Cargo Bikes

The Omnium crew did this a couple of years back with an orange 1st or 2nd gen Cargo, they had quite narrow clearance though so it still meant they were only running 650x42s I believe.

I has definitely been done though which is probably why they brought out the WiFi

A mechanic I know has fitted a Horizon in that size and mudguard. It's thick tubing, shouldn't be an issue.

Surprised people get away with 650b on a Omnium. When I tried I was scraping pedals all the time, and only really gained a few millimeters in tyre size.

The wi-fi's look really great. Would love an off-road cargo bike.

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it’s mostly because I need a new wheel anyway. 650 should be a bit stronger than 700, and I have other 650 wheels just in case spokes start snapping etc. can swap one in temporarily.

I use it pretty much exclusively for work so while wifi would be nice it’s a fairly unnecessary upgrade.

will get dimpling and give it a test run.

Let us know if you have pedal strike issues.

Your rear wheel may be marginally stronger but you'll most likely (not an engineer) weaken the chain stay with a dimple, and possibly introduce a stress riser. Worth bearing in mind if strength is your motivation.

Well, if it snaps I can buy a ti WiFi 😉

Have been riding my Omnium on a 26" since I first built it up. Only took a little bit of adjustment to my riding to avoid pedal strikes. This is with a 406 Front wheel as well.

Anyone had issues with thick (11 guage) spokes working loose?
About 10 miles into a 17 mile journey my UA suddenly started to wobble. First thing I checked was front tyre/wheel/steering rod, then I noticed back wheel (that I'd recently re-built) was untrue. In fact all the spokes on the drive side were so loose that I could hand spin them to tighten a bit - I didn't have an 11g spoke key with me. A friend sent me a clip saying that thick spokes have a prepensity to work loose. Is this true? If so, does that mean I need to strip the wheel down, degrease & re-lace with threadlock?

... also had an issue letting air out of back tyre - the self-healing tube I thought would be a good idea managed to seal up the valve! ffs

What hub/rim/how many spokes? I'm guessing the 11g spokes are plain gauge, not butted?

It's usually the NDS spokes that go slack in a rear wheel; in general, if it's a 10- or 11-speed hub in touring/cargo use, it's hard to load the NDS spokes enough to stop them unwinding without loading the DS spokes so much that the rim cracks. Using PG DS/double (or triple) butted NDS spokes helps a bit, but you'll still usually want to threadlock the NDS.

The rear wheel on my Bakfiets used heavy gauge spokes and never gave me any problems, but then it had a Nexus hub with symmetrical flanges, and a chunky rim.

Here's my Mini WiFi with 2.0 Conti Cross kings + mudguards.

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that looks like right fun

also nice plants man

Now (3x) flaps.

usually the NDS spokes

Think the Nuvinci builds into a symmetrical wheel with even spoke tensions if that makes a difference

@ian(conker) the fatter spokes are more liable to self loosening..

Edit- ah just seen you rebuilt- what tension did you build them up to?

And are they def 11g? All the Nuvinci wheels I’ve seen have been 13g spokes - just quite unusual!

Making them atmo ;)

If its gone all loosey goosey on you, start over.
Thicker/ larger gauge (smaller number) spokes are harder to 'judge' what the tension is by feel, defo a job for a proper spoke tensionometer.
Beware, a lot of rims just aren't really upto the cargo bike life, seen folk rebuild wheels with larger gauge spokes and find the rim just deforms around the nipple holes (even with washers), or just crack n fail soon after.

Recently had a guy with a home brew cargo bike, was pretty cool, but had those solid glue on tyres on cheap hybrid rims, every single nipple hole/eyelet in the rear was cracked or deformed noticeably. He'd just kept tightening the spokes but couldn't figure out/see that the rims were just crumbling.
The front wheel was also approx 1/3 of all of them were cracked after only 800 miles. Recommended he use real tyres, the type with air in them.

Thanks!

I think my riding has also adjusted as I used to get a few on 700 when I first got the bike and don’t seem to any more, it’s a fairly buttock clenching experience when riding loaded.

Spoke tension was around 27 on my guage. Chart measured spokes in mm so wasn't an exact match. They are pretty chunky spokes & I used an 11g spoke key.

@Thrustvector it's an Enviolo (Nuvinci) hub, dunno rims & 36 spokes.

I should point out that the wheel/spokes were fine for first year & I've only done about 20miles since I rebuilt the wheel. I kind of expect a bit of trueing after a few miles, but these spokes had just rattled loose.

Can one use some type of threadlock after greasing/lacing/trueing a wheel?

buttock clenching

Yes, I had a reminder some time into adjusting my riding, sticks in the memory firmly

27 -on 11 (?) gauge spokes I think would be too low. With cargo bikes id be especially careful to remove any spoke windup / false tension. Grease the shit out of the threads / nipples and use nipple washers.

On 11 gauge spokes I’d be tempted to use some sort of threadlock or special nips.. but are they def 11g ?

That's a bit weird then; assuming the rim's not an offset one, you'd expect the tensions to be equal once it's central. I've heard of people using thin threadlock on the spoke side of the nipples and letting it wick up the threads, but I don't know how well that works if you've oiled the threads to help the wheel build in the first place.

(As an aside, I'm not entirely convinced heavyweight spokes are necessary for a cargo bike; if you look at the tensile strength of spoke steel, standard 14/15 gauge spokes can crank up to rim-breaking tensions without going anywhere near yield stress.)

I'm not entirely convinced heavyweight spokes are necessary for a cargo bike

I think you’re almost certainly right, when the Urban Arrow XLs (cargo bike Ian is using) come with Rohloff hubs, they use 14/15 spokes with no issues. If anything I think the butted spokes are better and last longer than the 13g plain gauge spokes the Nuvinci are built with (as well as being easier to build and bring up to / maintain a decent tension)