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Thursday 29 March 2012

Understanding Alloy Wheel Rims

Understanding Alloy Wheel Rims

ALLOY wheel rims are a mixture or content of Aluminum, carbon and other alloys. Earlier the Alloy rims were made of a mixture or Magnesium, but mag-alloy rims were flammable, so in UK they had banned Mag-Alloy rims for racing. Well I don’t know about Indian Rims and their content. I’ll get the information soon.
Now a days in our motorcycles we generally getting alloy wheel rims. Known for less weight, accuracy and efficiency. The charm of spoke wheel is only you can see in Royal Enfield Products. Alloy wheels are very good for tubeless tyres because of sitting position of tyre on the rim. The tyre fits perfectly and accurately on the rim in the periphery which is very much important, improper fitting may cause the bike to start wobbling at the time of riding.
wheel_bentWhen a tubeless tyre gets punctured you don’t need to remove the tyre from the rim and hence there would be no damage to the rim. I would suggest to never put tyre with tubes on alloy wheels, unless you take care while maintain the tire because otherwise you could be damaging the edges of the rim every time you remove and refit the tire. Those rims are relatively softer than other metals because as we know aluminum is very soft and light material. So on the road if you have flat tyre then the regular puncture fellow would use his screw driver or some sort of Tommy bar which would always damage the rim. Try to only make use of tyre removing machines for removing or changing the tyre.
Alloy rims have got proper seat and edge to fix the tyre rather than conventional spoke wheel rim. And on conventional wheel rims you can’t put tubeless due to spoke holes which will leak all the air.
For alloy rims there is a special tool which is available in the market. Well not in India for sure. I ordered it from USA because I do care and respect BIKES whether it belongs to me or my customer. The tools is costing hardly few $…(If any one want I can get it). It saves the rim edge for sure.
  • Alloy rims always need special attention:
  • Keep your tyre air pressure as per company recommendation to avoid damage. (Whether it is Nitrogen or Regular Air)
  • Use always proper tool for removing and changing the tyre.
  • Alloy rims on two wheeler also need dynamic balancing.
  • Do not use hammer to remove tyre.
  • Do not use “under diameter” tyre on the rim.
  • Try not to remove tyre from rim when it is puncture.
  • Try to buy branded alloy rims, rather than any local rims. The mixture of alloy is a complicated subject which in most cases the manufactures takes care of. Byt if you are planning to manufacture alloys on your own, and if the mixture is wrong or the casting is wrong then you might endanger the lives of yours and others.
  • The subject “Wheel Rim” is vast though the spares looks very much simple.
  • Do not buy mag-alloy rims.
  • Try avoiding pot holes.
  • Do not ride your bike on off road. That may damage the rim fast.
  • When you are buying motorcycle with alloy wheels. Always go for disc brake system. In alloys if you take drum brake system then remember the drum is itself is a rim there is no separate drum. So when the drum will get damage or if the wear tear is high then you will have to buy full alloy rim. (I know yet disc brake for rear is only in RTR,R15 & in 220)
  • Try not to repair wheels at home if you are unknown to any auto parts.
Tubeless Tyre Puncture Removing Kit is available in the market. Always keep it with you. You can visit my workshop, and I could teach you how to remove a tubeless tyre Puncture.
Yes, Alloy wheels can be repaired. But I suspect we have any one who can repair it in India. If it’s a total loss then don’t try to repair it, because Rims are a matter of life or death, so don’t play with it.

4 comments:

  1. Dear prashanth,
    I am akshay. Thanks for posting a such wonderful blog. Yesterday while i was returning from office in the evening, I ran my bike(Honda,Unicorn dazzler) into a big pothole due to the impact my alloy wheel got deformed and front Tyre(tubeless) got Tyre(tubeless) punctured. Can this be fixed or we need change entire tyre assembly? I hope you can visualize the type of damage. I hope you will definitely reply me. Thanks. Awaiting your reply.

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  2. Although most alloy wheels nowadays are majorly cast aluminum alloys. But some of them are primarily forged from alloys of magnesium as well. This offers them greater ductility and strength. In the olden days, cars wheels were significantly made from steel just because of these two features. However, recently the demands of several motorsports saw alloy wheels Ireland are increasingly adopted for numerous benefits. Also, they saw various steadily appreciating demands too from the commercial market.

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  3. Rathdowneyquickfit company providing all models tyres, headlights, wheel alignments and Alloy wheels Ireland. After Alloy wheel repair and refurbishment services. We use the newest 3D stand of the HUNTER company. Unlike outdated optical, infrared models, it provides high measurement accuracy due to computer processing of information received from a target mounted on the wheel

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