What downsides are Spoked wheels vs factory beside the obvious (cleaning). The factory 28 spoke aluminum wheels are a bite in the rear to clean. Thinking about changing to something else, I like the looks of the old school spokes.

 

I too like the look of spoked wheels but they're harder to clean than the wheels you have now and require you to check spoke tension from time to time. Not to mention damn tubes. I'd consider another set of alloy wheels with less spokes. Hell, you could even run something like the Softail wheels which are solid.

 

I do not care for spokes, I've had way too many problems with them
over the years.

 

Spokes are all I've ever had because of the cost of custom wheels. And, there's too many choices to pick from, even if I had the money.

 

Nothing looks better than spokes when they're clean, especially with WWs. That being said, I've had three Harley's with spokes; now I have an RK with cast wheels. Don't miss the spokes one bit.

 

Spokes as mentioned require regular maintenance and I am too lazy. After coming close to losing my life I got rid of the spokes and will never look back. Your results may vary.

 

I honestly don't know what the downside is. When I got my Springer in 05, they came with spokes and I've never had any issues with them and as you said, I like the looks of the old school spokes too.

 

When I had a FatBoy I took off the solid 16" wheels and put on 18" wire spoked wheels using akront aluminum rims. I thought it looked awesome and it rode super. Sadly I traded that bike for a 1940 Chev hot rod, what a mistake that was.

 

I prefer the looks of spokes. That said, cleaning's a bitch, and you usually have to run tube-type tires on them. I've heard of laced wheels you can have sealed when they're new, so you can run tubeless tires on 'em. That'd be all right. It's a lot easier to plug a tubeless tire on the side of the road if you get a flat.
The other thing is, laced wheels need to be trued every so often. How often depends on your riding style/conditions and on the wheel itself. The manufacturer will probably recommend a certain interval. Spokes will come loose over time. What you can do as a quick check is tap each spoke lightly with a wrench. If it rings, it's tight, if it's just a dull thud, it's loose. When you tighten them, you want to have the wheel up on a truing stand to make sure you're not distorting the rim. It's a pain in the *** to true a laced rim.

Spokes look great, but you don't have to worry about any of the above with mag wheels.

 

I like the looks of spokes and the cleaning isn't that bad as long as you get a couple of coats of a really good wax on them each spring. It sucks at the time but a light hand wash will beautify them for the rest of the season.

Side note, see the sun glinting off my spokes in the pic? This pic was taken in October and those spokes hadn't been waxed since March.