Carbon wheels

[SJ]

Guys,
May I know which carbon wheelset (bst or rotobox or thyssenkrupp) you recommend for XR ? Thx

[JerryG]

None of the above. A good friend of mine put very expensive CF wheels on his R9T. After that, he had to spend an inordinate amount of time avoiding gravel and unpaved roads because he noticed chipping from thrown rocks. Later, when he hit a bit of gravel and crashed, the rear CF wheel hub was completely busted loose from the rest of the wheel. My friend, who loved the responsiveness of the lighter CF wheels, ultimately decided that CF wheels are a good choice for track use, but forged wheels are the better choice for real world use. That said, perhaps posters here will convince me otherwise based on their experiences.

[bazzer]

For another bit of anecdotal evidence, my mate has done about 25K miles of touring on a set of BST carbon wheels on his Street Triple and they are still going strong.

[Winger]

Run aftermarket wheels on 5 bikes, once you have experienced how they speed up the steering they become an addiction sadly...from a financial point of view  , bought my first pair of Dymags 20 years ago which must have close on 40,000 miles on them, their as good as the day I bought them.

Dymag went bust think it was 03/04 and bought a pair carbon BST’s(which I still have) and they are also good, Dymag started up again and I run forged Dymags on the X/R and carbon on the KTM.....I did say they are an addiction...

[Mareng1]

Originally Posted by JerryG

None of the above. A good friend of mine put very expensive CF wheels on his R9T. After that, he had to spend an inordinate amount of time avoiding gravel and unpaved roads because he noticed chipping from thrown rocks. Later, when he hit a bit of gravel and crashed, the rear CF wheel hub was completely busted loose from the rest of the wheel. My friend, who loved the responsiveness of the lighter CF wheels, ultimately decided that CF wheels are a good choice for track use, but forged wheels are the better choice for real world use. That said, perhaps posters here will convince me otherwise based on their experiences.

Every crash is individual, of course - and who knows if the stock aluminium wheels would have fared any better?     


Stonechips will of course affect all wheels, but yes - I would expect CF wheels to perhaps need more attention then the odd blob of enamel to cover the bare alloy.

As far as lesser damage goes - Carbon Fibre generally gives a visual indication of delamination, in that it goes milky at the location of damage.

[BobT]

As someone who used to work on carbon fibre aircraft, Harrier, Grob 115, etc. I would never want carbon in any structural part of a motorbike. You cannot see damage, even a small looking stone chip can be a massive delamination under the surface. Carbon is also very delicate when it comes to abrasion. Even the tiniest pit of invisible delamination will soak up any water and will become a big problem if that then freezes in the winter.
Carbon Fibre is great for the nice shiny bits and can save weight on those, but for me not on wheels.
As an interesting point, the first carbon fibre road wheels on a production car were used on the Citroen SM in around 1971.

[Winger]

I remember the same old tosh being trotted out when high spec mag/alloy after market wheels came on the market, they won’t last blah blah, and then the same as now complete rubbish, the world moves on...although in fairness having worked on an outside unit for a motorcycle manufacturer dealing with punters it comes as no surprise....

[JerryG]

Originally Posted by Winger

I remember the same old tosh being trotted out when high spec mag/alloy after market wheels came on the market, they won’t last blah blah, and then the same as now complete rubbish, the world moves on...although in fairness having worked on an outside unit for a motorcycle manufacturer dealing with punters it comes as no surprise....

Still unconvinced. Especially since your argument is that, because some people were wrong about mag/alloy wheels, then all concerns about carbon fiber wheels must be wrong too.

[Mareng1]

Worth watching only to remind yourself that lots of Youtubers are just idiots with a camera.

"not going to change performance"   

The new Rotobox design looks interesting.

[Winger]

Originally Posted by JerryG

Still unconvinced. Especially since your argument is that, because some people were wrong about mag/alloy wheels, then all concerns about carbon fiber wheels must be wrong too.

Your talking as though carbon wheels are some kind of modern invention...they been around for years...we are not talking 5/10 but the same applies to mag alloy from the late 70’s boo hoo far too modern  , which as I said in the other post having had to deal with the biking public...they like to talk the talk but the reality their in a time warp...well 90% are the other 10% made the job really interesting.

You only have to read lithium battery threads to hi light my point about dragging bikers into the 21st century.