Looking at replacement chrome spoked rims front and rear for my '75 Shovel. There appear to be three primary manufacturers:

Drag Specialities
V-Factor
V-Twin Manufacturing

Also, there are similar products on eBay at half the price that were probably made by slave labor in a s--t hole of a country.

Anyone have experience with product quality of any of the above? I am all for good quality, but if I can avoid paying $100 more for product A when product B is equivalent quality, that's a beautiful thing.

Thanks in advance for any perspective.

 

The Bay is a good place to find original factory parts, that is what I would be looking for if I had your need. With a little patience you can find some real nice wheels, and original HD stuff will be the best by far. My opinion, good luck.

 

amen to original Harley parts. At the very best, the Taiwan junk will be close enough to the original Harley stuff. I've seen much much much worse though.

I may be wrong but I'd be willing to bet that Drag, Vtwin, and that other place are all made at the same factory with just different packaging.


Go with HD OEM for the win

carl

 

Thanks all. I as well suspect that the same manufacturers supply the major Harley parts retailers.

The current rims are in 'OK' shape, some 0000 steel wool and polish helped them out quite a bit. Figured since both rims were off the bike I'd take the opportunity to upgrade to new ones, since the existing ones are showing their age. But now I think that when the Pirelli Night Dragons arrive I'll mount them on the existing rims.

I'll keep an eye out for OEM Harley components and build a set of rims to the spec I'm looking for. I suppose it's sacrilege to put non-American parts on the 'Glide ;-)

Looking for show quality chrome on the rims, polished stainless spokes and show quality chrome on the hubs. I've worked with a local chrome shop that does A-1 work on steel, but he won't touch aluminum so I'll have to find a shop that can do a good job on the hubs. But that's a ways down the road.