OK so there not really Carbon Fiber but lets keep that a secret. I just finished my first set of home made wheels for my Class 5 YOTT that Im building and I took lots of pictures of the whole process as I went, So as usual I made a video to watch of the entire build start to finish. Now this is my first attempt and i plan to build a much lighter set at a later date. I used materials that are heavier than some of the other wheels seen built on the site, but as usual i over build eveythying. I used motorcycle rims and tires because I sail mostly on cement parking lots and air strips that would wear a bicycle tire to the core in one day and some of those Hookworm tires are not cheap. I know the heavier wheel acts as a flywheel and doesnt accelerate as fast, but im not racing and need some durability from my tires. My next attempt to build I will shoot for the utmost weight savings by making a bearing hub of fiberglass and not steel, light weight bicycle tires and rims and not as many layers of mat during the lay-up process but for the first time and prove to myself these wheels are safe and strong these heavier ones will be fine. In know the carbon fiber vinyl wrap is cheezy but I needed to finish it with something and if I dont tell anyone they will think there really exspensive and fast. SSSSHHHHHH.
Beautiful. Nothing hillbilly about that. The first music track has to be Buddy Guy???
Lovely job, just out of interest what is the all up weight, my wide wheels go in a 5.2kg and have found that they go just as quick if not quicker than my 50mm wide ones(maybe because they stop a lot of sideways slip)
Cheers
Vic
10 smiles from me, you probably only needed the one disc
they look rather sweet. how did they go for balancing the rim.
I tried soooo hard to find some of that CF vinyl but just couldnt find a source
Nice video! Your wheel indeed looks very strong. Are they going to be used on your class 5 YOTT (www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Land-Yacht-Sailing/Construction/New-Class-5-YOTT-build-slide-show/)? Did you already build a seat for it, or is that the next step? I would really like to see how you build the seat and probably learn a lot from it then.
Stephan
Thanks for the comments I havnt weighed them yet i dont have any kind of scale but i will find away im very curious myself. i found the carbon fiber wrap here in the US on EBAY its fairly cheap and simple to apply and looks very real. I have not built my seat pod yet. I havent worked on my YOTT project for sometime now but Im back to work now and will take pics of that too. I hope to build another set of wheels later and use many of methods used by Vic and Paul to make a much lighter wheel and maybe so new ideas to push the envelope alittle. I feel my rim alone isnt that much heavier but the tire must be significatly more then a bicycle tire. 
You have got me started again. Yesterday I started making a couple of new rims that involve no welding. I had some aluminum sheet among my rubbish behind my shed. Cut a long strip off it (3 inches wide) made a loop and pop riveted it into the rims so far it looks fine. Will post some pics tonight.
This is where I am up to. The process has been to easy, The only part that would have to be cut to size is the hub or make one like Paul's.
Requirements/process
Two ally rims. Cut one edge of each just to one side of the spoke holes on each rim.
Pin the rim down on a flat surface. (That has the axle hole drilled in the center and a circle drawn at the diameter of the rim)
.
Fit the ally strip inside the rim and make sure that it contacting the board all the way round.
Drill and pop rivet the rim to the ally strip working around the rim so that the strip is pulled tight.
Place the top rim on and do the same checking that everything is square.
Rough up the areas that are to be bonded.
At this point I remove the rim
I waxed and applied mold release to the areas that would come in contact with the resin.
Applied resin mixed to a past to the disc rim and hub
This time I held the rim in place with screws, This allowed me to set it up to close tolerances and hold it flat (1/32 inch out of round
So far it looks like the easiest wheel that I have made and requires
no special tools and two wheels can be made over a weekend.
Finished one wheel today.
Resin-- Polyester
Disc -- 2 layers 4oz chopped strand-- 1 8oz woven
Spokes-- 1 layer 4oz chopped strand(I think that because the spokes are in tension and not in shear is the reason I only use a singular layer and have not had a failure yet.)
The wheel was very easy to make and very true in aliment (straight and not out of round)
Was not a great weight saving over my steel rimmed wide wheels (half kg) so I will probably stick with the steel wheels as the are nearly bomb proof.
But I think it was a worth while experiment and I guess it shows that wheels can be easily made with no special tools.
