Should I get my wheels powder coated?

[Eurostar]

Hi everyone, my first time on the reincarnation of this excellent board. Only took me 6 months to find it.

I want clean wheels on my '99 1150GS, but I don't want to polish them any more. There's no point, because they're too pitted and rusty and will never come up all shiny again.

So what can I do to get them looking nice and make them easy to clean for ever more? I'm thinking powder coating in a low key metallic colour. I'm very taken by the piccies at www.triple-s.co.uk. Will this be durable? And what are the alternatives?

 

[MikeO]

A mate of mine looked into this, as the wheels on his 1100GS were in a right state when he bought it. The problem he found was that he couldn't have the entire wheel powder coated (powder coating results in quite a thick coat of material, which is fine on alloys, but would be unsuitable for spoked wheels - the spokes would move as the wheel turned, making the coating crack eventually). It was financially unviable to get the wheels dismantled & re-built (if you can find someone to do it).

The Adv wheel rims are anodised, which would be a better solution, although it would still require a dismantle/re-build.

He ended up cleaning them as best he could and living with the corrosion......

I must stress that I'm not an expert on powder coating - just reporting my mate's experience.

Mike

 

[judge]

Andy Grant has had just this very thing done to the spoked wheels of his 1150GS & 100GS-PD. In doing so I believe the spokes were replaced with stainless items. I also think it was two different companies who achieved this one for the powder coating and one for the wheel rebuild.

I have no idea of costs for this but if you PM or e-mail Andy I'm sure he'll put you on to these people.

 

[Eurostar]

Thanks, but I think a wheel rebuild is going too far - it would probably be cheaper to chuck my wheels in the bin and replace them with the Adventure ones.

Bugger, seems like this problem is no more soluble than it was when I first got pissed off with the wheels on my 1100GS nine years ago.

 

[andrew taylor]

Have you thought about getting some alloy wheels of the 1100s?
Dunno what they would cost mind you, rather expensive no doubt!!

 

[Eurostar]

Actually I already have some. But I've put the original wheels back on so I can go off round the world and do lots of dirt tracky stuff.