Spoked wheels?

[Itchy]

Honda and the other Japanese firms seem to find it important to constantly reduce weight on their bikes.... ie:

alloy frames ,

plastic single use fairing bolts ,

engines used as stressed parts to save on beams and frame
extrusions

drilling holes in everything.

Stacking gear boxes minimising fuel load

Smaller indicators.

Thinner fairings etc...


But hold on if spoked wheels can be made to take tubeless like BMW R100GS PD and I can get my spoked wheels on various bikes sealed up to take tubeless and that spoked wheels are lighter AND stronger, erm this begs the question why don't sports bikes come with spoked wheels to save on weight?.

In that I saw a heavily modded varadero which had its cash wheels replaced with spoked ones today along with a host of other mods.

I'm sure the wheels on the Africa both of them weigh less than a single wheel on the CBR , either that or I was having a bad day.


Any thoughts?

Ta.
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[Blau Zedong]

Spoked wheels are not stiff enough for ultimate handling (i.e. race reps), plus I can't see the look of them going down a storm amongst the blade / R1 boys.
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18:54:48 Rob Fzs: jews don't give away stuff for free

18:54:59 Rob Fzs: unless its their clothes/ hair/ golden teeth

[BanditsHigh]

As above, and when I asked about spoked wheels for a 120bhp bike I was told they wouldn't take the power.

Also it's cheaper to do cast wheels which take seconds to machine, compared to a spoked wheel which takes time to build up ... wonder if that's done by machine as well, that'd be something to see

[Blau Zedong]

Having said that somewhere I have a feature on a tuned Katana which has spoked wheels. Although it probably isn't that important when seen in the context of an old skool bendy steel frame.
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18:54:48 Rob Fzs: jews don't give away stuff for free

18:54:59 Rob Fzs: unless its their clothes/ hair/ golden teeth

[sickpup]

Spoked wheels hang off of the spokes in the top half of the wheel so the part of the rim at the bottom of the wheel can move around to a degree reducing stiffness.

Solid wheels sit on the spokes in the lower half so the rims don't move around.

[Diana29]

Hi buddy

wheels can be moved to remove stiffness.
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