It's almost time for me to replace my tires- Aside from doing it myself, I wanted to see if I could fit in another modification while I had the tires off. If you're familiar with the older vintage bobbers or even choppers it'll be easier to imagine. Rick Mathieu has a perfect example at Roadstarmagazine.com under "Serious Customs". What I'm looking at doing is powder coating just the rim portion of the wheel in red and then putting some thick whitewalls on it. The main problem/ hold back is the whole spoke thing. Does anybody know anything about how this should be done or if done incorrectly how much it could affect performance? I haven't made up my mind about going through with this yet because I'm afraid to get myself into something I may not be able to dig mysef out of. Any ideas?

Mike,

Try contacting DK on the R* Riders Forum. He does powdercoating and should be able to help you with powdercoating questions.

Doc

If I'm reading you right....it's not the powder coating your concerned with....it's having the wheels re-laced.

I have never done this but am going to take my wheels apart to have the hubs polished & plated.

As a precaution....before going to a lot of work....possibly for nothing....I would take the wheels to a dealer to have the lateral & radial wheel runout checked to ensure they are within limits.

On the off chance they're over the specified limits....Yamaha recommends replacing them....in which case you might as well buy custom wheels that are already powder coated....it would probably be less expensive.

Prior to stripping the wheels I would take closeup pictures of the them & make some accurate drawings as to how the spokes are laid out so you can get them back together properly. A little effort at this point could save a lot of effort later. Not to mention all those 4 letter words!

After I got them back together, my plan was to take them back to the dealer & have them trued properly by someone who hopefully knows what they are doing.

I'll let everyone know how this works out or doesn't work out

Just my 2 cents & it might not even be worth that much!

Gary

i bought a totalled vstar in 2000,i had to replace the front wheel but the spokes were not damaged.i had not done this job before so i took nylon ties and everywhere the spokes crossed each other i tied them with a tie.i then loosened all the spokes and removed them as one piece,i set them in the new wheel,tightened them slightly then cut the ties off and took them to a shop for runout.this step saved me a couple of bucks.

What a great idea biggame! In fact, I might use rubberbands and tie a cross at the intersections of the spokes to keep them in place better. I'm not trying to pride myself but I can't believe I didn't think of that. Thanks for the advice, I think that's all the confidence I need to get this thing going now.

Using nylon ty-wraps on the spokes is a great idea! However, if you plan on having work done to your hubs ie: polishing, plating, powder coating etc. you won't be able to remove the spokes from the hubs while they are tied together.

Some wheels are offset so there is clearance for the sprocket and break rotors. Before you take your wheels apart check to see if they are offset and by how much. Whoever puts the wheels back together will need to know this.

Good luck with your project. It should look great.

Gary

bikermike,youre welcome but gary is right about the hub,my idea is good for removing the wheel but not the hub!i did find that the nylon ties did keep the spokes bundled nice and tight while i had them out of the wheel.anyway good luck!biggame.