As some of you may know I want to (well need to really bloody salt).. replace the rims on my aftica twin.. So I thought that while i am at it I mine as well make my life easier and go up to 18" rear... well the AT uses a 17X3.00 rim. and the only company that i can find that sell 18x3.0 is SanRemo
Sanremo

and they supply a MT and WM model (not that i know what that means)..

So here are my two questions... Anyone know the brand? are they any good? (africa queens sell them "for the AT" but will they stand up to an over land tour?)

and WTF is a MT and WM .....

__________________
2000 Africa Twin
http://two-up-ona-twin.blogspot.com

have a look at central wheels seem to have a good selection

I think the new tenere comes with sanremo rims, they look pretty good. I think JMo and others who are or have done some mega trips are all still on the original rims so they must be up to it.

Yeah i am in contact with them... I think i am going to have them do the rebuild no matter what rim i go with.. The though of trying to get both wheels properly aligned and balanced by eye does not sound like a fun job.. i know they will do a good job... BUT they (quote from thier email to me) [FONT='Calibri','sans-serif']"have been struggling to get any availability on the Excel rims.[/FONT]
[FONT='Calibri','sans-serif']As a result I cannot offer Excel rims in these sizes, only Morad." [/FONT]i know nothing about the morad rims either..

I had heard good things about the Sanremo rims (for race bikes..also Thanks stuxtttr)... but have not heard back from Sanremo about price...


so does anyone know anything about Morad rims?

__________________
2000 Africa Twin
http://two-up-ona-twin.blogspot.com

My AT rims look old and salty too.....

BUT !!!!!!!!!!! Its only a little corrosion. They still function fine. They aint gonna snap, they aint gonna fall apart.

You sure you need to ??

How about getting the originals polished up and maybe anodised ??

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

So this has turned in to a SAGA! Central Wheels Said they could do it. So three weeks ago 14/03/09 I drop off my hubs to them, talked with the guys and they still said they could do it .... TODAY I get a call and they said that cus the hub is 32 spokes that they can not do it. It really really pisses me off the most that they took three weeks of me not being able to ride before they tell me that they can not do it..

Ted: My front was actually a mot failure (you could see the innertube around the valve hole so that one needs replacing no matter what. The rear I think just need to be tieded up and could be rebuild.. any suggestions for a place that can do it while avoiding Central Wheels..

__________________
2000 Africa Twin
http://two-up-ona-twin.blogspot.com

Will you not be better sticking with the 17" ?
18" tyres may be more common but not in the larger sizes to fit an 3.00 rim and you may have issues with load rating. Most 18" use a 2.50 and these will take a 140 tyre, although it will have a narrow profile.

The wheel set African Queens sell are made with Excel rims, very tough and so desirable.

Hi,

Morad took over all the Akront tooling. This is from the Central Wheel site:

"The company Morad have been producing motorcycle rims in Spain for over 10 years. As part of their expansion they recently acquired all the tooling for the rim profiles previously made by Akront. A forward thinking company who have invested heavily in some of the most modern rim manufacturing equipment available, therefore offering both reliability of supply and consistency of quality".

From what I have heard, the quality is as good as original Akront. Unfortunately, they tend to produce rims in the same batch method as them too. This means that if it is not in the standard stock sizes, you can have a looooooooooooong wait before they make some profiles...

Okay... for those that have been keeping abreast of this.. After central wheels screwed me over, and had the nerve to whine at me for not wanted them to do what I dont want done at a higher cost then originally quoted. I got my hubs back from them. Which was a sad state of affairs anyway took them 15+ minutes to figure out which ones where mine as there was no labels. So stay away from central wheels. Customer service = not existent to the point of not getting anything done! Disorganised = 100%,

I spent the next day or so on the phone/net and found no one would do the 17 to 18" conversion and was forced to go back to OEM specs. SanRemo never got back to me, although an Italian speaking friend did get a hold of them, but they would never answer his technical questions.

I called around and found that Talon engineering was the cheapest place to order a set of oem sized Excel rims and SS spokes. They did not have my preferred colour in stock and so it had to go out for anodizing. By Friday a week later, I had a big box with rims and spokes. The spokes were also labelled as to their position. Wonderful, that was one worry down.

Saturday morning I sat down to lace them up. Following directions I read off the net I completely screwed it up. Nothing fit anywhere.. it was going horribly wrong. I had to strip it out and start again. This time ignoring the directions and going by feel, it was slow but worked well, the 2nd rim was quick and even easier (so much for reading the directions huh?). By Saturday afternoon, I was enjoying a barbi and looking at my not very round but laced up wheels. Sunday I had lots to do and only spent an hour trueing them, but I did get the rear 90% done, and the first 45 min or so was trying to figure out how to do it. I reckon this will be a very slow process and take me a few hours each but I have saved a lot of money (over what Central wheels where going to charge me) and I have gotten Excel wheels in the colour I wanted.. so if I ever actually manage to get the wheels true then it will have all worked out in the end.. if not and I have to pay some one to professionally true the wheel it will still be okay!

__________________
2000 Africa Twin
http://two-up-ona-twin.blogspot.com

Xander (and others)

I appreciate that I may be bolting the stable door when the horse is already down the pub but.......

I have just bought an xt600 with a duff back wheel

M&B Engineering are 10 miles north of Worcester in the Midlands and they have been brilliant and helpful in sorting out the whole issues of rims, spokes etc etc 01584 881433 - old fashioned, knowledgeable, straightforward, skilled etc etc

I am a firm believer in getting the right man to do the right job and I have learned the hard/expensive way that thats the only way to do it. Different rims have different spoke offsets and all sorts of stuff which is why the xt600 I have just bought had 15 broken spokes on the rear rim.

Wheels are put under a might strain if you are having a laugh doing 80mph on a graded road somewhere and for the sake of a few quid, maybe its worth getting someone (like M&B) to give the wheels a once over

cheers

Dick