They should be able to cope with the load without any problem whatsoever, it hardly compares to the amount of side load exerted upon a trike's wheel when cornering hard.
If the coach runs into the back of the car in front, it might be a different matter altogether.
About fourteen years ago, I was given ten days to build a "pedal car" which was constructed mainly from some old bikes from the local recycling centre along with a few scrap pieces of metal tubing and plywood etc, as we had signed up at short notice to compete in a two hour long charity "Pedal Car Grand Prix", and this was the result a week later:
And here it is in action, following some fine tuning and a few finishing touches, with me at the controls again:
Initially I was concerned as to whether the 24" wheels would be able to withstand the massive side loads, and I even incorporated some negative camber on the rear wheels to help to withstand the load.
The thin wheels proved to be capable of withstanding tremendous side forces on the corners, and it could even be ridden tipped up on two wheels without any signs of the wheels buckling. The only time we suffered a bent wheel was when it was rammed in the side by another competitor's gokart as we stopped quickly due to an incident involving another competitor on one of the bends.
Spoked wheels are surprisingly strong and resilient, even though they appear to be so incredibly fragile and weak.
I managed to find a
YouTube video of last years event if anyone's interested.
Alan
