Which wheels are best for the front?

Now that I have made a decision on the cargo box size/shape it's time to move onto the 2 front wheels.

There are a few considerations when it comes to the wheels and they are as follows.

What size?
20" 24" 26"?
What hub type?
What braking type?
Disc or Rim?

After looking at most of the varieties of cargo trikes out there 20" seemed to be the weapon of choice as they offer great strength. The christiania trikes have successfully moved from a 20" to a 24" wheel without any hassles and very few offer 26" wheels.

The biggest problem as I understand it is the lateral loading when cornering, a good set of 20" wheels handle this well and a lot better than the 24" wheels and your standard 26" wheel is likely to fold over. Being that I'm over 6ft I really would have liked something up front that was a bit bigger so I didn't look like I was riding a child's bike.

I toyed with the idea of building up a super strong set of 26"mtb wheels for the front, maybe using some downhill rims etc as weight is not that much of an issue, but after talking to a few engineers (when buying the steel tube for the bike) I opted for the safer more robust option of the 20" wheel size... for now anyway :)

Wheel size sorted, moving along. Hubs and brakes kind of go together, if your using mtb hubs laced to bmx rims you can use disc or rim brakes as opposed to a bmx rim and hub which unless you make or buy an adapter here http://www.atomiczombie.com/DIY%20Parts.aspx  you can only use rim brakes. From the start I wanted to use disc brakes on the front due to having a few sets in the garage already and as I intend on using the trike in all weather I wanted the safety of running the disc in the wet, especially with the extra weight up front. 

So I thought I'd give the mtb hub laced to bmx rim a go only the standard 9mm QR was probably not going to cut it so I've gone for an overkill and am using 20mm mtb hubs.

                                     

Alex 303 wheel and standard hub... Before

Alex 303 rim with a Shimano XT 20mm 32h centerlock disc hub... After.

I was lucky in that the spoke length was correct for the new hubs given that they are slightly taller but also slightly wider. 

Next on my list of things to do is to start assembling the frame.