Wow, those are awesome. Did you make those?

Scotty C is a member of this group, and the one who made those wheels. Thousands of parts and a lot of time, so I can see how trying to go a little simpler might be a good plan. I am sure that Scotty will chime in eventually about where he sourced the drainage pipe. If I remember correctly, they were off cuts/end cuts from a sewage pipe project.

The car wheels as hubs have worked pretty well for all three of our large bikes, as they provide a nice way to attach wheels to the rigs, using standard mounting plates and axles.

Maybe you could do something more like the wheels on this one:
tribes.tribe.net/spontaneo...c3f4049c37

But with small curved steel plates at the ends of the spokes, to keep them from poking through the drainage pipe? My guess is that the PVC pipe has enough flex that, depending on the weight of the rest of the rig, even a 1-foot spacing between spokes might be enough to allow for flat spots in the wheel between spokes.

Best of luck, and keep us posted on the project!

-Graham
Department of Spontaneous Combustion

--IIRC there are something like 1,700 parts per 'tire' so be ready for a pile of work. As for where to get the material you might want to check with an ag supply retailer and find out who bought the last chunk; maybe they didn't use it all up?

BTW, I recently did a bit of research on KSR since starting on this trike project.

Here's a rundown of KSR events around the country to get an idea of the movement and those involved:

cliffypop.com/2007/11/01/...-races-list/

I have seen /thought about a couple of large wheel ideas that looked MUCH easier than the corrugated pipes.
First was a wheel made from one of those single person trampolines (bouncercisers I think they are called) and bolted/wired to a standard bicycle wheel.
The other idea I have played with is starting with a bicycle wheel and attaching plywood discs to the rims. 1/4" ply with stiffening ribs, the whole shebang screwed to a standard rim. Tires could be pvc pipe with trashed bicycle tires contact cemented onto them......
Hope this gets the process going.
Dr J

Greetings gentleman of the sprocket,

We've been steadily building our "Hennepin Crawler" for The Great Handcar Regatta. Our big wheels are done and a number of good photos have been posted there of our progress, including the latest work on our elegant dragon spine frame made from... I'll let you guess what it is:

handcar-regatta.com/muse/eng...s-arcade/

ITEM! We're set to appear at the Sonoma County Bike Coalition's Friday, July 4th, 2008, event around noon in Julliard Park, Santa Rosa. Come check us out if you're passing by!