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Here’s another technology matchup from the MC Garage: Old-school wire-spoked wheels versus modern one-piece alloy wheels. What’s the difference, and which design is better? That all depends…

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Most motorcycle wheels fall into one of two categories: You’ve got your wire-spoked wheels and your one-piece alloy wheels. What’s the difference, and which design is better? We break it down for you in this video from the MC Garage.

What Are The Benefits Of Wire-Spoked Motorcycle Wheels?
Back in the 1960s, motorcycles came with wire-spoked wheels. Then, in the 1970s, one-piece alloy wheels rolled onto the scene. These days, the vast majority of bikes come with cast wheels. But, we still see wire-spoked wheels on modern-retro motorcycles—like Honda’s CB1100—and on motocross, dual sports, and serious adventure motorcycles. So, what’s up with that?

Spoked-wheels still hold a fairly large market share because they outperform cast wheels in one respect, and that is durability. Spoked-wheels have more flex and give so they are much more tolerant of rough and abusive terrain. Which is exactly why you put them on a bike that will see the dirt. Spoked-wheels are also easier to repair, so if you do happen to bend a rim or smash some spokes, you can replace the individual parts. Meanwhile, cast wheels are brittle and when they fail, they tend to bend harshly or break. And then you’re on the hook for a whole, new wheel.

So, durability and ease of repair are the primary reasons we see spoked-wheels on dual sports and motocross bikes, but there is a styling aspect to consider. Motorcycles like the BMW R nineT Scrambler have spoked-wheels not because BMW wants you to thrash the bike off-road, but because it suits the image that BMW is after. The same goes for all of the other modern bikes that are looking to capture a little bit of that classic look and feel.

What Are The Benefit Of Cast Motorcycle Wheels?
Even with all of the cruisers and modern-retro motorcycles out there on the road, allow wheels are still more common, and that’s for a couple of reasons. First and foremost is manufacturing. Big companies like Honda and Kawasaki crank out thousands of alloy wheels without any human involvement in the process and that makes them cheaper. Meanwhile, spoked-wheels still entail some amount of manual labor. More importantly, alloy wheels are much more rigid than spoked-wheels and it adds a lot of benefits to road riding. To name just a few, alloy wheels can handle bigger tires, more horsepower, and they are going to handle better.

Alloy wheels are also universally tubeless, which makes tire change and plugging punctures a lot more simple. Some modern, high-end spoked wheels are sealed and tubeless, but the vast majority of them run tubes.

Which Is Better?
And finally, we have the topic of weight, which is a huge point of contention when we did our regular vs upside-down fork comparison. Just like forks, there is no hard and fast rule that says that one design is going to be lighter than another. It is wholly dependent on the motorcycle and the given application. Of course, a $4,000 set of forged magnesium racing wheels is definitely going to be lighter than any spoked-wheel design out there, but most alloy wheels are made of cast aluminum and they are fairly heavy.

In any way, weight is not a concern here. When these two wheels face-off, it’s all about rigidity versus durability. So there you have it, the primary differences between these two wheel designs. I hope you learn something! Make sure to subscribe to us on YouTube. Thanks for reading and watching!

Read more about motorcycle wheels on Motorcyclist: https://www.motorcyclistonline.com/difference-between-wire-spoked-motorcycle-wheels-and-alloy-motorcycle-wheels/

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