3DM Avila 75mm 73A: wheel pulley

[whitepony]

heyho!

on my quest for the ultimate plush carving, I stumbled across this highly praised wheel from 3DM: Avila Clear 75mm diameter @ 73A duro. its a quite a chunk of urethane, supersoft, very wide, a true slalom/downhill wheel and looks kinda cool too! been driving around via foot for a while and it felt really good, first impression was much like 90mm 75A abecs but then it felt like they dampened even more and provided much more grip at the same time ... and that with 75mm!

to know for sure, I slapped them on my tesseract, which Ive been running 24/7 lately on my 90mm abecs. been out for 20km now with 3 avilas and 1x kegel 80A drive gear and Im really impressed by these wheels: softer than my 90mm 75A abecs and grippier than my 80A kegels.

the only problem I got: how do I add a wheel pulley to these kind of wheels? drill holes in it for generic pulleys? where to get good pulleys and how to center it correctly? glad for any input! I really want to give it a try and go fullout avila! they arent even very expensive, paid just 50€.

 

[verruckt]

You have found plush wheel nirvana. I have been cruising on Avilas for 10 years. Abec 11 Gumballs in 75a are a close second.

I am waiting for the day someone comes up with a system to attach a pulley without drilling...

How are the Kegels in comparison to the Avilas? I know people already make pulley adapters for Kegels... but I can't imagine the ride is smooth on the Kegels since the hub is so thick (not a lot of actual urethane depth).

 

[psychotiller]

You have found plush wheel nirvana. I have been cruising on Avilas for 10 years. Abec 11 Gumballs in 75a are a close second.

I am waiting for the day someone comes up with a system to attach a pulley without drilling...

How are the Kegels in comparison to the Avilas? I know people already make pulley adapters for Kegels... but I can't imagine the ride is smooth on the Kegels since the hub is so thick (not a lot of actual urethane depth).

I made one of these a couple of years ago. Used it to mount a set of "these" wheels. Then I used it to mount a composite pulley to a speedvent.





You have to epoxy the hub into the bearing seat. then use a 16mm bearing inside the adapter. On calibers i had to do some filing for the hanger to clear the hub. I don't have any more of them or I'd offer one up for the cause...

 

[whitepony]

How are the Kegels in comparison to the Avilas? I know people already make pulley adapters for Kegels... but I can't imagine the ride is smooth on the Kegels since the hub is so thick (not a lot of actual urethane depth).

exactly! in my eyes, kegels are fairly hard and uncomfortable because they lack "meat". the avilas are a LOT softer and provide more grip

thanks psychotiller, this looks too complicated for my tooling Ill have to work with existing pulleys somehow .. and that probably includes drilling. im talking to esk8.de right now about dimension of their kegel pulley - the ADS would theoretically fit without the 5 small "horns" that dip into the kegel core.

a perfect fit wouldve been the old aluminum enertion pulley, but I need 15mm width. torqueboards pulley is a little slim - the inner zylinder is not tall enough so that the teeth start within the cone of the urethane already.

 

[whitepony]

hmz, due to some parts that I wont use and the lack of good alternatives, I decided to drill 5 holes of 1cm depth and glue in my useless ADS kegel pulley (nope, I really dont like kegels all that much).

I tried a few things for the drilling part - freezing wheels, using soapwater for lubrification - in the end it was all bollocks and I just drilled with my drill press and a halfway new wood drill bit. far from perfect, but it will do!

ADS kegel pulley fits like a glove:

epoxy and some mild pressure - hopefully it will become well seated and centered.

 

[WeeChumlee]

Hehe, like the ingenuity.
I wonder how this will hold up to the vibrations and slight deformation of the urethane when riding?
Hope it holds, keep us informed.
Must say, I like the look of those wheels and 73A must really be nice.

 

[whitepony]

so the epoxy held up for 500m, then I carried my board back home again :lol:

I then drilled a 3mm holes to use the stock ADS kegel pulley screws to mount the pulley properly. used slightly wider washers and made some sort of socket for the washers with the handheld router that I still had from a colleague! with these wider washers, the screws got support directly from the small core and part of the bearing.

[youtube]9liDg_dr0dc[/youtube]

gave it a spin, but wasnt too happy overall somehow. while the 3 free wheels were working great, the drive wheel felt weird, Im not sure if its the pulley torque that deforms the wheel or just some instability now due to the drilled holes, but it felt weird and wobbly, even though it was perfectly centered (see video!). at times it made weird clicking sounds too and, since I removed the rubber risers, I had a LOT of stuff hitting the motor and the carbon enclosure during riding. :?

In the end I decided that Ill switch back to my bread and butter abec 75A, since Im using my board in even harsh environments and on a daily basis. they are slightly harder, but surely make up some of that with their size.