18 inch front - anyone?

[VasalineWarrior]

As I discovered the other day in the wet, nylon tyres really aren't that good.

If anyone has a real rubber one lying about, be it an old slick or whatever i'd be keen to buy it (90 or 100 would fit my bucket, its an old RG50 wire rim)...

[nudemetalz]

18" slicks are not that easy to come by. Better off converting to 17's.

[Trudes]

17 inch rims are not that easy to come by either!:shutup: All these bloody bucketers keep buying them!:lol:

[nudemetalz]

17 inch rims are not that easy to come by either!:shutup: All these bloody bucketers keep buying them!:lol:

lol,..good response !!! :jerry:

[FROSTY]

As I discovered the other day in the wet, nylon tyres really aren't that good.

If anyone has a real rubber one lying about, be it an old slick or whatever i'd be keen to buy it (90 or 100 would fit my bucket, its an old RG50 wire rim)...
Pirelli do a not too bad 18 inch skinny tyre

[VasalineWarrior]

18" slicks are not that easy to come by. Better off converting to 17's.

Yeah thought of that. Easier to try and find an 18" first before I go down that road...

[quallman1234]

I had the same problem. and have a 16 inch front. Luckily i have a spare RGV150 front end laying around :shifty:. So im going all 17 baby. Thin 17 at that tho!

[koba]

17 inch rims are not that easy to come by either!:shutup: All these bloody bucketers keep buying them!:lol:

What were the Vee rubber ones on Pamela like?

[Trudes]

On Skunk's pretty white 18' rims? I have no idea what they are (Skunk will know) but they were ok in the wet and the dry, always felt a bit 'hard' but were not too bad really. (Love my tyres on Rangi though... oh and the 17s... immm rubber!!)

[Skunk]

There's shit old 18" slick sitting here. It's Sketchy's so best you PM him.
The Vee Rubbers are hard, but no one fell off the AX's that wore them. Cheapest 18" with 'nice' tread I could find.

[VasalineWarrior]

Cheers Skunk - will do that

[VasalineWarrior]

Gave that tyre a good scrub down to get all the dust and crap off - not too sure if it merits putting on. Has a fair few crack in the sidewalls although it hasn't bled off any preessure (pumped it up to 30psi and left it over night).

Im unsure how safe it would be with a bit of hard use so although my current front tyre is crap ill leave it on for the moment as Im pretty sure it wont go "pop" out on the track.

How much is one of those Vee rubber's BTW?

[Sully60]

Best possible 18" tyre still available; Dunlop TT100GP quite a bit more expensive than a Vee-blubber but you ride hard enough to make the difference worth it. By far the best wet weather tyre you could get for that rim!

[MsKABC]

You can get wire-spoked wheels re-laced to make them smaller, no? (If that's what the OP meant by wire rim.)

[xwhatsit]

You can get wire-spoked wheels re-laced to make them smaller, no? (If that's what the OP meant by wire rim.)
Well you can probably get shorter spokes easily enough to go with the hub, but you still need a smaller rim itself.

You can get Honda C50 rims (just the bare rim, no spokes or hub) from Thailand really cheap, they're 17", but they might be a little narrow :D

$US15:
<img src="http://www.tenavintage.com/images/uploads/18rim.JPG" />

[MsKABC]

Well you can probably get shorter spokes easily enough to go with the hub, but you still need a smaller rim itself.


Yeah, I realise that - I might be a girl, but I'm not completely stoopid :bleh:

There's an outfit in Papakura that do it, or so I've heard.

[xwhatsit]

I'd say getting hold of a 17" rim with the correct spoke-count and the spokes to match would be about as big of a pain in the arse (and expensive, $15 rims from Thailand notwithstanding) as finding a complete 17" wheel. Although you'd have the original hub so you wouldn't have to faff around with spacers/disc mounts etc.

Lacing a wheel is really easy, if I can do it any fool can. Although I should probably borrow somebody's dial gauge to get it 100% :D

Is it really that tough to get 18" tyres? What do the classic racers run? I'm sticking TT100 race compound on my bike next time I change my tyres... that comes in normal-sized 18" sizes.

[Trudes]

I bought some 17" wheels last year, had some nice tyres still attached too.... and a frame..... was a good buy (http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?t=74048&highlight=Rangi)!!!

[MsKABC]

I'd say getting hold of a 17" rim with the correct spoke-count and the spokes to match would be about as big of a pain in the arse (and expensive, $15 rims from Thailand notwithstanding) as finding a complete 17" wheel.

Yeah, I guess we'll find out if we try it.


Although you'd have the original hub so you wouldn't have to faff around with spacers/disc mounts etc.


That is the primary advantage to us, I think.


Is it really that tough to get 18" tyres? What do the classic racers run? I'm sticking TT100 race compound on my bike next time I change my tyres... that comes in normal-sized 18" sizes.

Can't get slicks in 18" anymore, which is what many bucket racers seem to prefer. Not that I'll be riding fast enough to need them... :laugh:


I bought some 17" wheels last year, had some nice tyres still attached too.... and a frame..... was a good buy (http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?t=74048&highlight=Rangi)!!!

I'll have to keep an eye out for a set of wheels just like that! :lol:

[Sully60]

Can't get slicks in 18" anymore, which is what many bucket racers seem to prefer. Not that I'll be riding fast enough to need them... :laugh:





You'd be much better off with a treaded tyre anyway, slicks are obviously the best but you've got to have the supension, brakes and geometry to make them worthwhile.

The TT100 GP(or the 'modern' 900GP if you can get them in the right size) will work better in a wider range of conditions that you're likely to strike (it does rain alot up there!), heat up quicker and give more feedback as you get closer to the limit, the blocky tread moves around a bit which lets you know something is happening, a slick on the other hand will just start to slide or chatter which is fine when you're familiar with your machine and comfortable being that loose but you're very close to the limit when this happens.

You'll also need to have quite wide rims to get the best from them otherwise the feedback is even worse as the outside part of the tread is basically vertical which means you can end up horizontal without too much warning, trust me:pinch:

Stick with the crossplys on the narrow rims for now. Rossi's Bridgestones will still be around when you're reday to take him on!

[MsKABC]

Stick with the crossplys on the narrow rims for now. Rossi's Bridgestones will still be around when you're reday to take him on!

All good advice that I agree with, and that's what we're doing :yes: The banana has TT900s on it already, and we'll be running Battlax BT45s on the other.

[Trudes]

TT900s FTW!:msn-wink:

[MsKABC]

Actually the outfit that does the wheels is in Pakuranga, here's a link to the website if anyone is interested:

http://www.wheelandspoke.co.nz/services.html

It looks like it would be a job worth in excess of $300, so cheaper to buy a new wheel if you can get one that fits ok.