How to pick rims

[mortation]

I am looking fo rsome spoked front and rear rims for my 83 GS850GLD. What do I need to know/look for when picking rims? I see lots of nice harley rims but I dont know if I can use them on the bike...

[bwringer]

There are no aftermarket or alternative wheels that will work with the shaft drive rear.

You can polish/paint/powdercoat the stock wheels, and they will look quite nice.

For the front, there might be a wire wheel from an earlier GS that would work. I don't know if it would work with the dual disks.

I have no idea why you'd want to deal with cleaning and truing spokes and using tubes in your tires, but that's a matter of taste. I'm more of a functionalist, personally, and the cast wheels are much better in that regard.

[mortation]

Thats what I was afraid of, thanks.

[waterman]

I am not sure, but you might check into a set of Madura rims. They had flat spokes and were shaft driven. On the madura forum, the members would talk about getting gs wheels to put on their bikes. The biggest problem would be finding them. If memory holds, the gv1200 has a disk rear brake while the gv700 was a drum unit. Both were 16 in rims. If you find a set, happy polishing...

[mortation]

I am not sure, but you might check into a set of Madura rims. They had flat spokes and were shaft driven. On the madura forum, the members would talk about getting gs wheels to put on their bikes. The biggest problem would be finding them. If memory holds, the gv1200 has a disk rear brake while the gv700 was a drum unit. Both were 16 in rims. If you find a set, happy polishing...

I'll check it out thanks!

[Zooks]

I can understand the spoke wheel thing. IMHO spoke wheels are far superior aesthetically. Nothing like a shiny chrome rim to get that 'old school' feeling.

If you get stainless spokes and re-chromed rims they are not that hard to keep clean. I have heard that you can now get spokes that can be run tubeless also.