Hi All,

I was thinking of using the Mike's XS 2.15 -18 H rims on front and rear of our Street Tracker project.  Part number is 34-1902. The Duro HF-308 Pirelli clone tires are available in 4.00-18 and 3.50-18 sizes for the look we want.

Has anybody used these rims? I know there has been some controversy about the Ryca respoked rear wheels, something about the angle of the holes being off or the spokes not being straight. I think they used a 2.50 rim, sourced from? Since the brake drums on the XS650 and Savage are nominally the same I see no problem on the rear.  

Anybody have an idea of spoke lengths for the front? Somebody here must have done the 18 inch conversion.

NO, I am NOT going to have somebody else spoke the wheel for me. This is a project for my son and I to work on and I want to show him how to do stuff, including respoking a wheel. The fun for us is in working together on old vehicles, most of which are never finished. Throwing money at a "professional" isn't in the do it yourself spirit I'm trying to teach him.

Of course if we screw it up there is always the "Pay somebody else to do the technical stuff" option. It's been a few years since I built a wheel. Lots of good how-tos on the "Net now so we should be able to muddle through. If it works out we will post a Savage specific step by step on the Technical Forum.

John in the PRC

If the bike is to be converted into a cafe racer of sorts, I'd be careful with the stock rear drum, as it could prove too powerful.

The Savage stance puts a lot of weight onto the rear wheel, so a big fat drum is necessary.

On a cafe racer, on the other hand, the front wheel holds 50+% of the weight of the rider. so an oversize drum may prove excessive and lock the wheel.

Dave,

Thanks for the offer.  I was thinking of the Mike's XS rims because they are cheaper, $85 vs. over $200 for Buchanans.

For sure I would want the stainless spokes, which may be available also from another source if I knew the length.  Or just quit being so cheap and order from the spoke shop.

John in the PRC

Funny you should be posting this...
I ordered spokes from Buchannan's for this very reason; I have a vitage 18" rim to mount. Long story short; the gave me the option of large or smaller diameter spoke nipples and it turns out the large ones I ordered won't work with the rim I have. I will be calling them today to see if I can exchange them, but they were custom ordered and they may not take them back; if that's the case, I might have a set to sell you if they will work on your rim.

It did turn out to be more complicated than I had anticipated (Especially because I had a "friend" helping me who said he had and "expert" to do the job... His "expert" proved useless, and now it's nearly July and I'm still wheel-less because I ordered my spokes based on his mis-information.

If you contact Buchannan's yourself; they are very thorough, and will ask a lot of questions, but if you have the rim in hand and can give them accurate measurements, you'll get the right spokes the first time.

I did search Ebay for less expensive spokes, and while I found a god set for the rear wheel, I didn't find anything in the right size for the front.

Good luck!!

SO... Are you ordering spokes for the FRONT wheel from the XS650 guys?
Or did you mean the rear wheel? Or both?

I just got my front spoke set from Buchanans.

They have the length listed as 7-15/16", with a bend angle of 70 degrees - this is for my 18" Excel rim.  I have not yet tried them to see if they fit......hopefully next week I will have time.

The rear hub with an 18" rim would optimally use a 124mm spoke. Try to get one that is 4 to 4.5 mm in thickness. Its the proper alignment for the rear wheel spokes. The setup they use on the Ryca is an alternative pattern that comes out kinda crappy and I suspect the wheel works guys did it because that was the size of spoke they had on the shelf and could do it cheap and/or quick.

My brother is just about to order spokes for his 18 inch front wheel, I will repost and see what length we come up with, he already has the rim and hub, we just have to determine the spoke length.

Oh yea, for the rear you will need an inner/outer configuration also. And on the front its just a semi-straight pull like a dirtbike.  I have a few sets of excel spoke sets laying around, Ill check if any of them are close.

I just did my rear 18 inch rim last weekend, so I am very sure about what you will need. Of the common sizes available, 120mm will be a bit short but you will still get 10mm of threads grabbing and if you go with a 129mm spoke you also get around 10mm of threads meshing and  the will be long and have to grind of the ends. So 124mm would be ideal, but its not one of the common pre-made lengths unless you can figure out a bike that has that size.

Spamy wrote on 07/03/12 at 20:08:46:


The dirtbike rear wheel (18x2.15) seems to be a pretty common size and there are lots of candidates.....you may end up with a rim lock hole to be plugged.  My 2009 Kawasaki Super Sherpa had a rubber plug in the front rim - so you could get one of those if you end up with a rim that used a rim lock.  I am not sure about the quality and/or suitablility of a dirt bike rim for a street bike.  I don't know how round they are or how strong they are.  There are lots of very affordable rims made for dirt bikes - and I am not sure the alignment of the spoke holes works out well on the rear of the Savage as the large brake drum would not have been used on a modern dirt bike.  I think the potential of getting a dirt bike rim with proper spoke alignment on the front is more probable, as the Savage front hub is a disc brake hub and more apt to match the hubs on dirt bike.

I ordered the Excel rims from Buchanan - more expensive but the punch the spoke holes in the rim at the proper alignment for the hub that you will be using and the size of the spoke nipples.