So, I'm looking into ordering some new 40 spoke wheels for my street bob this fall. Gonna bump up to a 21x3.25 for the front and a 17x5.5 for the rear. I know it's important for the hubs to match stock widths, but how does rim offset and truing come in to play? Are these factors I need to specify to the shop building my new rims? I don't know what stock offset is on a '13 street bob (if there is offset?). I'm mostly concerned about the new rear rim matching up like stock since I'm planning on using an Avon 190 tire and wont have much clearance room for error. Can anyone shine some light on this subject for me?

 

I've been in the bicycle business for over 20 years and assume that the terms are the same. Truing a wheel simply means making sure it runs straight (true), with no side to side wobbles or up and down hops. This is done by adjusting the spokes which must also have the proper tension. Wheel building in the bike world is a great art and science. Offset probably refers to "dish" this simply means that the rim is centered in the forks with offset (or dish), to compensate for the brake rotor, or drive belt, etc. so in the case of a wheel with the brake rotor on the left side, the spokes in the right side would be a bit shorter than those on the left (disk side) which brings the rim to the right a bit making room for the rotor in the forks. If you were standing the rim straight up and looking down on it, the rotor side of spokes would appear flat while the other side would not be making for a wheel that was "dish shaped" offset.

So to make a short story long, those are just wheel building terms. Your wheel builder will make sure that you have a strong and straight wheel with the appropriate offset to fit in your bike.

 

VERY helpful! This puts my mind much more at ease. Thank you!!!

 

My pleasure!

 

Just to add, and also coming from the bicycle world, the first time that I rode on a properly built and trued set of wheels, the difference was INCREDIBLE!!! Not sure if it translates to motorcycles, but EASILY the best money you could spend on a bicycle.

 

If you're going to go thru the trouble and expense of laced wheels, you might want to get polished stainless steel spokes as regular cadmium coated spokes turn black and look terrible after a short time. But, beware, laced wheels are more fragile than mag type wheels (especially 2-up.)

Well, that and you have to run tubes...