Quick question. Will a 2002 Felge Vorne Road King front wheel (non-spoked) fit a 2001 Road King Classic ? Reason I'm doing it is that I currently have a spoked front wheel which I don't like, mainly due to the fact it has an inner tube which doesn't allow for road-side puncture repair. Bear in mind, that I'll be swapping the brake discs too.

 

Hello old chap from North of the Thames. Kent must be a lot more tough on bikes than I realise! Why are you concerned about the front tyre, as it usually kicks stuff up and into the path of the rear tyre, which is the one that gets most punctures. What is your rear wheel? In my roadside experience that is the one you're more likely to need to repair and I've lost count of how many times I've repaired or replaced tubes.

 

I've had mostly punctures on my front tyre believe it or not. In all I've had a six and the only one I remember on the rear was on a Yamaha XVS125 years ago which had spoked wheels.

My rear wheel on the Road King is a solid cast wheel which has a tubeless tyre. Ideally I'd like both to be tubeless.

I'm originally from London so I used to be north of the Thames too! I'm up round your neck of the woods occasionally, near Biggleswade to be exact.

 

Makes sense! I've no idea what that wheel is, but if it is off a 2002 RK then yes it should fit, as will any Touring model front wheel from that era, in other words 2000-up, to around 2007.

 

I could work out what on earth a "Felge Vorne" wheel was but - thanks to the German Ebay - it turns out it just means "front rim" in German. It's not a brand nor a model.

So which wheels have you got, pictures may help more than Wörter.

Incidentally, I was reading an article the other day about touring wheels (sorry, can't remember the link) where they weighed each one and compared them and, from memory, the Wagon Wheels came out the lightest (after spokes) and the Airstrikes came out the heaviest.

Spoked wheels were considerably lighter, enough so to make me consider them. A number of companies, such as Borrani, offer tubeless spoked rims although relating to HD, it's not something I know anything about. Alpina is another brand, although they don't list HDs.

(As an aside, looking into this, I was interested to see the latest developments in this area, not all of which are applicable to H-Ds, the "air *****" for off road riders were an interesting idea).

Sealing spoked rims or nipple heads for tubeless use, however, is something that has been done with some companies such as wheel-works.com offering it as a service. Again, it's not an area that I have any knowledge or experience with.

 

Can you find a manufacturer's name and part number on the new wheel? If you can, Google it and see if the source gives application data. If it lists your machine without needing different bearings or spacers, I would guess you are good to go. Harley recommends NEW bolts when installing brake discs. I took Harley's advice when I changed mine, but the bolts that came out seemed quite robust making me believe the real reason is for the new daub of thread locker on the new bolts, rather than any "stretch to fail" or similar problem.

 

I switched out both the front and rear spoked wheels on my 04 RK to a set of cast wheels, for similar reason. No problems swapping the brake discs or pulley. Think these are the wheels I used.

Surprise bonus I got from the switch was significantly improved handling. I hadn't realized how wiggly and flexible the spoked wheels were.

 

Them's the "Wagon Wheels".

 

Yep - this is the one I'm looking to use. If they've worked for you then that gives me a bit of confidence that they'll work for me.

 

You'll be treading a well-worn path using them. It's common for owners of older RKs to swap their wires for cast wheels.