Polished spoke wheels

[Nessism]

When you say the spokes are steel do you mean stainless?

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.

[renobruce]

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.

[duaneage]

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.

[Dreef1999]

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.

Would this cross 3 option be applicable to a GS wheel? Sounds like you would need longer spokes at the very least.

[duaneage]

Would this cross 3 option be applicable to a GS wheel? Sounds like you would need longer spokes at the very least.

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.

[Don-lo]

And, unfortunately, there are no spoke rims for the shaftie GSs...

I thought someone was using Madura or Intruder spoke rims on their GS. anyone?

[duaneage]

450GA automatic had spoke wheels and shaft drive. I bet they would fit. You could rebuild the 16 inch wheel with a 17 inch rim, or an 18. Nice thing about spokes is you can create the wheel you need.

[Dreef1999]

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.

You mind a couple pics of the cross 3? I just re-laced and trued a wheel with a lot of patience and a mallet. I will double check all of my spoke tensions but they were pretty close.

[oshanac]

Does anyone know whwat other spoked wheels will fit our GS's (sorry to hijack )

Sick job Renobruce-as always!