Butter soft Hawk rims and food for thought
 

Besides the swingarm the rims are the Hawk's biggest weakness (TT250 included). Every week someone folds up another front rim on the fb groups and TXpowersports is out of stock till atleast September. A fella just relaced his to a Tusk rim but I don't know much about that company or the quality. When my turn comes I'll probably use an aluminum Honda rim.

But this got me to thinking (scary I know) wouldn't TBR7 rims have to be stronger? I mean if it's the same width, same thickness, just smaller in diameter with shorter spokes, it would have to be stronger. Right? And it would be pretty much bolt on if you had the correct spacers, maybe a sprocket for the rear rim. And I just seen Kenda is making Trakmasters in those sizes (at a higher price than the standard sizes) so you could keep your aggressive knobbies.

Has anyone else considered this or have any thoughts on the matter?

I laced an early '80's Honda DID rim to the front hub of my Lifan. The rear is still on my to-do list.
I wouldn't go to a smaller rim, except to build a SM.

When my spokes broke on the BSR rear I had the opportunity to upgrade the rim. But I wanted to get back to riding quickly so I stayed with the steel rim.

However, I did build up a rim wish-list! In order of desire:

Excel
"Warp" 9
Tusk 7050 T-6
Amazon AHL 6061 $185 set
Aliexpress 6061 $150 set

Rim upgrade is on my to do list as well. If I do so, it will not be to another cheap steel wheel from another China bike, but it won't be to a brand new Excel, Sun, or Warp 9 wheel simply due to the cost ($200+ per rim). The Tusk Impact rims are at the top of my list unless I can get my hands on an old Honda wheel/rim set for about the same cost.

So Tusk is a good quality rim? I don't know anything about them.

They are decent quality for the money. No matter what, they are light years beyond the stock stuff.

Also the reason I mentioned the TBR7 rims is because relacing a rim might be beyond the ability of an average Joe. I'm a certified tech and I can do it, but wheel truing is not one of my strong points to be honest. But I can get them close enough.

That is my biggest fear as TBR7 owner.

A few options for tires and I can change a bicycle tire myself..has to be pretty close to a motorcycle tire I would suppose.

Plenty of wheel truing vids on Youtube... they make it look oh so easy... thats how I know its NOT

Wheel truing is easy. It just takes a lot of patience. Once you lace and true a few wheels it becomes a much quicker process. I relaced and trued my Hawks front wheel in about 3 hours. First wheel I ever did took me 2 days lol

Wouldn't it be even better if they were 14" or 12" rims, right? One of the charms of the Hawk is the decent size wheels that come on the bike. Get a spoke wrench and keep ALL of the spokes equal, and snug. I use middle "C" on the piano as my benchmark. The rim is not that strong to be able to resist dings from hitting rocks at high speed. The spokes are where the strength in a wire wheel comes from. That's why you've got to stay after them the first 500-1000 miles. Don't over tighten them, thinking that way you can get by with only checking the spokes once in a while. Negatory, won't work. Do it the right way from the get-go. Don't forget, those spoke nipples have to bed in to the rim from day one. That's why your spokes come loose. There is no real short cut solution to this. Well, not if you don't want to spend hundreds of dollars...ARH :cry:

I have the 19/17 combo, they are as soft as the 21/18. Just like ARH said, the important is keeping the spokes tight.

I will be chaning my steel rims in the near future for Honda rims, not because i'm afraid they will bend to hell, but because they are rusting out... I took the motorcycle to the beach about two years ago, after doing that i left for Europe for one year... When i came back the rims were rusting......

I will be using this Honda rims
-44701-KPE-901
-42701-KPE-901

They fit our hubs and at least here they are somewhat cheap, you can get both rims for around 300 usd from Honda.
By the way how much do they charge to relace a rim there?? Here is around 40 usd to relace and 15 usd truing

To pass the final for the course we had an hour and a half starting with a hub, rim and a pile of spokes. And keep in mind these rims were training aids that had been relaced a hundred times before and the instructor might throw in an oddball spoke to keep you on your toes. I almost had to retake the course, my rim was just barely in spec. And that was the only class I wasn't the top student in, that honor went to a biker chick named Rayna.

I am proud of myself that taking the tire, tube, and rim strip off, removing the rotor, unlacing the wheel, relacing, truing, and re-installing everything took me 3 hours. :p

Like I said, not one of my strong points.

I wouldn't say it is one of mine either, but definitely a well practiced one. Dealing with classic Honda motorcycles so much I have had my hands on quite a few spoke wheels that needed some sort of work. Rusted rims, spokes, etc. I actually hate spoke wheels due to the amount of extra work they are in keeping them in shape and cleaning them. It is one reason I love my VFR so much. No chain to mess with and no spokes to check all the time.