A buddy of mine told me that a few BMW F800GS owners (mine is 2013) have bought tubeless rims made in China (I looked on the web and only found "Henly" rims so far). He said they were happy with them. The Henlys I saw on line ( https://www.aliexpress.com/item/400...chweb0_0,searchweb201602_3,searchweb201603_53) go for about half the Alpina or Kineo ones. Considering I will have to probably pay exorbitant duty here in Indonesia, this looks attractive. But I'm a bit concerned beause I haven't found any reviews. Ideas or info anyone?
I would really like to have someone to go after for medical fees if my rims turn out to be made out of tin foil. I buy stuff from Aliexpress myself, but rims - the structure holding my only contact with the ground ... maybe not. Based on a recommendation as reliable as "someone said he heard some were happy with them" - no, thanks. The problem with knock-off goods is the lack of consistency. There might be a really good batch and hence - some nice reviews and then the next one can be a complete crap. And then you really have no one on the other side. For cheap and simple items that's fine, but as I said - I'm not betting my life on them.
Fair enough, I have only bought things like light protectors from them. I have the same reservations about electronics and the rims. But I was hoping to hear from someone with firsthand experience. Anyone?
For what it is worth, don't do it. Well I guess depends on how demanding you are on your bike. If it is anything beyond tooling around the road then save money elsewhere. Things that keep you upright shouldn't be skimped on. My opinion. This happened 2 months ago when i was training in morocco. We had about 25 adventure riders tagging along. They don't go at a race pace or tackle the expert obstacles and sometimes only do half the kms the race group does. This was a bike setup by a speed shop in Madrid. All farkled out. Nice gold anodized hubs and rims and spokes on the front, rear was OEM. Race mechanics looked bike over and told owner not to ride it, the aftermarket stuff would not hold up. I think this was day 4 or 5 out of 8. Rider was hospitalized for a week in morocco and then further upon return to Spain but he is alive. Lucky for him he was probably only doing 40 to 60kmh. I guess as the rocks were rough and if he had been doing our pace of 100kmh+ the outcome would have been different. As the mechanics say. Use OEM and then the rider has no dramas and the mechanics can sleep at night rather than wrenching all night long. These fancy spokes were 1mm smaller than OEM and the nipples were smaller as well I am told causing the catastrophic failure.
Those wheels look good. Hubs are made in China and rims and spokes are OEM. China has advanced computer controlled mills and lathes so turning out hubs is easy. Looking at the price, it's worth a try. Have a wheel builder check the spoke tension before installing as wheel building is an art. Aluminum wheels won't blow up while riding. Aluminum will crack before failing so just check the wheels after each ride.
Perhaps some China fear mongering? Riding a motorcycle is a risk. Bad batches creep up in every industry...i.e GM, Ford, BMW, Honda recalls etc. If you have an accident, really hard to prove rims are the cause....too many variables. Anyway, most countries require Motorcycle Insurance which is what covers medical expenses. Many people "risk it" and go the cheap route and seal their own spoke wheels to make them tubeless. To each their own but life is a cost vs benefit analysis.
Is the point of buying those just to make your wheels tubeless ? Goo and tape has worked in mine and thousands of other people's wheels flawlessly.
Don't tell Boeing Max 737 about recalls. Anyway, auto recalls go through accountants first. Making hubs is low tech. You really think China is that backwards it can't produce hubs? Top 3 aluminum producers in the World are from China. Here is a video of China today:
I though my post was clear, nowhere did I tell China has low tech industry. But will I trust quality control and customer support of a "random" AliExpress vendor? Or even what is claimed on the product page ("OEM" rims with the vendor name inscribed on it? Are OEM rims designed to be used with spokes on the edge for tubeless design?) Not that the f800gs OEM rims are super strong anyway.. Isn't their weaknesss the other main reason for buying aftermarket wheels in the first place?
Yes the point is to make it tubeless. I prefer tubeless, not really wanting to go into a pros/cons debate here. I have that objective. I've tried the conversion on lighter bikes and it works ok for a few months or maybe a year, but then you end up having to redo it. Then there is the issue of the bead..
Well my front wheel has been bent lightly but the wheel rim shops here don't want to touch aluminum wheels, they figure they'll crack the rims before they can get them perfectly round again. ? I don't think anyone suggested that F800GS came with tubeless wheels...
Every company/vendor starts from ground zero. Early adopters take a chance and get rewarded by price. So, the rationale here is Yes, QC is a risk but that can be mitigated by having a local wheel builder inspect spoke tension before installation. Customer support...only economical when buying from a local store. If you buy online from any vendor, you have to pay return shipping; for wheels that is not cheap. As for OEM rims, my guess is they are using rims/spokes from an 850GS. If someone has an 850GS, perhaps check the rims to see if they are manufactured by VMX (China). I've had Alpina tubeless wheels before and for my bike, the rear rim was made by Behr (Germany) and the front rim was made by a Chinese company. Point here is China has become a main manufacturer/supplier of parts for Western companies to use. If we can agree that China has the technical expertise to manufacture hubs, rims and spokes, then the risk is mostly how good the wheel builder is. I think most F800GS owners want the convenience of tubeless first and strength second. If I was using the bike for very rough and rocky terrain, then I would use tubes and re-lace my F800 wheels with Excel rims and SS spokes. If I were using the bike to tour and ride the occasional rough gravel road then tubeless would be my choice.
