alloy wheels

Unlucky Taffy.....you just missed a set on Ebay, Black 3 spokes to fit a ktm.
The problem with RGV wheel is the front has twin discs so you will always have the empty castings showing with a single disc. A better set would be off something like a GS500 commuter bike as it only has a single.
The rear needs to be used in reverse as sprockets are on differing sides.Its then just a case of finding a good machine shop to fabricate some 'top hat' style spacers and a caliper bracket.
If your berg's an 04 onwards you may struggle to find a road bike wheel with a large enough bearing diameter

Taffy said:

where the heck did i read about suzuki rg or rgv wheels?

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On Thumpertalk.
From what I have read, it's not as simple as it sounds, due to the reversal of the rear wheel. Many of the Suz wheels are directional (looking, if not functioning), so if you turn the rear around, it tends to look cobby. But wait, we're talking about Taffy here 8O :lol: :lol: :lol:

I know three or four machinists who have done a cast wheel conversion for road use, and all have used Suzuki wheels, either GS500, Bandit 400, early SV, or (by far the most common) Honda F2 / F3 wheels.

Best of luck Taffy.

Cheers,

Brett Saunders

Taffy said:

bloody hell. now i need 'intelligent' wheels as well! :twisted: :twisted:

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I could have done with some of those years ago.

Taffy said:

still think they're going to get a grand for them.

can we have a reality check here?

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How hard did you laugh?

Yeah 2nd hand wheel sets are pretty cheap but can still fetch 500+ sometimes on ebay even without disks & sprockets.

The problem is a new setup can easily end up costing 800 to a grand with all the bits and pieces thrown in.

I do have a set of second hand sm wheels that'll fit an 02 should you be interested. I've been meaning to get them onto ebay but just haven't gotten round to it.

Simon

im just about to try to fit some rgv wheels into my 02 501 as i have an rgv with spare wheels. after a quick measure the disc sprocket distance is a couple of mm different but shouldnt be to much trouble and the spindle slots straight in, i will let you know how i get on . Rich

Taff
These are the threads on the subject that went round when I did mine:
http://www.husaberg.org/modules.php?nam ... opic&t=154
http://www.husaberg.org/modules.php?nam ... opic&t=444
http://www.husaberg.org/modules.php?nam ... opic&t=604
http://www.husaberg.org/modules.php?nam ... opic&t=761
http://www.husaberg.org/modules.php?nam ... opic&t=769

Vegard has a bike fitted with RGV wheels. Look at his photo if you think it is "cobby" - I don't reckon so, but then I'm biased. It is what gave me a bit more confidence to do mine. I think now I'll rarely fit the dirt wheels back on.

Mine has a 17x4.50" Suzuki RGV250 rear wheel with 165/55 tyre & a 17x2.75" Yamaha FZX250 front wheel with a 120/70 tyre. Standard rim sizes for a 2000 model 'berg were 17x3.5" front & 17x4.25" rear with similar size tyres. I think the tyre profiles look OK on mine though.

A RGV front wheel is wider (3.00"), but the FZX wheel is single disk. Because of this it looks really tidy & you can easily fit the OEM speedo drive.

The problem with using the RGV rear in the reverse direction is that the cush-drive is set up for driving one way - there is less cushioning when flipped over. I am yet to modify the rubbers in mine to fix this. Also I think a standard RGV rear brake disc is 210mm diameter while the 'berg is 220, but this might not be a problem. My disc is not RGV & I could cut it down in both thickness & diameter to the same as the 'berg.

With the combination I have you have fit both wheels backwards to get the brakes on the proper sides. At least this means both wheels match by having their spokes leaning forwards (cobby?). The two wheels are out of the same ASAHI factory and look a perfect match.

I'm using 17/44 = 4560RPM @ 100km/h gearing, however I'm thinking of changing to 17/42 if I do any long road trips.

I'll try to get a few photos posted. I was waiting until I had all the bits painted, but that is getting less likely to ever happen.

Fitting Cast Wheels

I have recently fit cast wheels to my Berg and can be of some assistance on the subject. Firstly it is a pain in the ***, and probably won't end up as cheap as you may think, unless you work in a machine shop.
The first mistake that I made was not to buy wide enough rims, the front is 2.5 and the rear 3.5, I thought there's no way that SM bikes can be running way wider tires than 1000cc sportbikes from a few years back - wrong! The good news is that I can run the sizes most use 120 at the front and 150 at the back. The bad news is the profile is compromised by being squeezed by the narrower rim. With the sticky tires I have, it seems to work well enough though.
The project is a low budget supermoto race bike for an entry level racer. So aesthetics were not my primary concern - just as well as the wheels do not match. However as they are both three spoke, have a polished rim and are painted the same color, the differences aren't too great.
The front wheel was easy. I took the stock front wheel and the axle to the local bike breakers and rummaged through their stock until I found a 17" wheel that the axle fit into, had one rotor, and was approximately the same hub width. The wheel is from a Kawasaki 500 Eliminator, cost with the rotor was $50. The wheel fit into the Berg with filing two groves into the caliper bracket.
The rear wheel was very difficult. I choose a 87 Honda CBR 1000 rear wheel. Cost with sprocket, cush drive and brake rotor, $100. So far so good. The cush drive makes the rear wheel very wide, I did want to keep the cush drive as it helps cut down on chatter, which was a big problem with the 18" rear wheel and street tire that I was previously running. I marked on the wheel how much needed to be machined off of the cush drive side, so that the sprocket would align, about an inch. On the other side I had to measure how much had to be removed from the brake rotor mount so that it would align with the brake caliper.Then I took the wheel to a machine shop to cut off the excess material. Cost $90.
I choose to retain the large brake rotor that came with the wheel. This required adding an 1 1/4" to the rear brake caliper bracket. Aluminum welding is very expensive apparently, cost $150 (note: I may have been ripped off a bit )
Because everything is really tight I had to grind down the bolt heads for every sprocket bolt and rotor bolt - this took several nights.
The stock axle is retained, but new spacers had to be made out of used ones from the bike breakers.
Sportbikes use the larger 530 chain and sprockets, although 520 sprockets for road racing are available for the more popular models, I am using the 530 sprocket that came with the wheel, so I needed to buy a 530 chain, cost $100.
Anyway, this gives you an idea of some of the issues that you will be facing. Good luck.............
For Bike photo see http://www.husaberg.org/uploads/BergRyd ... %20008.jpg

Here's some pix of the wheels I fitted to my bike. It was peeing rain this morning & I couldn't get a photo outside of the whole bike. Sorry it does not look like tidy yet - especially compared to some of the other conversions around like BergRyder's - however the wheels do fit & work well.

stuner10 said:

after a quick measure the disc sprocket distance is a couple of mm different but shouldnt be to much trouble

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The centre line of the RGV wheel to the the brake disc is close to spot on. Most of the difference is in wheel C/L to the sprocket, & much of this difference can be corrected by making the spacer between the wheel hub & sprocket hub about 2mm shorter. This engages the cush-drive a bit more but it seems to fit OK.

The V8 mower had an A-section V-belt between a tiny pulley on the flywheel & the gearbox. While it looks fast, I think it'd be lucky to pull your foreskin back. :lol:

Taff
I got a couple of side-on photos of my bike in good light and put them in my gallery. You decide if you think the forward facing cast spokes are cobby, gumby or just plain firetrucked.

It is not too much of a pain in the butt if you have access to a lathe & the time & patience to doodle. The rear disc was the difficult bit for me, but if you get an original RGV it would be easy. I had to make bearing spacers for both ends and the front caliper adapter. The original Brembo calipers work fine. Standard, unmodified hex bolts lock both discs on. The only mods I made to the wheels was to part the side off the front wheel hub (which I did with a motor & friction cutter as my baby lathe wouldn't swing the whole wheel!) to fit the speedo drive & drill one hole to drive it.

Do it! ... Do it now!!