Do you all get your wheels repaired or recoloured??

[RAW-Wheels]

Hi all, great site!. I have an alloy wheel repair company based in the North East and we have just started doing a few bike wheel repairs, straightens and colour changes as favours to friends.
We have been weighing up the options of whether to start doing bike wheels permanently but i thought I would do a bit of research first to see whether there is a market for it. (Not trying to spam your forum just felt this was a good way to find out)
Do many of you get your wheels repaired or re-coloured at all? Would many of you be interested in getting them done?
Thanks for your time
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RAW-Wheels

[c_dug]

Only one have I needed to get my wheels sorted and even then it was respoking them, due to lack of people around my area it was easier and cheaper to buy replacement alloy wheels.

I would suggest offering respoking as one of your services.
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[RAW-Wheels]

Thanks for that, something for me to think about. We have only been doing car wheels at moment so bikes are a bit of a new world to us! Do many people get colour changes? We have done a couple of bike wheels in black so far but weren't sure if this was a common thing for bikers to get done
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RAW-Wheels

[Welshd1k]

by colour chaneg you mean poweder coated? yeah verry common. ALOT of bikers get wheels blasted and coated . you'd be supprised main question is price i think i paid £20 a wheel for blast and powdercoat
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[c_dug]

Would disagree to be honest I wouldn't say that it was that common a thing to have done. Certainly worth doing as a side to the car wheels but not a bike wheel only place.

Just my opinion of course!
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[RAW-Wheels]

No, we don't usually powder coat. Normally we use UV paints as we found these to give a much better finish than powder coating. Have a look at https://www.raw-wheels.co.uk/theprocess.html if you are interested.
Thanks for both your opinions. c-dug it would only be a side to car wheels but we are planning on advertising in biker mags etc. However, if there wasnt really a market for it then we wouldn't bother
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RAW-Wheels

[Itchy]

The problem is you're competing against complete replacement wheels. Since I can get a rear wheel off ebay for about £70, and a front for £90. Unless your price is sowhat lower than this then faced with a good condition 2nd hand or a repair a lot of people will go for the 2nd hander.
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[RAW-Wheels]

[0ddball]

No ta.I'll stick to getting my wheels blasted and powdercoated for £40 by a reputable guy for a job i know will last.

I fail to see how pushing the tyre back a bit and painting them in 1 hour will give a durable finish. Prices are way too expensive too.

[RAW-Wheels]

fair enough mate.I'm not touting for business on here,just wanted an opinion.Although it does take much longer than an hour for bike wheels and the system we use has been proven to be significantly more durable than powder coating as well as having a better finish.but appreciate your comment though thanks
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RAW-Wheels

[MarJay]

I'd rather get my wheels blasted and then powder coated. Not many motorcycle wheels are natural metal colour.
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[Teflon-Mike]

Motorcycle wheels vary a lot more in both construction and design than car wheels, as well as being more demanding in operation.

When you say 'repair'... for a bike wheel you'd have to be quite a bit more accute than with a car rim....

At a guess you are re-finishing 'dinged' car alloys that have been kerbed, essentially a cosmetic fill and re-finish.

On a bike, 'damage' normally means heavy impact or crash damage, where the wheel will be buckled or bent, and a 'cosmetic' repair isn't whats needed, and where on a car rim you can get away with straightening a kinked rim, on a bike, with the rim offering a lot more support and having to restrain the tyre in three axis as the bike tilts in corners, the straightness and support is a lot more critical, and the consequences of a de-seat an AWFUL lot more dire....

To do bike wheels you really need to know bikes, bikers and what's important to both.

There is a market, but if you check the mags, its well covered with plenty of people offering crash-damage inspection and repair (sometimes with X-ray analysis and lazer checking, to ensure accuracy and strength). Then theres the paint & polish exponents, who mirror finish alloys and do fancy paint jobs on them. Then there's the spokers who repair or renovate or rebuild spoked wheels, doing things like putting 17@ rims to take sports-bike tyres on MX-bike rims for Motards, or small maga-waide rims for chopper rears, and big super-narrow ones for thier fronts. etc.

There is a market, but its one you will REALLY have to do your home-work on. There aren't many niches that haven't been covered, and there are many niches!

And in the bike market, you'll find that its price and performance that are far more often prioratised of style and asthetics.
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[RAW-Wheels]

A main advantage with us over powder coaters is that we regularly do wheels where the wheel is finished in one colour and the rim is another.e.g black wheel with a red rim.powder coaters can't achieve a finish like that.do you see many bikes with that kind of finish?
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RAW-Wheels

[chris-red]

Has the UV paint got the same resilience as power-coat?
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[RAW-Wheels]

thanks for the comment Teflon-mike.very useful info
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RAW-Wheels

[RAW-Wheels]

[johnsmith222]

[G]

I have called up about wheel repair, but as above; it was cheaper to go second hand, so I've just done that.

The question is, when would someone want their motorcycle wheel looking in an as-new condition after they've damaged it?
Generally it's pretty hard to structurally damage a motorcycle wheel and if you have, you've probably mashed the whole bike up.
If you've mashed the whole bike up, it's going to be uneconomic to get it looking like new again; so it's probably going to be a project.

Painting you've got a bit more of a market, I'd say, as you've got general 'custom' scenes; however there's a lot of people that offer it already.

Some do go for the two-tone thing with spokes a different colour and plenty of places offer it now as far as I know.

[pits]

Looked into UV paint a fair bit, and given the choice between the two, powder coating for me sorry, so many people are struggling to get UV to work, especially in the sticking it to stuff department, and for myself UV just wouldn't work as it isn't tough enough.

The big problem for me though is that the products I sell are 8H/9H hardness, which is about as hard as you can get.

Powder coating is 4H

UV paint is 2H/3H, which is roughly the same as normal car paint


The problem I found people to be getting with certain UV paints (not all) was that you can chip them, and they can lift in certain conditions after a period of time, not saying yours will so don't take that the wrong way.

[truslack]

Not something I'd be interested in (though I've never really thought about doing it) - if I have chromed rims I just anti-rust and paint them black once they go a bit rusty
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