The hub hangs from the spokes being above said hub. Spokes being below said hub don’t crumble because they don’t take any force. Just those above. And steel is quite good at holding things hanging from it.
Each can probably hold 100 pounds and there’s like 100 spokes between the two wheels, half of which at any time are active in pulling the center hub up. The top most being full force and slowly decreasing to zero on the side spokes. . Given this basic set of assumptions, I’d math out that it’s capable of holding up about 3500 pounds.
Edit: 220lb of force at rest each, 50 spokes ish … I’d still math that out to 3500 lb at rest, probably realistically double that capacity.
They all pull approximately equally on the wheel, which acts as an arch in compression.
They have enough tension in them that your weight on the ones that connect near the ground contact isn’t enough to put them in compression, just slightly less tension.
no, really. they all take a bit of the weight all the time. a lot of the strength is in the tensile strength (which is quite high) of the steel, which means the top is doing the most of the work.
All spokes are put in under tension. There should not be a pushing force on them. Basically the same system as pre-tensioned concrete. And because the wheel is pulled onwards, it doesn’t really deform a lot.
Well, think of bike spokes like a team effort at a pizza party! Each spoke plays a vital role in distributing the weight evenly, so no one gets overloaded. They work together like buddies holding hands to keep the wheel strong and steady—pretty neat, huh?
Spokes hold up weight by pulling. They are like a really stiff steel cable or rope. You can easily bed a rope by pushing but you can’t break it easily by pulling. You can even buy a replacement some for emergencies that is literally just a cable! https://kk.org/cooltools/fiberfix-emergency-spoke/
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Spokes are there to reinforce, but most of the weight is actually held by the wheel itself, which is much thicker and stronger
Because they’re suspending the hub from the top of the rim, not supporting it from the bottom.
The hub hangs from the spokes being above said hub. Spokes being below said hub don’t crumble because they don’t take any force. Just those above. And steel is quite good at holding things hanging from it.
Each can probably hold 100 pounds and there’s like 100 spokes between the two wheels, half of which at any time are active in pulling the center hub up. The top most being full force and slowly decreasing to zero on the side spokes. . Given this basic set of assumptions, I’d math out that it’s capable of holding up about 3500 pounds.
Edit: 220lb of force at rest each, 50 spokes ish … I’d still math that out to 3500 lb at rest, probably realistically double that capacity.
The spokes are all in tension.
They all pull approximately equally on the wheel, which acts as an arch in compression.
They have enough tension in them that your weight on the ones that connect near the ground contact isn’t enough to put them in compression, just slightly less tension.
apes together strong.
no, really. they all take a bit of the weight all the time. a lot of the strength is in the tensile strength (which is quite high) of the steel, which means the top is doing the most of the work.
All spokes are put in under tension. There should not be a pushing force on them. Basically the same system as pre-tensioned concrete. And because the wheel is pulled onwards, it doesn’t really deform a lot.
Well, think of bike spokes like a team effort at a pizza party! Each spoke plays a vital role in distributing the weight evenly, so no one gets overloaded. They work together like buddies holding hands to keep the wheel strong and steady—pretty neat, huh?
Spokes hold up weight by pulling. They are like a really stiff steel cable or rope. You can easily bed a rope by pushing but you can’t break it easily by pulling. You can even buy a replacement some for emergencies that is literally just a cable!
https://kk.org/cooltools/fiberfix-emergency-spoke/
Because the wheels pull on the spokes, not push.
You can even replace your spokes by ropes…https://berdspokes.com/collections/spokes