A useful little tip I have found out for Stornello and some Zigolo owners (Possibly others as well) Many of these bikes use 17 inch by 2 & quarter rims 32 spoke hole which I thought was quite a rare beast until discovering that many of the kids motorCross bikes use just this size of rim on the front wheel. Suzuki RM85; Yamaha YZ80 YZ85; ktm sx85 all seem to use this rim. Some are Jap alloy others are chrome. I have just bought one for a tenner of e-bay, just need a second for the rear.
What spokes did you use Don?
I haven’t yet. I need to source those next. I did spot some guy from America selling some on ebay at a half decent price but seem to have lost the link. I think it must have expired from my watch list. I will strip the old wheel and measure the old ones then go hunting for 64 cheap spokes !!
Think I have found a cheap source of spokes from a Honda Cub, the old step thru’sDimensions seem good and most importantly they are cheap! £10-50 including postage for 36 so I get 4 spare in case I somehow manage to knacker some on the way. Now anyone know how to build a wheel . Never done it before, can’t be that difficult, can it!Honda Cub Spokes
whne I did my MZ wheels I got in touch with central wheels and they said instead of using chrome spokes get bright galvanised instead much cheaper and hard wearing
they make spokes to your spec and most likely have them in stock
http://www.central-wheel.co.uk/spokes/spokes.html
if you get some dexion and make a frame to support the wheel on its axle this makes settting up the wheel easier
a good spoke key and also you need to know the offset on the rear wheel ( some wheels are offset from the hub to clear the chain)
lay the wheel together flat ideally support the rim on some blocks and same for the hub
looseley assemble the wheel and then place it in the jig tighten the spokes evenly then spin it and adjust for play in and out and side to side
finally tighten all spokes adn then spin the wheel let a wooden spoon run against the spokes to ensure they are all in tune
get a copy of the vintage motorcyclists workshop by radco thats a very useful bookrapheal glynn2012-03-25 17:14:21
The hub arrived from Italy today and the spokes from Belfast so just got to clean the hub up and put in some new wheel bearings and then have a go at wheel building.I shall assemble it loosely over the old wheel so I can see which spokes go where, then jig up some sort of frame to true it up on. Sounds easy!!
And the result:-£30 for the hub, a tenner for the rim and a tenner for the spokes, plus a loan of a mates spoke key! And it actually runs quite true, not perfect but quite acceptable for me!
Hi Don. How easy was it in the end? I think I’ll have a go on my little Benelli having seen your result! How do you know how tight to tighten the spokes? By the sound they make, or is there something more techy?
Nick
For the spokes, I just made sure each one was tight and the wheel was true. I loosely assembled the wheel and tightened them up a bit at a time. To true up the wheel, it got a tap with the rawhide mallet and then tweaked the spokes up a bit more till they were all twanged nicely when hit with a screwdriver.
Great work… I think I’ll take this route with my zigolo. I priced new rims and spokes(tyres also) at €300 with ‘nonsolomotoguzzi’ in Italy. The spokes were the dearest item at €70 odd a set! Those c90 ones cannot be too different?? guzzipainter2012-04-29 16:52:11
C90 spokes were 160mm length to the inside. I measured an old one and stuck it into ebay to see what turned up, I did the same for the rim, I just searched for 17 inch 32 spoke and found the kids MX wheels were very similar!
Good job, I taught myself to build wheels when I did a Gilera a few years ago, gets easier with practice like most things…
[QUOTE=Don-Spada] And the result:-£30 for the hub, a tenner for the rim and a tenner for the spokes, plus a loan of a mates spoke key! And it actually runs quite true, not perfect but quite acceptable for me!
[/QUOTE]