Spoke butted (double or even triple) to reduce weight while maintaining strength. A variation on the wire-spoked wheel was Tioga's "Tension Disk", which appeared superficially to be a solid disk but was in fact constructed using the same principles as a normal tension-spoked wheel. Instead of individual wire spokes, a continuous thread of Kevlar (aramid) was used to lace the hub to the rim under high tension. The threads were encased in a translucent disk for protection and some aerodynamic benefit, but this was not a structural component. Wire spokes can be radial to the hub but are more often mounted
Idler-wheel Idler-wheel An idler-wheel is wheel which serves only to transmit rotation from one shaft to another, in applications where it is undesirable to connect them directly. For example, connecting a motor to the platter of a phonograph, or the crankshaft-to-camshaft gear train of an automobile. Because it does no work itself, it is called an "idler". An idler-wheel may be used as part of a friction drive mechanism. For example, to connect a metal motor shaft to a metal platter without gear noise, early phonographs used a rubber idler wheel. Likewise, the pinch roller in a magnetic tape transport is