Boxerworks.com

Total newbie question. I'm looking for wheel options for my 1992 R100R. For cars it's easy to find a big selection of third party wheels in pretty much any size for just about any car. Why is that not the case for motorcycle wheels?

Why would you want to?

Why wouldn't you? Customize your bike.

Again, maybe it's a different mindset for motorcycles, but pretty much every r100 has either spokes or "snowflake" wheels. I actually like the spoke wheels on my r100r, I'd just like to see some other options.

With cars you can have nearly limitless customization options when it comes to wheels. Given the DIY and customization culture with Airheads for just about every other part of the bike, seems odd that wheels don't have the same options.

Motorcycle wheels are more complicated than car wheels, mostly because of the brakes.
And because so fewer motorcycles are built vs. cars, the demand is lower and therefore not worth the cost of making.
This is why your "custom builder" kept the suspension and wheels stock and just worked on "accessories" such as fuel tank, seat, gauges and removing body parts. The front forks, for example are stock with the front fender pieces removed but retaining the factory brace.

Things that need to be addressed..
The fork width and axle diameter, impacting bearings and spacers.
Not insurmountable but how much do you want to spend? I'm assuming you're not a machinist.

Different than car wheels, your brake rotors attach to the wheel and need to align with your calipers which bolt to the forks.
Again, custom brackets could be made. I'm assuming you also don't care if the wheels are approved (DOT).
With your bike specifically, the rear brake is a drum. Not too many of those these days. You'd need to get a wheel with a drum brake and bolts to a single sided swingarm. BMW was the only manufacturer that did this, as far as I know.

Do you have options? The front forks are basically from a K75. Older K75's had rear drums. Rim diameters are different (I think their drum rear might have been an 18" and not sure the drum dimensions match.

robert wrote: ↑Wed Jul 11, 2018 12:06 am Why would you want to?

The answer for me would be very simple. Give me anything that weighs less than the snowflakes which were heavier than the previous spoked wheels. No better place on a bike to reduce weight than the wheels.

Perhaps a better question would have been can any of BMW's lighter tubeless wheels be made to fit. It must be possible to lose 6lbs per wheel with ease

Woodys Wheel works can lace up just about any combination of hub and rim that you can imagine.
But with shaft drive and a rear drum you are going to have to use a factory hub .
With a disk front there is not the same restriction, as long as you have the machine tools and the skills to use them, but if you dont and have to pay someone then it can get expensive for what will probably be a marginal improvement.
Fitting a decent shock that can handle the weight of the rear drive might give a better bang for the buck - if you somehow manage to dramatically change the unsprung weight you are going to have to do a bit of work to tune the suspension to suit it anyway.