Are 16" bicycle wheels legal or illegal for the international mini 5.6 landsailing class?

oops sorry 'rear wheel' (auto correct)

Yes many years ago I also tried 16" bike wheels the problem is the tyre tends to roll off the rim when pushed hard, and I know of others that also had used them where the metal spokes broke after a short time of use.
As a general rule with land yachts is do it with proven designs it will save time and money in the long run, there isn't much people haven't tried at one point or another in this sport.

Here's a read on the subject from quite a while ago.
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Land-Yacht-Sailing/General/1000-Landyacht-retail/

www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Land-Yacht-Sailing/Construction/wheels-and-tires/?page=3 (some interesting pics here)

even when you build a really strong 16" wheel with a maxed out tyre(16x2.3) and have a heavy tube and 2" wide rimscarbon reinforced the tyre simply doesnt have enough contact are to prevent lateral movement on the rear. 8x4.00 wheelbarrow wheels solve that

All my yachts have stub axles that take 20mm ID bearings. (6204 2RS) 47mm OD x 20mm ID x 14mm wide.

I'm slowly turning them over to 6204 2RS SS, which are in stainless steel to ease the corrosion hassles.

The 6204 is a universal bearing numbering system that most manufacturers use that refers to type and sizing The 2rs means 2 rubber seals (the black ones one each side) you can also have metal shielded non contact seals ZZ that have lower friction but less sealing against grit etc (serious racing?) or LLU which are usually red coloured seals and are recommended for dusty environments etc These carry a penalty of even more friction

It is possible to buy say a ZZ sealed bearing and an RS sealed bearing of the same size and swap one seal out of each and keep the rubber seals to the outside of the wheel to give a little less friction over the all rubber sealed bearings (They pick out easily)

You can get a lot of info online from the bearing manufacturers but thats the essence of it

Chooks method of sticking to 20mm axles is a good one as that size has proven to be strong enough and the metric size fits metric bearings which because of
the volume made in that size usually are cheaper and easily obtainable

JAronstein said..
thanks hiko for all the great info. hope that wasn't a dumb question.

no such thing. only dumb mistakes.
thats exactly the kind of reason we come here.
if however you make a dumb mistake please tell us about it. even better a video .
with all the wheels ive built ive settled on 6004 bearings . still a 20mm centre ,but narrower OD. seem to get a better life out of them

Ive found that removing the inner seals on the bearings makes it easier to clean and wash after sailing on salt, no need to replace as any salty, gritty liquid will drain out during use!

i haven't been landsailing long enough to make any dumb mistakes related to it. at least nothing big, dangerous, or memorable. and my sailboat hasn't been struck by lightning yet which must count for something

will a 5/8 inch(about15mm) axle be strong enough or should I plan on 3/4 inch?

Just a data-point: I've been sailing 15mm axles/bearings on my blokart for years without bending an axle or other problem.
I sail hard and weigh 115kg (255 lbs).

I don't know what the blokart axles are made out of. I would guess some kind of stainless steel.

Having said that, I'm switching to 17mm axles/bearings when I wear out my current set of bearings (which is taking longer than I anticipated...).

Cheers,

Geoff S.

landyacht said..
never seen a bent blokart axle, but they must have changed for a reason. the lovely fibreglass axles on the blowie probable save the axles.
at 115 kg you are in the lighter range of blokart pilots that ive met
keep in mind that us homebuilders are using hardware store HT bolts

actually just realized seen 1 bender, drunked idiot sailed into bog on pink lake. own fault,but replaced on warranty

Hiko said..
There have been a few bent 17mm class 5 axles here I have been told
20mm has become the standard for them
Spacers between the bearings with the end nut done up tight effectively increases the axle diameter in the wheel area

never thought of those spacers like that. I rely on them yo prevent the bearings getting sloppy

Surprising you cannot find 20mm bearings they are plain vanilla world wide Even the USA I would have thought
If you must 3/4 inch is very close maybe you can get those to match wheelbarrow wheels in your area

Hiko said..
Surprising you cannot find 20mm bearings they are plain vanilla world wide Even the USA I would have thought
If you must 3/4 inch is very close maybe you can get those to match wheelbarrow wheels in your area

im guessing it would be 1",3/4"9/16"5/8"