500 K cafe racer conversion - build thread

[z1100r]

 The spokes with the longest nipple shank go on the outside. In other words poke the threaded bit of these from hub centre outwards.  The spokes with the shorter nipple shank are poked through the hub holes from outside to in. They dont fit any other way without force.

I'm not on about spoke length, I'm on about just the nipple, the outside spokes are longer from nipple to bend.


Well thats what I did..

[Ewan 500 K1]

plain (as it can get ) english award to z1100...... Ive modified my last post, using your words. I think we were in the same place        Words., who'd ave em. I'll do some pictures when I get time to do another rebuild of the front wheel.

Bryan , I think we;re also in the same place re which spokes go where. I'll try your 20 spokes first method and let u know , sounds sensible to me.

Almost feel as if I might know what I'm doing next time around 

[clive]

sorry to hijack the the thread, but ive been following it, as i'm thinking of replacing mine with new rims and spokes, what do you think of the quality of dss rims and where did you get the spoke wrench from. any advice would be appreciated.

[Bryanj]

DSS sells japanese rims direct from the manufacturer and the one i had was superb.

Spoke key wrench you may find ata pushbike shop as they used to be circular with lots of sizes on them

[clive]

thanx bri.

[kendo57]

Personally i would go with stainless rims but i am not a big fan of chrome. Once it starts
to pit there is not much you can do with it and the stainless rims are highly polished these days so
they look like chrome.

[Ewan 500 K1]

sorry to hijack the the thread, but ive been following it, as i'm thinking of replacing mine with new rims and spokes, what do you think of the quality of dss rims and where did you get the spoke wrench from. any advice would be appreciated.

Clive, spoke wrench came from http://dirtbikestore.co.uk. They have a couple of different models. In hindsight I think I should have got stainless rims and spokes myself

[z1100r]

 I thought about stainless too. Then i thought nargh sod it, whats the point...the bike wont be out in the salty wet again, it certainly wont be left parked in the rain all day and all night for 25 years. The std front chrome rim lasted from 1975 until 2010. I'll be long dead before another chrome rim is knackered. Polish it up with some waxy stuff every now and then they'll be fine I thought.

 Plus, the rims I got from DS were dead true, with perfect length spokes making them an absolute doddle to assemble, and considering how much I was panicing about doing it before hand, I was sure glad it all fitted together so well.

  I've seen them  down at Central Wheel 'bending' and hammering spokes to get them to clear the hub, with great lengths of thread comming out of some and others clinging on with only a couple of threads. I had my Enfied wheels done there using Akront rims and stainless spokes. This was early 90's. They cost me a fortune and came back sh*t.  The front hub was so distorted I could'nt get the backplates in with the shoes on. I had to loosen all spokes and start again...a bloody joke. 

 Stainless looks nothing like chrome, its alot duller,  I wanted my Honda back to mega bling again.

 

[kendo57]

Stainless looks nothing like chrome, its alot duller

That used to be the case but not these days

[UK Pete]

WOW do they do stainless for the 750
pete

[Ewan 500 K1]

Front wheel rebuild done right this time, So here's how I did it .

I used following guides for the wheel building;

http://www.webbikeworld.com/motorcycle-wheels/spoke-wheels/

http://www.classicbikes.org.uk/ ..... wheel building page

1. Got loads of help from this forum and the US one
2. Cut the old spokes and rim off the hub
3. Polished outsides of hub and painted centres with etch primer and black epoxy paint (Pic 1, below)
4. Worked out the difference between the two spoke types (Pic 3, below)
5. Put the "B" spokes on the outside of the hub, ie poked them through the holes from the inside of the hub to the outside (see pic 3&4, below. Note that Pic 4 is to show arrangement of the "B" spokes only, I put all spokes on the hub before lacing any of them)
6. Put the "A" spokes on the inside of the hub, ie poked them through the holes from the outside of the hub to the inside (pics 3&5, below Note that Pic 5 is to show arrangement of the "A" & "B" spokes only, I put all spokes on the hub before lacing any of them)
7. When all the spokes were on the hub,(see Pic 6, below) I sat the hub on a table and sat the rim over it and loosely arranged the spokes. Then, laced the A spokes on the speedo side hub to the rim and put the spoke nipples on a couple of turns. Then did the B spokes for the speedo side of the hub, Turn the wheel over, do the "A" spokes for the brake disc side, then the "B" spokes for the brake disc side , again putting the nipples on a couple of turns.. So, all spokes now laced up (see Pic 7, below)
8. Made a truing jig out of an old pair of forks bolted to a work bench. Put the wheel the jig (see Pic
9. Went round all nipples taking one off at a time, put a bit of oil on the female nipple thread and a bit of copper grease on the rim nipple seat. Then put the nipple back on and tightened it 10 turns with a cross head screwdriver. Worked round the wheel until all spokes / nipples oiled, greased and tightened 10 turns.
10. Used a dial gauge and spoke wrench (see Pic 9 & 10) to get the wheel true to 0.2mm vertical, then 0.2mm horizontal, then checked vertical again. .....Always starting at biggest high and low points and tightening spokes a  turn or so at these points and tightening adjacent spokes half a turn. This was fairly easy, taking about an hour or so to get trued up. (note that its impossible to get the rim true to this degree at the point where the rim weld is)
11. Job Done

[Ewan 500 K1]

rest of the pics...

[kendo57]

Good job, looks like you did it the same as me and mine had a big blip were the rim is welded as well.
Some guy on the American forum said you should put the DTi on the inner surface of the rim but i did
it the same as you. Quite satisfying doing your first wheel build.

[Ewan 500 K1]

Kendo .. you are KHD on revcounter ?? ... your wheel build was my inspiration to give it a go 

[Ewan 500 K1]

Rear wheel build completed today, all went fine after having had the front wheel job to hone the skills. Only buggeration was that I'd polished up a brake plate that I had lying around ... one that doesnt fit.  See first photo, anyone know what model its from ... 750/4 ??