Wheel,not rim

[bikin' Ed]

I always thought that the "rim" is the part of the "wheel" where the tire is mounted.

[wagonman76]

I used to call the metal part the rim too, because that's what everybody else I knew called it. You had the tire and rim. Wheel was just a general term for the entire assembly. Just like anything else that sometimes does not have a tire. Then as I got more into cars I learned that wheel was the correct term.

Then you've got the transaxle, which most people still call a transmission. I do sometimes too.

My friend calls the windshield and rear window "the front windshield and back windshield".

Lots of people call a truck bed a box too.

[JeremyinIndy]

**Warning, half-baked theory ahead**

I always figured it went back to the old spoke-type "wood or metal thingies you put a tire around and bolt to your lugs", where you had a Hub, Spokes, and a Rim. Then with the advent of one-piece rims (Steelies, Mags, and eventually Alloys) since it was all a single piece instead of the distinct components, they just knocked it down to a single name. Wheel was already a blanket term used for absolutely everything round, so it wasn't useful to call anything that! The hub was reduced to a mounting flange, the spokes were reduced to just what's left after they punched some lightening holes in the flat disk, so the rim was the only really distinct feature left.

If you really look at a tire, the outermost part (the radial rim of the cylindrical flat plain) of it isn't a rim, it's the bead. So, while technically it absolutely IS a rim, it's not. Just like a brake Wheel cylinder IS a hydraulic slave cylinder, but if you say "Slave cylinder" everyone will assume you mean clutch, even though the "Master cylinder" is what controls your brakes.

So, in conclusion:
WHY?!?!?
Because it is.
But WHY?
It just is.
So...Why?
I don't know, he's on third, and I don't give a darn.

My big gripe is the Engine / Motor thing.
Or misspellings of stuff like "Brakes" to "Breaks".

[Frank Lee]

Ha Ha... "breaks". That one never fails to make me shake my head in disgusted awe. I even saw an ad for a local repair shop on T.V. the other day promoting their "break jobs".

More personal favorites of mine are "lose/loose" and derivatives. It appears maybe 1% of the population knows which one is which. Same with "ect". I am waiting for someone to tell me what "ect" means. They ought to know; they use it all the time.

I mean, for God's freekin' sakes, almost all of us had to sit through 13 years of skool, if not more... WHAT WERE YOU DOING ALL THAT TIME- STARING AT SUZY'S SWEATER?!?

[Bicycle Bob]

Well, my fellow grammar nazis, those "buggy wheels" are not the proper wooden spoked type, but rather tension spoke wheels. Those are usually called bicycle wheels, but were originally developed for aircraft, about 50 years before the engines got light enough to match. Like the biplane or sailing rig, they do a superb job of using mainly tension members, which don't need extra material to guard against buckling. They also use them to stabilize the one compression member, the rim. Which brings us full circle back to the topic. :-O
Wire wheels went out of fashion on cars when they became small enough, and highly loaded enough, that "mag" types were lighter. They remain a fertile field for the stylist, being far less rationally designed than bridges.

The wheels illustrated derive their antique appearance from the small, presumably solid neoprene tire, and the radial spoking arrangement. For use with driven or braked hubs, tangent spoking is the norm, and is carried over as normal fashion on bicycle front wheels. The wooden wheels carry the weight on one or two slender spokes at a time, while the tension spoked wheels work as a unit.

[Christ]

That F-Cell car would look better with just one slightly wider wheel splitting the tail lights in the center.

I love tadpole trikes...

Bicycle Bob - Of course you'd know about tension spoked wheels... what's in a name?

[JeremyinIndy]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

I mean, for God's freekin' sakes, almost all of us had to sit through 13 years of skool, if not more... WHAT WERE YOU DOING ALL THAT TIME - STARING AT SUZY'S SWEATER?!?

Yes...Very yes! Well no...by the time I got to school, it was her really tight baby-doll cut t-shirts! Uh, what was your point again?

-
Good point,
But if you're going to pick nits about the Bicycle vs Buggy wheel difference of tension/compression, then it was the Steelie (stamped steel, welded) not mags that replaced the Tensioned Spokes by the 1940s. The Magnesium (Mags) didn't try to supplant the Steel (Steelie) until the 1960s, they didn't stay around because they were too brittle and too reactive (Corrosion, Class D fires). Now it's Aluminum (Alloys) trying to take the crown from the Steelie, but still just can't quite get it for price and problems with being fixed.

[Nevyn]

Originally Posted by wagonman76

I used to call the metal part the rim too, because that's what everybody else I knew called it. You had the tire and rim. Wheel was just a general term for the entire assembly. Just like anything else that sometimes does not have a tire. Then as I got more into cars I learned that wheel was the correct term.

Then you've got the transaxle, which most people still call a transmission. I do sometimes too.

My friend calls the windshield and rear window "the front windshield and back windshield".

Lots of people call a truck bed a box too.

I'm guilty of the transmission/transaxle one, but not the tire/wheel/rim one. I've also noticed that people in my area will call steelies "wheels" and any sort of alloyed/non-solid/specialty item a "rim." You'll often hear tuners say they want to "replace the stock wheels with a good set of rims." ARGH!

As for truck bed/box, that's slightly variable. if it's got 4 sides and depth, it's a box. If it has no sides/tailgate, it's a bed. You can load something "in the box" of a truck , or put it "on the bed."

[MazdaMatt]

I can't say I agree, really. I say that a tire/rim combination makes a wheel. The wheel is the completed assembly that the car rides on. I don't call a bicycle spoke a wheel because it is not the entire assembly. When I see racers selling only the metal part they advertise rims, when they are selling only the rubber part they advertise tires (or tyres for the oldschool brit racers) and when they are selling the pair combined they advertise wheels. Consistantly.

As for the outter edge - that's the lip.

I have always considered a transaxle to be under the umbrella of "transmission" like a car is under the umbrella automobile.

Brake/Break and Tread/Thread bug me <- funny this discussion is going on right now on my racing forum.

I also notice a lot of people saying they cruise down the highway at a stead speed of 60mpg.

[DifferentPointofView]

you know, I'm the opposite way.

I get really mad when someone tries to correct my English if I say "Brandon and me when to the store" and say, no it's Brandon and I.

Who really cares dude? you understood what I said, it's not going to kill anyone, and the whole point of speech is just so that you can get your point across and everyone around you will understand what you said.

I've grown up with my mom who is from another country, her english is good, but it's still broken, and who really gives a rats ass if she says "how many pancake you like?" instead of "how many pancakes would you like?" I know what she said and as long as she knows what I said everything is good.

In fact, I've grown so accustomed to hearing her that I don't notice at all when she talks until I have some friend over and they mention it.

So I grow tired when I go to an older relatives house or something and great aunt is correcting my speech all the time. I don't give a damn, your just wasting my time and interrupting the conversation we're having, which I think is more rude than saying "me and Chase" instead of "Chase and I"

Rant off