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who's made beadlockers


gelf

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im gonna have a mess about making a set of bead lockers........ we have the laser cutting equipment at work to cut the steel.

they will be 2 rings, one welded to the rim the other will bolt to it.

should both rings be the same size as the widest part of the rim OR should the ring that welds to the rim be slightly smaller in diameter and just sit inside the curved edge of the 8-spoke??

do you know what i mean. :(

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The weld-on bit needs to fit just inside the lip of the rim - which also gives you a nice 'v' to weld in. Need to use the original lip of the rim as the sealing surface (usually nice & smooth) The outer ring needs to be the same outside diameter as the rim itself. The ring of bolts, obviously, need a PCD slightly less than the inside diameter of the bead of the tyre.

I've not done it myself (yet) but have researched the subject extensively.

Another option I've considered is split rims with a piece of 1" wall, 16" (or so) OD HDPE or Poly Pro pipe sanwiched between the two halves of the rim. Use a tyre valve extender to poke the tube valve through the pipe and the rim. Once the rim bolts are tightened, the pipe pushes the tyre against the inside of the rim and you should be able to run pretty much whatever pressure in the tube you like. This has the advantage that there is no issue of whether it is road legal or not.

Si

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The weld-on bit needs to fit just inside the lip of the rim - which also gives you a nice 'v' to weld in. Need to use the original lip of the rim as the sealing surface (usually nice & smooth) The outer ring needs to be the same outside diameter as the rim itself. The ring of bolts, obviously, need a PCD slightly less than the inside diameter of the bead of the tyre.

I've not done it myself (yet) but have researched the subject extensively.

Another option I've considered is split rims with a piece of 1" wall, 16" (or so) OD HDPE or Poly Pro pipe sanwiched between the two halves of the rim. Use a tyre valve extender to poke the tube valve through the pipe and the rim. Once the rim bolts are tightened, the pipe pushes the tyre against the inside of the rim and you should be able to run pretty much whatever pressure in the tube you like. This has the advantage that there is no issue of whether it is road legal or not.

Si

This is a subject that's close to my heart. I've been having HUGE headaches recently with unseating tyres (usually one an event) and mud geting pushed behind the bead (one or two tyres an event). Both are a real PITA as popping a bead normally ruins momentum and its normally not worth the hassle of sorting it in the feild. The latter problem normally results in flat tyres the day after an event and what amazes me is the amount of mud in the tyre; its often about half a dozen golf ball sized balls! I've tried both tubed and tubless to sort the problem but it doesn't seem to make a huge differance with the mud behind the bead (and wearing a hole through the tube) although I've not had a tyre pop off the bead with tubes. That said, tubes have they're own little problem; you can spin them inside the tyre! If you're lucky (rare) you just 'loose' the valve and let mud delaying the puncture although it's more likely you'll rip the valve off as the tube spins.

Locking rings do work, they're just starting to breakthrough in the UK. However, the design needs to be thought about carefully and torquing bolts down is a PITA. There is also the other issue that the inner bead can unseat and then its bye bye tyre. Worse than just popping a tyre off the bead.

The split rim method is what I'm going for; there's no legality issues, tyres are easy to centre on the rim and they hold both sides of the rim and will not slip! These are often known as Hummer style beadlocks in the US and either use Polyprop tubing (often cut so it can be split making installation easier) or a steel cage to lock the beads. I'm just waiting on some details from the manufacturer at the moment, they are right at the top of the shopping list. At present only Matt Lee produce a split rim beadlock but they are the only people in the UK. However, the people who're going to be supplying mine should be producing a more challenge orientated design.

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When I did mine, they were both the same size.

On the wolf rims, I thought the very edge was a bit skinny, so it was cut/ground off.

I wouldn't do it like this again, I'd just make the inner ring smaller, and do the welding on the face, rather than the edge - if that makes sense.

Like Simonr says, the key is getting the PCD for the bolts correct. For 16" Simex and M8 bolts - I used 367mm - worked out perfect, no centering or balance problems.

There is a real knack to fitting them up. Let me know when you've done the welding, and I'll point you in the right direction.

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