Small Wheels

[HydroJim]

I'm currently designing a reverse trike and I am looking for a lightweight front suspension set-up with thin wheels to save weight, reduce frontal area, and reduce rolling resistance.

Here is an example of what I'm looking for:


Unfortunately, this guy's donor car is not available in the US.

I was thinking motorcycle wheels might do the trick, but I can't visualize how I would attach one to control arms.

Any ideas please let me know

[wmjinman]

I don't know the sizes, but what about the skinny wheels they use on the fronts of dragsters, and then the motorcycle tires on them?

[Ryland]

That photo is of a motorcycle wheel, I haven't heard of anyone having one fail yet, but they are also not designed for sideways stress! the tires are not either.
Mounting them to the control arm would be easy tho, it's a simple spindle/bolt, of course the bearings are not designed for thrust loads so those will have to be replaced as well, tapered roller bearings would work well.

Other option would be the narrow rim from an old VW bug, narrow tires too, VW Brakes – Dune Buggy Braking Systems | AppleTreeAuto.com cheap too!

a number of older rims are out there, ones from a bug are $10 at a local junk yard, or you could get new front race rims and pay $150 each, 145/65 R15 tires are also sold in a LRR tire, pretty sure those are the same tire the Smart Car uses on the front, seems like a perfect fit!

[arcosine]

He has a point, they are meant to lean into a turn. You could make a tilting trike. Maybe set of alloy temporary wheels.

Reverse Trike Motorcycle Club

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...5478-Odd-Trike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=CUT3imO17qE

[Ryland]

There are of course other brands of vehicle front ends that you can get for building hot rods, I would suggest using something like this because it gives you solid proven wheel bearings, lets you use standard bolt pattern wheels and it gives you options for off the shelf brake parts.

front+spindle - JEGS High Performance

It would be nice if you could get something from a Smart Car, but they have an odd 3 lug wheel.

[TheEnemy]

If you can weld you would be able to build it from scratch, which is what it looks like is being done in the photo.

[shovel]

https://www.lefthanderchassis.com has some suspension parts, obviously intended for track racing but it's worth browsing anyway.

[Sven7]

Why not use CRX running gear and narrow a steel wheel? Just do it like they do to widen them, but cut the barrel down instead of adding new material.

[jakobnev]

It might be possible to have a steering geometry that tilts just the front wheels into turns. (no need to tilt the whole cow)