- Thread starter busastars
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brightspark
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wheel spindles are made out of dural not aluminium i wouldnt even go there unless u can buy a stock one fit for purpose 
The aluminium probably wont have the tensile strength it needs. That axle is under a lot of stress under hard braking or if you pop the front up and then drop it. All the weight of the bike + its momentum goes through that little spindle trying to sheer it.
While you can find examples of exotica with Ti or exotic graded alluminium spindles, theyre usually quite large diameter, and someone has been paid a huge sum of money to run stress analysis on them to make sure theyre going to be ok.
Substituting alluminium for steel in this app for ease of machining is folly.
I wouldnt even make the spindle hollow even if one of the originals were, for the 3g of saving it might net you, your better off not eating a pie a week and saving it that way.
While you can find examples of exotica with Ti or exotic graded alluminium spindles, theyre usually quite large diameter, and someone has been paid a huge sum of money to run stress analysis on them to make sure theyre going to be ok.
Substituting alluminium for steel in this app for ease of machining is folly.
I wouldnt even make the spindle hollow even if one of the originals were, for the 3g of saving it might net you, your better off not eating a pie a week and saving it that way.
It would be really interesting to see what the strength difference was in CAD or similar.
I know of it being done, but I'd not be keen to ride it without knowing. But I suppose there would be such a safety margin factored in, knowing how strong it really would have to be is a bit tricky.
I know of it being done, but I'd not be keen to ride it without knowing. But I suppose there would be such a safety margin factored in, knowing how strong it really would have to be is a bit tricky.
I don't think that i've ever seen a wheel spindle made from Ali. I agree with MrFluffy that choosing ali because it's easy to machine would be a mistake, rather like making the frame out of lead pipe 'cos it's easy to bend! The material of choice for wheel spindles, unless weight saving is absolutely critical, would be En24T.
