Fat Coker Hub
This
was my Coker as of January 2001. I was fairly concerned about
tacoing the rim. To make the wheel stronger, I added a widened
Suzue hub. The frame is actually a 24" United frame with 7" of
1" diameter tubing added to each side. Bicycle Euro 6" aluminum
cranks, platform pedals, carbon fiber seat base, prototype handlebar.
The original Coker hub is the narrowest I've seen,
at 2.25 in. between flanges. This widened Suzue hub is 4.37
in. between flanges.
Widening the hub was less trouble than I planned on.
Here's what I did:
1. Cut a Suzue hub in half with an abrasive cutting
wheel, like on a chop saw.
2. Ground off the forging seams. Also ground
a bit of a chamfer on the cut ends. (If I did it again, I would use a lathe
to turn the center section down to 5/8")
3. Got a piece of 5/8" i.d. seamless tubing about
3.8 inches long.
4. Pressed each half of the Suzue hub into the
5/8" tubing
5. Put crank arms on, and used them to rotate the
two halves into correct 180 degrees apart position.
6. Welded the 5/8" tubing to each axle half, being
careful not to put too much heat into the already heat treated axle.
7. Took the wheel apart and put it back together
with the widened hub.
I also painted the weld area black to prevent rust