Akront Morad rim sizes - same as BMW?

[jjwithers]

I'm planning on putting some Morad (formerly Akront) rims on my /5. I want to get the 'S' rims with the large sidewall. For anybody who has used different rims on their 7-'s airhead...

should i get the exact same size rims as stock BMW?
19x 1.85 and 18 x 2.15
Or can I go any wider? I know there is a limited amount of space where the tire meets the swingarm and it can potentially rub...
and should i get the rim pre-drilled for 40 spokes or is it safer to have somebody like Buchannan's do the drilling and lacing?

any advice would be appreciated.

-josh

[Chuey]

I can't speak for the Morad rims but I have some Excel rims that I got from Buchanan's. They are the shouldered rims and work nicely. They were beautifully polished but I had them clear anodized so I wouldn't have to polish them often. The shine is missed on sunny days!

Anyway, I get my spokes from Buchanan's and build up my own wheels. You can build your own. At the least, you can install the spokes into the wheel. The hub lines up the spokes for you. Make sure the valve hole is between two spokes that diverge. You will see that in the spoke pattern as soon as you look at it with that in mind. That will line up the spokes with their dimples for lack of a better way to say it. Another way to say it is that access to the valve, for filling the tire, will be unimpeded when the valve is between spokes that have that space between them. It is a pattern that occurs every fourth spoke. If you want wheel work, you are close to Buchanan's. If you prefer, I can do them for you.

Chuey

[jjwithers]

Thanks Chuey,
What size Excel rims did you get and what tires are you running... and on what bike?

[Garnet]

How to lace and true a BMW wheel. http://agwalker.com/wheelbuilding.html

[Major Softie]

Keep in mind that Chuey has a bicycle shop. Lacing and truing wheels is something with which he's already VERY familiar.

The instruction site makes it a lot easier, but not everyone has great success building up their own wheel. Judge for yourself whether or not you want to give it a try depending on how much confidence you have in your own level of mechanical aptitude and meticulousness. If doing your own complete carb rebuild seems intimidating, I'd send it off to Buchanan.

[jjwithers]

I never considered lacing my own wheel until now! I've rebuilt carbs... my only concern is that i won't know if something is 'wrong' because i've never done it... buchannan's is about an hour from me... i may have them do one wheel and i'll use that as a template for the second one.

Nobody commented on the size though. After getting a new tire on my R100s and having it rub the swingarm, i am very concerned about rim sizes and a proper fit.
Akronts have those massive side walls, which i like, but i wonder if that alters the 'fit' of the wheel and tire even though it is the exact same spec as a BMW rim.

[vanzen]

Lacing a spoked wheel is pretty straightforward, be meticulous, and the task is easily accomplished.
Truing, without experience and learned skill, will involve a lot of time and frustration.
But can be done ...

I'd use a rim (whatever brand) that was sized just as the stock item –
/5s do not allow much room to experiment with rim and tire size.
On the other hand, the stock sizes performs well given the stock power and chassis package ...

[Ken in Oklahoma]

Lonnie Walker, who used to frequent this forum, has put together an excellent article on how to build wheels. His article is focused on /2 wheels, but except for minor details it is very applicable to our later airheads. Here's the link:

http://agwalker.com/wheelbuilding.html


I'm not much of a wheel builder, but I have been successful the times I've tried it. You will, of course, need a truing stand or some such home brewed equivalent. Spinning the wheel while mounted in the forks is very awkward at best. And tiring. You'll be tempted to call what you've done so far good enough.

What I think about a lot during wheel building is the geometry/triangulation of the spokes and how tightening or loosening a spoke will affect the rim locally (as if the rim were made of rubber) and as a whole (as if the wheel were infinitely rigid).

I like to build my own spoke nipple wrenches. The commercial ones I've seen have been too loose, as they must be to fit all spoke nipples of a given size. What I do is take an open end wrench I don't like, and with an angle grinder remove the two wrench 'ears' that engage the flats of the nut. Then with a cutting wheel in the grinder I make a slot in the remaining 'nub'. I will then hand file the slot to the correct width such that the spoke wrench fits the nipple very well, with almost no slop.

Editing: It's a good idea, when changing tires, to tap the spokes with a wrench to show up any that are excessively tight or excessively loose.


Ken

[Chuey]

After reading through the other comments so far, I have a few things to add.

I suggested that Josh could install the spokes in his own wheel and if he wanted, either true it himself or contact me for that part of the operation. The BMW wheels are easy because once the spokes are in the hub, they are held in the position that they will be in when the wheel is finished. All one needs to do is rotate the rim above the spoke/hub assemblage and locate the valve hole correctly.

Lacing a wheel is not always easy. It took me a long time and some help from this site to refer me to some helpful Norton wheelbuilding information when I did some Norton wheels. They were very convoluted. Many motorcycle wheels are pretty similar to bicycle wheels. The fact that BMW wheels are more simple to understand and almost can't be put together wrong is what made me suggest that a newby should try it.

If you buy Buchanan's spokes, buy their spoke wrenches. They are exquisite. They almost look home made but they fit just right and have excellent ergonomics.

My rims are on a R90S. It has the skinny legged swing arm. There is no clearance problem. The tire fits between the brake and the left leg of the swing arm well. In other words, it is much the same as a stock set-up.

The front rim says 19X185 with a 100-90 Dunlop Arrowmax GT501 tire mounted on it. The rear rim says 18X215 with a 120-90 tire. The higher side lips on the rims do not affect the tire fitment.

Chuey