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Polished spoke wheels

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
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Guest

Guest
These wheels started out looking like most...years of grime and dirt. I took these apart, stripped the clearcoat, then polished the hub, rim, spokes and spoke nuts. The spokes and nuts got a soaking in berryman's. Eveything was polished on my polishing wheel. The hub and rim are aluminum, but the spokes and nuts are steel. With a polishing wheel, they turned out like chrome. Lots of work, but they look fantastic! Here's the front. I'm still working on the rear wheel:

100_8111.jpg



100_8115.jpg
 
Excellent, excellent, saaaweeeet. Ok, where can I steal them from. I could build a shadow box and mount them on a wall in the bedroom. I think alot of motorcycle part are more works of art than most things.
Nice job
 
sachsaca said:
Excellent, excellent, saaaweeeet. Ok, where can I steal them from. I could build a shadow box and mount them on a wall in the bedroom. I think alot of motorcycle part are more works of art than most things.
Nice job
Click to expand...

I have them for sale in the for sale section. But as much work as they took, I'm debating on keeping them. :-$
 
ok got a question bout spoke rims when you remove the spokes how do you get them back in and realign them without them wobbling? and just where can i get a set for my 82 850gl? :D
 
elevatorman71 said:
ok got a question bout spoke rims when you remove the spokes how do you get them back in and realign them without them wobbling? and just where can i get a set for my 82 850gl? :D
Click to expand...
Its called "trueing" and is a skill that requires patience..LOL the adjusters up at the rim on each spoke will put more or less tension on the spoke to pull the rim straight and true... I just take mine to the dirtbike shop...LOL

And, unfortunately, there are no spoke rims for the shaftie GSs...
 
hey would you happen to be free this thurs or fri? i have a new valve cover gasket set on its way to me this week
 
elevatorman71 said:
hey would you happen to be free this thurs or fri? i have a new valve cover gasket set on its way to me this week
Click to expand...
Im off on Thursday as a matter of fact...

Gimmie a call a little later this evening if you want, we'll work out the details...

937-672-7684
 
sweet will do i have found oout that after i pulled off the exhaust to get ready to wrap it i found inside the exhaust pipe the number one cyl pipe is a little black inside and the rest is white color
 
elevatorman71 said:
sweet will do i have found oout that after i pulled off the exhaust to get ready to wrap it i found inside the exhaust pipe the number one cyl pipe is a little black inside and the rest is white color
Click to expand...
Sounds like the other three might be a little lean... could be valves or carbs... air leaks on the exhaust.. number of things. We'll take a look.
 
Ahhhhh!

I can't see, I can't see.............:p

Shoot put them in a glass case and mount them suckers on the wall.


For real.

Really nice work!
 
These are sold so I can get the mags. It is hard to see them go. I've spent alot of time on these. Maybe some day I'll run across another set...I do like spokes!

The biggest reason I posted these is to show that with some work, those that have spokes can make them look great again.

BTW Dan, your carbs are almost done! :)
 
Dreef1999 said:
When you say the spokes are steel do you mean stainless?
Click to expand...

That's what I was wondering. Polishing plated steel will make it shiny but the protective coating will be removed which will invite rusting in short order.
 
It appears they are stainless. I could take an SOS pad and scrub the crud off, and it was shiney underneath. Using a buffer just sped the process up.
 
I rebuilt the wheels on my 400 Yamaha because the spokes were really rusty and were not chromed. The new spokes I got from ebay made a world of difference.

Lacing and truing wheels is a skill, I've built wheels for 25 years. I went with a cross 3 instead of a cross 2 on the rear for a stronger and stiffer wheel.
 
duaneage said:
I rebuilt the wheels on my 400 Yamaha because the spokes were really rusty and were not chromed. The new spokes I got from ebay made a world of difference.

Lacing and truing wheels is a skill, I've built wheels for 25 years. I went with a cross 3 instead of a cross 2 on the rear for a stronger and stiffer wheel.
Click to expand...
Would this cross 3 option be applicable to a GS wheel? Sounds like you would need longer spokes at the very least.
 
Dreef1999 said:
Would this cross 3 option be applicable to a GS wheel? Sounds like you would need longer spokes at the very least.
Click to expand...
The quick answer is yes, but the long answer is maybe.

It may be applicable, depends on the hub and the rim. Yes I used longer spokes. The spokes I ordered were too long and I was going to return them but I saw I could make them work with a cross three. I had to trim a little from the end of each spoke, not unusual for wheel building.

Putting new spokes on the front is straight forward enough but re building the rear requires a few re trues and re torques. The rear has force applied to it and the nipples have to seat themselves again in the rim. On a used rim this can take a few hundred miles so after every ride I check the spoke tension. It's nearly perfect, I just trued it last night.If you used a new rim the process goes faster and the results are better.

The spokes have to create new seats in the hub too. The steel cuts into the soft aluminum and beds the spoke in. This is less of a problem on the front because the front doesn't power the bike.

All of my spokes have uniform tension. I have a tensionometer device to check them with but prefer to test by sound. A plucked spoke tells you how tight it is relative to other spokes. I strive for a uniform sound. The rim may not be perfectly straight but what is important is the spoke tension.

If one spoke is out of tight it affects all the others. Tightening one spoke affects the rating of many more so you have to have a light touch when truing a wheel.

I would not do this if you don't know what you're doing. You can easily damage the wheel and if you don't lace correctly you find the air valve is blocked or the wheel could fail.
 
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