Flat tire on your car? Just mount up a spare bicycle wheel

I hope Velocity is willing to throw a few hubs and rims his direction. They got some good publicity out of this.

Cool collaboration between student and instructor. And Bill Mould can build me wheels anytime!

Finally a use for 26″ wheels again.

if that car makes a left turn at more than walking speed, kiss that wheel goodbye.

Bill is a master. He’s the only guy I let touch my wheels!

Bill is a cool cat! I had the fortune to take bike maintenance and wheel building classes that he instructed. He’s an interesting guy.

that looks like a better option than a lot the the micro spares that come in modern cars.

A fun project. But a properly wheel should not ping! If the spokes are wound up after building, you’ll get pinging as the spokes unwind and screw themselvs out of the nipple a little bit. Then the wheel needs retruing.

How about using a 24″ wheel instead, to better clear the wheel arch?

Toms comment above is spot on. A bicycle wheel will not tolerate anything near the lateral force that a cornering (even at VERY low speed) will exert. Tire roll off and/or wheel collapse imminent! Interesting party trick though…

JasonK, the tire pressure misunderstanding is this: There is a direct relationship between tire pressure and contact patch. No amount of weight will ‘increase’ the tire pressure, it will only vary the contact patch. At 30psi, a 540 pound load will have a contact patch (flat spot on the tire) of (540/30) or 18 square inches. In a 3″ wide tire that’s roughly a 6″ long flat spot. In a 1.5″ tire that’s a scary 12″ long flat spot. That’s the real concern. the sidewall is almost compressed to zero.

Interesting project, cool to see that the wheel can support the weight. I’m curious how it would handle lateral forces and braking forces though, I have a feeling the spokes on true car wheels are much thicker for a reason.