountain bike frame will take the weight OK. upgrading the rim to a DH type rim would be a good direction. Published weights? load capacities? The bike biz would never publish those limits- telling someoen they are too fat to ride a bike can be misconstrued as being sizeist, or insensitive to the needs of overweight people, who really should be encouraged to ride a bike. -
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Re: Wheels and tires for heavy loads
Tue, October 9, 2007 - 9:42 AManother option is to just buy an extracycle and bolt it on your mountain bike- or better yet- hack one out of another bike frame....
it's not cheap, but it is fun, and there's more room for your passenger and loads to move around.
www.xtracycle.com/
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Re: Wheels and tires for heavy loads
Tue, October 9, 2007 - 8:54 PMIf you get to hacking frames, get a Harley rear wheel and mount a front chainring on it. You can do like I did and put the rear deraileur on a jackshaft with cogs on both ends of the shaft. This gives one set for coarse gearing setup on the bench, and 5 -7 speeds while riding.
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Re: Wheels and tires for heavy loads
Wed, October 10, 2007 - 11:58 AMThanks to everyone for the wide range of ideas. I've got a lot to think about. -
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Re: Wheels and tires for heavy loads
Wed, October 10, 2007 - 4:38 PMsorry, one more chime-in from the peanut gallery...
we used these wheels from northerntool.com
www.northerntool.com/webapp/...00331764
only $30!
they carry a pretty heavy duty load (300lbs each) and you can order a shaft collar from the same site (as well as leaf springs, among other things).
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Re: Wheels and tires for heavy loads
Sat, December 8, 2007 - 11:22 PMor you could stretch the bike a bit, mount the banana seat in the middle, which would allow a more evenly balanced weight distribution between the tires. -
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Re: Wheels and tires for heavy loads
Sun, December 9, 2007 - 12:25 AMwow... seeing some action here on this thread just relived some great memories of biking on the playa in 2007... ahhh...
middle of the night... dark all around... my bike lighting up an area as I pedaled through... lol... so many peeps shouting out props... it's a great feeling to be a kinda bike rock star on the playa where like so many peeps shout out as you go by that your ride is so great... some yelled loudly, some just whispered so I could barely hear them as I rode by them, but, those peeps were the best... just one word said in such a low volume, like "cool", or "awesome" or "wow"... like they were saying it to themselves, but I overheard it... ahhh... the best... made me smile so many times...
so, for next year, gotta get going on my el-wire sequencing idea... and holographic gels over white headlamps... and a small propane pooffer for handlebars (to get art cars pissed off)... more and more... lol... BRC is so consuming...
/s\a|n/d\
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