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Post by thatsawkward on Apr 17, 2012 15:22:58 GMT 1
I appreciate that a thread on spoked wheels may stimulate debate on spoked vs cast, but I have done a little bit of searching the interweb to see if replacing our NTV standard wheels with spoked wheels is achievable. There's a local(ish) place that will build a pair for a large amount of money but they seemed a bit vague when it came to the single-sided swing-arm. And I can't seem to find compatible wheels from another bike (I was hoping something like the GB500 may be an easy swap, but apparently not). Has anyone looked into this seriously, or does anyone know of any NTV with spoked wheels? I may have to try a photoshop mock-up tonight as they may look awful anway..  |
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Post by realnutter on Apr 17, 2012 16:09:47 GMT 1
I'd have thought that BMW wheels are your best bet... since they run single sided swing arms too...
But the hubs are completely different!!!!
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Post by kirriepete on Apr 17, 2012 17:30:11 GMT 1
..... But the hubs are completely different!!!! There's the rub, you'd need a hub that fits the drive gear. I'd think the simplest option would be to cut a hub out of an old wheel and somehow weld on a couple of rings to take the spokes. Seem to recall somebody doing that with the Comstars on an XBR500 with some success, but what it would look like with the curvy cast wheels on the NTV ....  |
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Post by rj2para (Bisto) on Apr 17, 2012 18:53:43 GMT 1
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Post by thatsawkward on Apr 17, 2012 20:07:26 GMT 1
Okay, saddo that I am, here is a somewhat bodged NTV with wire wheels.......... I actually think it looks pretty good (the NTV, not my photoshopping!)  |
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groovylee
Sheene Gold rider. Nuff said
Member of the QA team
Posts: 648
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Post by groovylee on Apr 17, 2012 21:48:06 GMT 1
actually dude, that looks quite cool  god only knows how you'd do it though  |
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Post by kirriepete on Apr 17, 2012 23:00:41 GMT 1
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groovylee
Sheene Gold rider. Nuff said
Member of the QA team
Posts: 648
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Post by groovylee on Apr 18, 2012 7:46:41 GMT 1
well found kirriepete, quite an elegant solution that, right down my street.  |
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Post by thatsawkward on Apr 18, 2012 11:10:07 GMT 1
Excellent! Where's my angle grinder....? |
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Post by yellowmelos on Apr 18, 2012 13:06:18 GMT 1
I think if you are going down the spoked rim route.. then you have to fit the drum brakes too !!! |
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Post by rj2para (Bisto) on Apr 18, 2012 21:37:44 GMT 1
I like the wheels until he put them on that, not so good looking bike.. The idea was clever though. The spoked wheels did look good on the NTV, with off road tyres and a base plate you almost have an xrv750  |
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Post by realnutter on Apr 19, 2012 16:10:16 GMT 1
The new VFR1200 based Crosstourer uses wire wheels on a single sided swinger.... but sadly uses a five bolt fixing, not a single central one and 4 pegs....
bastards :-)
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Post by skyhook on Apr 19, 2012 19:38:09 GMT 1
Now theres a thought  N.T.V. Crosstourer ?..............lol |
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Post by SoyBoySigh on Jan 9, 2015 11:49:21 GMT 1
Best trick I've seen done with a hub swap, was a guy over on the CB750C.com forum - he put wire hubs onto his CB900C DOHC Custom - Apparently he took the existing Comstar hub (read: ANY hub) and spun it down to a slug, then had it welded into a spun out drum hub, IIRC he used the SOHC CB750K rear drum, which made it look even more factory original than say, a SOHC CB750F or GL1000 hub - The way I look at it, this could be done on pretty much ANYTHING - and as for a single-sided-swinger I'd use a single-sided (SLS, 2LS etc) front hub - as small as would reasonably fit. Of course it's a crazy risky idea - but then I wonder why folks would freak out about this particular style of wheel construction, and not freak out about ANY OTHER wheel construction, be it a Comstar, a wire-spoke rim for that matter - or a cast mag wheel, which is one that really freaks ME out personally. Three spokes, five spokes, with that long of a span in between? Eeeek. Of course, yeah - the mag wheels are by now a "proven concept" - as is WELDING. The key here being to have the thing welded professionally. Now - THAT being said, perhaps it's all the more reasonable to have a part machined to fit IN BETWEEN the hub and the drive-train. Like a sprocket carrier, a splined shaft adapter, etc. Looking at all the stuff done on the GL1000 GL1100 in the past few years, on sites such as "Naked Gold-Wings" there seem to be a lot of odd wheels put in a lot of odd swing-arms these days. I would expect that's got something to do with bringing both wheels to a machinist and having one of 'em drilled with a couple of holes. There are some cool BMW wheel swaps I've seen, using early wire hubs even slash-2 drum hubs, fitted to later-model single-sided-swingers, by modding the little five-bolt adapter thing that carries the bearings etc. I guess that one was a simple matter of milling down a bevel or step at the outer face of it. Anyway yeah - all I wanna do is give folks a kick in the pants to say HEY - if you wanna put wire wheels on your bike then by all means DO IT - the hub thing is gonna be the tough part, but the rims and spokes are gonna be the expensive bit. By all means, try to source some used rims wherever possible. There are a lot of great vintage alloy rims out there, and for MY wheel swaps (CB900F to "CB900K0 Bol Bomber", KZ440LTD to "KZ440LOL") I scored a number of awesome "period correct" rims for under $50ea shipped. And the alloy rims ARE worth the extra couple of bucks, but make sure you source some good light-weight ones, not rims that are alloy for fashion reasons - a key point there is that rims with a huge number of spokes need to be made extra thick to prevent cracking between spokes and the valve stem - KZ650CSR/KZ1000CSR are a case in point, these rims would probably be lighter in chromed-steel! So yeah, avoid that stuff. OH - and 40-spoke rims seem to be more expensive sometimes, as do 36-spoke in other cases. Superbike hubs with disc-brake, cush-drive with dampers, 20mm axle, and 36-spokes? Basically doesn't exist. But at the same time, GT750/GT550 front hubs with 36-spokes can fit cheap Super-Moto rims, whereas a 40-hole rim in 3.00-3.50" x 17" would cost an arm and a leg more. So yeah, I advise looking at ALL of the options before committing to a certain way of doing it. OH - and look at tires too, recommended rim widths etc. A couple ways to look at it here - two rims which are say, a quarter inch difference as in 2.15" vs 2.50" or 2.75" vs 3.00" or better still 3.00" vs 3.50", 3.75" (rare it seems) vs 4.00" (also seems an unpopular size), 4.25" vs 4.50"(which I've only seen in steel or cast mag rims anyhow) vs 5.00" - and right on up. Sometimes that extra smidge of rim width will NOT allow you to fit a wider tire. Unless it were totally pinched onto the rim, a bad situation. But yeah, while I'd say it's better to stuff a tire into the CORRECT rim width, and that if anything I'd rather have a tire more relaxed with a straighter side-wall, what I wouldn't wanna do is miss-match the front and rear wheels in this sense! Meaning, if my front wheel is a slightly too-wide tire pinched into a narrower rim, well I don't THINK it's a good idea to do the opposite on the rear wheel! I almost did this with a pair of rims I bought, and so I decided instead to purchase a couple more rims and make two sets, even though it was a long delay for my project. I didn't want to put a 3.00x18" front rim with a 3.50"x18" rear - so now I'm doing a 2.50x18" used (Harley XLH rear wheel) un-marked Borrani up front, paired with a USED 3.50x18" Super-Akront alloy rim - AND the 3.00x18" knock-off new non-drop-center (wm3-style) front rim is now paired with a new Akront 4.25x18" rear - it would probably also be appropriate to pair that one with a 5.00x18" rear - I've also got a couple of cheap ($39ea from eBay) alloy 40-spoke Harley-pattern rear rims in 4.25x17" & 5.00x17" which would probably pair up well with a spare 2.50x18" rear Harley rim I've got - this is the stock rim sizes on the new Triumph twins. The 3x18 & 4.25x18" suits a mid-'90s BMW sport-tourer, and the 2.5x18 & 3.50x18 would be appropriate for say, a CB1100R works racer or other contemporary endurance racer, or a mid-'70s TZ750, or pretty much any of the more tricked-out stuff from say '75-'82 etc. Meanwhile the KZ I'm doing it's got 3.00x16" Borrani deep-drop-center flanged alloy rims, I guess they're available NEW from Motocicli Veloci now, but I had to find MINE used so I really floundered around snapping up all that I could find, trying to get one to fit the GT750J 4LS drum hub up front - in a CB900F 39mm fork with low-profile Maxi-Scooter tires in 110/70-16 & 140/70-16 - I HAD a Super-Akront 3.5x16" but lost it in a fire. (Along with all the rest of this stuff, but now I've replaced it again!) Yet I think in this instance the 3.00" is suitable both front AND rear, because of the belt-drive on the KZ, I've managed to score NOS belt-drive for it for as cheap as chain and sprockets. So wtf. Gonna be a tight fit there. BUT - an alternative version of all this could be done with Mike's XS650 shop's rear 16" 36-hole rims - say up front on the GT750J drum hub and the T500 2LS drum hub (for likely side-car use after the main bike's complete) WITH the 3.00x16" rim in the rear. Might still wind up going that route, depending on a couple of factors. But yeah - the XS 2.50x16" rims from Mike's XS are a HELL of a lot cheaper than the vintage Borrani chopper rims I've scored here. But they're so friggin' cool, I just love the look of this hub and rim together it's friggin' sexy. Just saying, sometimes it's good to look at ALL the options. And as for a budget version? KZ400 front drum is 40-hole, KZ400 disc hub is also 40-hole - either one could fit, as could the rear KZ400 early 40-hole hub - into either Harley (small hub like the disc type) or SOHC CB750K/CB750F rear rims of the chopper aftermarket type. 3.00x16" chromed-steel. Which sell for cheap with ready-made spoke sets, and are also out there used in plentiful supply. A lot of 'em rusted to heck, but yeah folks are covering 'em up with powder-coat or paint etc. Just one way of doing it - and that's my point. More than one way to skin a cat.
-Sigh.
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N.T.V. Crosstourer ?..............lol