Cheap disc wheels $45 very very light.

[jond]

I saw the u tube video by catrike and the flaming eyeball with his training wheel monokote treatment to render up a cheap disc wheel.

Previously I had experimented with abs plastic achieving a 1.5 klm per hour reward for both wheels. But I wanted a semi permanent vendetta rear solid option that weighed nothing and did not cost much compared to carbon fibre sheet and was easily removed albeit destructively in case of monokote.

I was inspired so I ordered up up the materials.

Monokote style Chinese equivalent from banggood site.

Bear brand double sided tape very thin. Pot rubber cement from repco auto. Cleaning alcohol.

two plastic milk cartons 2 litre smart milk because my wheels just know stuff.

decent electrical tape 3m brand and the wife’s expensive hair dryer.

instead of rubber cement I used two sided bear tape. The rubber cement I tried from repco auto shop did not convince me of its efficacy.

first up proof of concept test

a radial spoked 20 count velocity rim training wheel. I rode it 80 klm on rough roads no issue but flexion and natural stretch and cold overnight revealed this next morning.



No problem hair dryer restored drum tight . How often you could reheat and restretch is yet to be answered. Note it did not flap at all and felt good and fast .

because of the dishing the uncut radially monocote does not sit entirely flat and as such care must be taken adhering edge evenly to rim. As the shrinkage upon applying heat is not infinite .

 

[jond]

Onto the the second wheel an enve 24 spoke carbon rim 60 mm with brake rim. I ran no rear brake on test wheel lol. I will survive.

Step 1 clean rim and kiss gently.

step 2. Make a donut x 2 to add support at hub from your smartest plastic milk containers.




Step 3 cut sections of bear tape space around wheel perimeter. Please use your wife’s best ever scissors they need to be great cutting monocote and bear tape



Step four cut a square appropriately sized mono cote sheet. Remove backing clear film. Monocote is for rc model planes. It is shiny one side and dull with heat activated adhesive the other. Sticks on wood not metal. I don’t know about carbon fibre but trust believe and hope my wheel is not monokote adhesive damaged. I did not see any adhesion but it got a little tacky on flat blade spokes. No residue left. Certainly nothing at all on aluminium black velocity rim.

mark and cut a hole in middle of correct size. To match hub as closely as possible.

carefully exactly place on wheel and remove other side of bear tape. Allow excess ruffle between the spaced bear tape to be about 5 mm high so that excess can be uniformly as possible shrunk.

Cut out section using your wife’s credit card to allow air pressure fill . I used rubber cement here on the plastic card. Seems to be secure enough




Step 5 get the hairdryer set on bald man hot as setting. Evenly shrink. You can linger too long and bummer burn a melt hole. Easily pathched just lay a sliver of monocote down hold n heat.

make a monocote donut and place over hub for additional support.

Take appropriate coloured electrical tape not white dopey and circumnavigate both sides of your wheel.

Sit back admire the handy dandy work. Now place on vendetta and prepare for speed shockitis. Ooh shiny. I did cover with tape the valve hole. Easily removeable no damage to monocote .rides well. Further testing long term reliability coming.

edit I used curved nail scissors to cut holes on monocote.

In the credit card pic to the right you can see the overzealous heating result. I merely covered with a small rectangle of monocote and heated. Easy repair. Sticks to itself well enough.

 

[jond]

I think I should point out that an enve wheel is more expensive than $45 but given the aptitude of any Cruzbike pilot it’s not necessary.

 

[Frito Bandito]

Looks great JonD. Those are nice wheels already and now even faster. I am planning on doing this for 50mm or 80mm Bullets. As for the adhesive not sticking to metal (spokes) so well. In retrospect, would you recommend some rubber cement or other adhesive on the spokes to help the Monokote adhere better?

 

[BJ686]

Looks great! For the milk carton donut around the hub, did you glue or tape this to the hub, or is it just sitting free?

 

[jond]

Looks great JonD. Those are nice wheels already and now even faster. I am planning on doing this for 50mm or 80mm Bullets. As for the adhesive not sticking to metal (spokes) so well. In retrospect, would you recommend some rubber cement or other adhesive on the spokes to help the Monokote adhere better?

No I wouldn’t glue your spokes. Too messy no need. The monokote ends up drum tight and is flat against most of the spoke excepting the near rim edge.

Even if you did not cement the milk carton. The monokote adheres to the milk carton donut well so far. You can flick the monokote and it does not deform permanently.

longer term who knows but I plan to use the wheel to try and stay fast with vossi in an upcoming November event. I will also test more and report back. There will be some facts but no relative comparisons.

I merely accept it looks faster it must be right

 

[jond]

Looks great! For the milk carton donut around the hub, did you glue or tape this to the hub, or is it just sitting free?

it’s just sitting free. On the first trial wheel I cut the donut radially as it was wider and interlaced it within spokes. No glue. The monokote seems to adhere fine enough to the donut with just its own adhesive. The second carbon I made the donut smaller and it conformed with the heat shrinking process well. It was also cut radially which you can see in pic. The main pic of carbon wheel complete is without the added monocote donut.

if you look carefully at the main pic you can see striations on the surface where the spoke gripped the adhesive. These were removed by further heating.

 

[Frito Bandito]

No I wouldn’t glue your spokes. Too messy no need. The monokote ends up drum tight and is flat against most of the spoke excepting the near rim edge.

Even if you did not cement the milk carton. The monokote adheres to the milk carton donut well so far. You can flick the monokote and it does not deform permanently.

longer term who knows but I plan to use the wheel to try and stay fast with vossi in an upcoming November event. I will also test more and report back. There will be some facts but no relative comparisons.

I merely accept it looks faster it must be right

Good to know braddah. I'll just leave them bare as the day they were born

Well, if it looks fast, smells fast and feels fast then it must be fast.

Go get 'em in November. Pump up the tires, break out the razor, tape up the vents in the helmet, use the fast shoes (the ones without the laces), leave the heavy water bottles at home, load up with creatine, move into the mountains for a month prior and peak properly

 

[M.J]

I've been running Monokote covers for 500+ miles with great success.
I posted about it towards the end of the "How to make your Vendetta as fast as possible" thread in the Race Series forum.
I agree about tape working much better than glue. I couldn't get a hair dryer hot enough so I got a cheap heat gun, which works great.

 

[DavidCH]

I have this project hidden in the corner of the garage. Monokote.... does it need a varnish or something over the top? I remember doing model aircraft and curing effect with the dope stretched tight the cloth. Spain is so hot right now ... I probably could just bake it outside.

 

[Don1]

Yes I remember building model aeroplanes with dope and tissue paper in a none ventilated area... Not good. No, monokote is heat shrinkable plastic film

 

[Andrew Wilson]

Yes I remember building model aeroplanes with dope and tissue paper in a none ventilated area... Not good. No, monokote is heat shrinkable plastic film

As a kid I remember building planes like that in my room and my Mom coming in, taking a whiff and being thoroughly pissed at me

 

[Don1]

Looks like aero goes deep with this tribe

 

[Frito Bandito]

And there are still more floating on the outskirts slowly getting pulled into the orbital disc.

 

[jond]

Update. Still holding up well. Reshrink once.

 

[jond]

Edit update Okay one of my bikes in the stand fell against the wheel cover tearing it. I repaired it fine.

Now I have removed the damaged side and peeled off bear tape. No marks on rim yay. Okay so it was only eight days......but encouraging the nil residue left. I will reapply and remake the damaged side. I’m happy with this project and will order more material without hesitation when the need arises.

 

[vosadrian]

longer term who knows but I plan to use the wheel to try and stay fast with vossi in an upcoming November event.

Aaaahhhh, so this is the secret thread with go fast tips to beat me....

So which would be quicker for a non-drive wheel.... Yoeleo C88 (25mm wide, 88mm deep) with GP5000 tubeless, OR my original V20 wheel with monokote with a GP5000 23mm with latex tube? I might have to give this a go!! Or maybe go full send and monokote the Yoeleo??

 

[Don1]

I'd think the shrinkable window insulation stuff might be a cheaper option plus it's clear. I'll be trying that, soon

 

[Frito Bandito]

That extra 8mm would be nice to have Vossi. I went to a RC Airplane shop today in Tokyo and they have オラカバ (Oracover) in 60mm widths which is similar to Monokote. One problem is that they have it in every color EXCEPT black. The gap between edges on my 80mm deep Bullets is 48cm which is cutting it close. I really want to cover all the way up to the brake tracks but it looks like I am stuck. Oh well. That wheel with a 25mm Pro One Tubeless and Oracover will be faster than a Scirocco with a 25mm Marathon Green Guard

Maybe later I can drape a CF sheet over the Oracover to make a CF cover that glues on instead

 

[vosadrian]

I see some photos of Larry’s Vendetta on Strava in the recent 12 hour race he did. Seems to have some sort of carbon looking cover on his already deep wheels. Anyone know how he did that?