Alligt cargobike-wheels

 See for up to information: cargobike-wheels.com 

Alligt is producer of bike parts and has two cargobike wheels.

First a 406-27 wheel for bikes up to 300 kg vehicles till 25 km/h and 4-6 wheels like the Velove Armadillo or lightweight velomobiles like Podbike.

The Velove Armadillo E-Cargobike. (Photo: Hermes)

Second a 406-35 wheel for cargobikes up till 500 kg by 25 km/h and 4 wheels.

Both wheels are made by injection moulding. Both wheels are from PA 6.6. with 60 % glasfiber. Those materials have very good resistance against wearing.

Here a vidio from Velove.se.

We guarantee our wheels up to a maximum pressure of 5 bar with a 47 mm wide/high tyre (preferably no folding tyres). The static load per wheel may not exceed 75 kg. As far as we are concerned, the wheel may be used on vehicles till 200 kg with a maximum speed of 50 km/hour. It has no aproval for moped use. Temperature between -25 and +60 degrees Celsius. Please note that at high temperatures the tire pressure increases due to the heating. The wheels are used by Velove on transport bicycles that together with the rider and luggage can weigh up to 400 kg. That's 100 kg per wheel which is going well so far. They ride up to a maximum of 25 km/h.

Podbike.com has tested our wheel according to ISO 4210-7 Appendix A. They have also contributed to the wheel as it is now. The test prescribes 750.000 blows. Podbike distributed 1.52 million blows with 65 kg on the wheel. The pressure of the tyre was 4.5 bar. They also tested it with lateral load. That didn't result in any chunks either. In the meantime, the wheel has also been tested to satisfaction by another user up to 105 kg incl. an inclined load of 15 degrees.

This is the test machine from Podbike.

For wheel/tyre combination there is at least one normative test. If it survives that test, we think for sure that the wheel will hold in other situations, including use over many years. That test is relatively simple and reasonably reproducible. For example, 4 bar with the Schwalbe maraton plus 406-47 tire, in a four-wheeled vehicle with its own mass of 90 kg and a rider of 90 kg driving around 40 km/h. Then drive around a sharp bend where you just don't go on your side and then brake as hard as you can.

This is a rare situation, which sometimes occurs during "normal" use. Then you immediately have a combination of force on the rim/wheel that is maximum.

The tire pressure wants to squeeze the rim apart. Tensile force and bending moment at the bottom of the rim.

The tire pressure press the spokes and the spokes will pres back against the rim. (the tire pressure make the diameter some smaler)

Through the bend a bending force is exerted on the inner cheek of the rim, on which the tyre runs. (Centrifugal force) And a bending force on the spokes and hub of the wheel. Nearly the entire weight of the bike with rider comes on the two outer wheels.

By braking, almost the entire weight only comes on the outer front wheel. In addition, of course, the braking force. (bracking on the front wheel)

In the end, you would also want to pass the above test even after 5 years and when your tire pressure is high. Of course we want to predict that within the period of 5 years. We adjusted the mould in January 2018, because we found out that the sharp transition between spoke and rim creep led to a too short lifespan. We assume that we will now achieve the five years. About the previous version we can't guarantee that. Anyone with an older version can exchange their plastic Alligt wheels with us for free.

Hypothesis:

The above test can also be used to test the rest of your vehicle. Being able to cycle hard (e.g. with electro), pass the Elk test well and having good brakes requires a good bike and good components.

So the feedback that plastic wheels give in order not to go too fast through a corner is good for traffic safety because people are less likely to get out of corners and good for the life of the vehicle. The feedback is usually barely noticeable for normal people who drive normally, because they do not drive through bends too fast by nature. For people who ride bikes that do not pass a Moose test at high speed, there is also nothing to be seen, because the bike already leaves the corner (tip over) before the wheel is heavily loaded sideways.

The wheel is meant to function for a very long time in our Sunrider veloquad without breakage and corrosion by salt. Sunrider veloquad is a 45 km/h vehicle with four wheels. Other ways of steering, suspension and damping and braking etc. come a step closer becauce of the hollow wheel. This makes a shorter turning circle possible with unchanged construction width, for example. The track width of our rear wheels can probably be broadened by a few cm, without having to sacrifice anything.

The wheel is a stiff wheel if you compare it to other plastic wheels. Compared to a classic wheel with 32/36 steel spokes, it is considerably slacker. That is one of the properties of plastics. More flexible, but because it is more elastic it lasts longer. For the veloquad, this wheel provides a unique extra piece of safety. If you go through a hard corner, the wheel bends slightly, while if you go straight, nothing happens. By bending in a hard turn, the bike drifts a little, giving you a clear feedback that you are going too fast through the turn. This is a similar feeling when you go through a corner with a weaker tyre. So before you go on your side, you get a clear signal here that you're going through the corner a bit on the hard side. You adapt to this and stay away from the area where it gets unsafe. The same happens in your car. Here, however, not because of the tires, but because of a flat tire. If you go too fast through the bend, you have to hold on to your steering wheel, otherwise you will slide out of your seat, or your upper back will slide to the side, which feels uncomfortable. Also an effective feedback to obtain "normal" driving behaviour.

We opted for a wide rim bed to be able to ride with wide tyres. It is not meant for narrow and high pressure tyres. We hope that companies make more tyres for wide rims and multi-track vehicles. The maximum allowable pressure is 5 bar on a 47 mm wide tyre. And about 4 bar for a 55 mm wide tyre.

Because we work with normal sliding in the mould, the rim has no rim edge behind which the bead remains. As far as we know tires don't run off if the size 406 is the right size. But we advise to use the Schwalble Marathon plus 46-406 tire. Preferably don't use folding tires, because tires with a stiff bead will probably function better in a rim without a hook.

We would like to point out that this wheel is meant to get more design freedom in the wheel and that one-sided fixing for the hand is light. Most bicycle hubs, in contrast to almost all car rims, are still designed to be attached to two flanges with spokes on them. It is obvious that there are several hubs that will fail for the normal life time of the bike.

The wheel is nicely stackable.

We will keep you informed about our experiences.

some parts are translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

You can contact us on leovisscherkorver@gmail.com in Dutch, German or Enlish.

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