Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Accessories Spoked or aluminium alloy wheels?

I'm looking at buying a new 06/07 or 07/08 America - and they come with aluminium alloy wheels as standard. I'm inclined to switch them for the "classic" spoked wheels, but was wondering of anyone has any advice about whether one is better than the other - or any of the pros and cons of each type?

Love the spoke look-but one flat 100 miles out and the mags are much better-it's an easy repair.

Love my spokes on '03 America. It's why I didn't go with the Speedmaster.
Requires tubes. Alloy wheels are tubeless.
Like Jim says, one flat 100 miles away from home and you're screwed with spoke wheels. Call the tow truck!

it is all personal preference.
i fell trulymadlydeeply in lust with the america.
spokes were the biggest draw. classic look.
i was never a fan of mag or disc wheels.

then i rode a speedmaster and loved the
riding position and the dual disc braking.

i wound up converting to Speedmaster wheels.
i think the bike looks so fine the way it is set up now.
unique, or soveryshari, as some people would say.

how she looked then:


with several variatons in between,
now she looks...sorta...tee hee





no...it's closer to this...almost...

Personal preference... I loved the spoked look so much I went to all the trouble of finding the (incredibly rare & expensive) parts required to convert the spoked wheel to twin disks and keep the spokes.

Personal preference though.

I like the spoked wheels of my America, but the chance came up to own a set of cast off a Speedmaster so I swopped and went with the twin discs as well. Love the look and the feel of those twin discs..

spoked wheels.

As for a flat tire, no matter where you get one it sucks

My choice is spoked but a flat does suck.

I love the spoke look but now that I have the Speedmaster with alloy I love the ease of cleaning by comparison. Also like stated above you can simply plug a flat and air it up to be back on your way with mags,spokes make the repair more involved as you have to patch the tube.

I don't know if this is a common problem or if we just got a bad wheel but Wendys front wheel is showing a couple very small spots of rust. They clean up so it isn't noticeable but it bothers me. Alloy won't rust, if you get any corrosion you can buy a kit made for alloy car wheels to strip them then you polish them back to where you want and apply the wheel coating that also comes in the kit. Spokes you would need to rechrome or paint/powder coat the wheels.

Well, I guess I'm alone here. I love the look of the alloy wheels on my America much, much better(beautiful!!!) than the spoked wheels of models in the past. Much easier to clean in my opinion, and better looking and there is always the flat situation to take into account.

I prefer mag wheels, but those who like spokes can run tubeless tires if they want.
Most methods involve sealing around the head of the spoke adjuster inside the rim using a silicone II aluminum and metal formulation.

I will add that when I bought my Speedmaster I actually tried talking Herm into trading my mags for the spoked wheels for the look. Kinda glad he didn't want to do that now.

Tubeless spokes

No argument that the alloy wheels are easier to clean. But, the wire wheels are not that hard to keep looking good if you don't neglect them. I spray mine with Bike Bright, rinse, and blow dry. On rare occasions I'll manually clean the spokes while the bike is on my lift and I can spin the wheels.

As far as looks, IMHO the wire wheels are beautiful, classic, and one of the reasons I chose the America over the Speedmaster. I've owned 3 Triumphs since 1970 and they all had wire wheels. I'm sorry they dropped them on the America because I think they should have one cruiser with wire wheels. Harley still has them on some models because there are people that love them.

It would be nice if there were other options from the factory. I have spokes and they are nice, but a pain to clean. I'm not really fond of any of the alloy wheels Triumph offers on the Speedy or America now. I would like to see whhels with less but thicker spokes, and I love the way the Harley spoke smoothie rims look. Alloy wheels can come in so many different designs. It would be nice to have some polished. Maybe Triumph will start offering options someday.

Although it is true a tubeless tire can be plugged, you have to carry the right tools and some way to reinflate the tire. In addition, a fair amount amount of sudden deflations cause a get-off and that itself can require a tow truck.

With all that said, I've got spoke wheels and love them when they are clean. I hate to clean them and wish they were tubeless but I don't see putting out the money for alloy wheels.

Spokes.

plugs to plug tires are small and they have several compact methods to inflate a flat. One is small compressed air tanks like power a BB gun, another is a small hand pump like came with my 64 BMW or now Slime has a palm size compresser.

I carry the little Slime compressor. Works great, glad I haven't HAD to use it yet. I also carry the 8oz, Slime for tubes on trips. It might just get me home if I had to use it and the tube puncture wasn't too bad.

Has anyone on here ever used the Slime for tubes? I can see it working on tubeless tires but not so sure about in a tube type.

I heard that there are chrome wheels coming for the Speedy.... like the mag style, but chrome. Oh boy, more chrome. Don't forget, chrome and loud pipes save lives.!!!!!!!!!!!!!