Hey - I'm lacing up an Akront 4.25x18" on a SOHC CB750F1 rear hub for my '82 CB900F Bol D'Or tribute to the '65 CB450K0 Black Bomber - aka "CB900K0 Bol Bomber".
And yeah this post is really helpful, even though this isn't the first wheel I've laced up. Probably counts as wheel #10 or #12 for me, IF you include the '69 CB100 x '70 SL100 hybrid I built when I was 16 counts (used both rear rims and tires, hub and spokes swapped on both front and rear) or the years of running a C70 Passport as the family car - I was hard on that/those bikes, riding 'em hard on one wheel all the time: two block long cat-walks on the back wheel when accelerating, endo stoppies on the front wheel when slowing down! Take a look at how small the C70's front hub is, and understand what all a drum brake can do when properly set up!
Wish I was using a drum on THIS bike to tell the truth, but am getting my drum-brake kicks on my "KZ440LOL" build. But yeah, next DOHC four I build, I wanna do a light-weight 750 single-seater with a drum up front. Even though I've already got some really sweet 2.50x18 & 3.50x18 alloy rims for the thing. 'Spose if I can ever lay hands on a Fontana 250mm 4LS, I can score another 2.5x18" Borrani, or re-drill this cheap used old Harley rim. Still - $40 & $50 for a pair of rims, plus $20 shipping, used but ready to lace up - I really should've used 'em on this 900 build!
But yeah, I'm sticking the rear disc on this bike, but hate how heavy this rear hub and rotor are. Heavier than the rear Comstar hub. Rear '82 Comstar RIM weighs the same as this 4.25" Akront, if you can believe it. That's 'cause the Comstar is a hollow-shouldered rim, basically one rim inside the other. Always gotta look at WEIGHT on the alloy rims - for the KZ project, the 3.00x16" Borrani weighs more than the Super-Akront 3.5x16" so pick only them if you REALLY like the look of the shoulders/flanges! NOBODY lists that type of info. I've gotta keep stats and list all the weights in my build thread.
Does anybody know off hand of a smaller rotor that'll fit the Super-Sport rear hub? I guess the later DOHC non-composite rotor from the earliest DOHC models should work, so long as it's five holes are replaced with six. Would really rather find something like a CBX750F or VF750F type of rotor which bolts up to these hubs! Was looking the other day, found out the ZRX1100 rear rotor fits the DOHC-four Comstars. Doesn't help ME, but it's good information - gleaned from hours spent perusing Galfer wave-rotor catalogues (YUCK!) and eBay listings for other aftermarket stuff. The FRONT end I've got the CB1100R type vented double-layer rotors, with CBX caliper hangers - I wanted to swap 'em onto the SOHC/GL1000 front carriers, but NOW I realize it's this rear CB750F1/GL1000 REAR rotor which makes the most sense. 'Cause it's lighter, but still 296mm! Wanna use Harley Juice-Drum rivets! Hanging out with my Harley-fan buddy pays dividends after all! Ha-ha.
ANYWAY hey - much as I like your tutorial, it seems as though there are a couple of things you may (or may not?) have over-looked:
I'm not as familiar with the SOHC bikes, but I was under the impression it was the de facto standard (though I'm unsure whether this really matters?) to leave the engraved/stamped lettering on the RIGHT side of the wheel. YOU'VE laced the wheel with the lettering on the cush-drive side, ie the left. Unless you're fitting this rim to a CB72/CB77, Harley Sportster, something like that? Just a brain-fart.
Also didn't find any mention of where to start the lacing so as to wind up with the AIR VALVE hole in between two groups of four spokes. Though I suppose it would be pretty cool to lace it the other way, with the valve in the depth of the apex underneath/betwixt the four crossed nipples -
(That's nice imagery ennit? Sticking your valve tube between the four criss-crossed nipples? Oh wait - the air that the air/gases come out of? Bad imagery all of a sudden. Where the air goes IN and comes out? As in a nostril? In between the nipples? Now it's a motor-boat. What's the other one? The rusty sputtering motor-boat? Ewww.....)
COUGH. Yes - as I was saying. If one were building say, a TUBE-LESS rim, using a more modern rim with the bead retention ridges, such as say - an Akront 4.25x18"-er? THEN one could stuff one of them side-pointing 80/90-degree Aluminum air valves. Under the apex of the group of four crossed spokes.
I realize there are ways of doing this which would utterly screw up the rim, that it's pretty much prevented by the directionality of the inner/outer & left-hand/right-hand types of spokes, as well as the direction of the rim's spoke holes themselves, but from what I gather in reading other wheel-building sites, it's SOMEHOW possible to screw the thing up that badly, and still have it all laced in a work-able fashion - more or less.
I suppose the thing to work from should always be an image of an OEM wheel - just so long as that image is showing the valve stem hole!
Well whatever - maybe I'm way off the mark here, maybe the lettering's SUPPOSED to be on the left side of the wheel, I dunno.
Just wish me luck with all the wheels I'm about to build! PHEW! Did I mention the KZ's a possible side-car candidate? That I've got spares all 'round, another 4.25x18" Akront drilled for Harley which will either get the "front hub trick" OR if it can be re-drilled a KZ750B conical hub (far far lighter, works with a smaller rotor etc) and even a spare 4LS Suzuki front drum in 3.00x16" Borrani? That's a HELL of a lot of wheels to lace up!
Got my KZ440LOL front wheel from Buchanan's the other day, "loose-laced" 'cause the spare hub has some trick ventilation, lightening, polishing etc done. So even THAT'S gotta be re-done. Though I'm happy just LOOKING at the thing for the time being.
Gotta update my Avatar I suppose - the old one had no spokes, was a GT550J 4LS hub and NOS Borrani 3.00x16" which I lost in a house-fire a couple years back. The NEW Avatar is the loose-laced version I just got back. Then at some point I suppose the NEXT Avatar should be the wheel built with the hub full of air holes etc, THEN at some point with a tire on it - Maxi-Scooter radial 110/70-16 like a scaled-down crotch-rocket tire of 120/70ZR17 spec - though bias-ply are a cheaper option - Michelin City Power or City Grip, 140/70-16 rear with all NOS belt-drive for '80 KZ440LTD, KZ400 hub, going with the same rim instead of the 3.50x16" Akront might even bump down to a 130/70-16 rear tire hell might even have to ditch the damn belt-drive to align the wheel properly seeing as Kawasaki had the 'LTD wheel kicked over an inch to the right - At which point, why the hell did I build a KZ440 instead of a SOHC-four like CB350F or CB400F?
Wouldn't use the Suzuki 4LS on anything bigger, it's really only a 200mm drum and only 125% the bite of a T500 2LS drum which is less than half the weight! I shake my head when I see that on a CBX-based Hailwood replica, or other quick & heavy bikes like that. Especially when it's supposed to connote racing pretensions..... Bah - I get off on this tangent and I can't stop myself! Ha-ha.
Honestly though - picture this:
Yanno how people are building the fake drum brakes from the CBX550F front Comstar hub, with the "internal" disc, which is another double-thick rotor like these CB1100R/GL1100A/CBXpro-link 296mm rotors, and only "internal" to a thin plastic shroud with huge air holes all through it, like a screen to keep the autumn leaves off it, there's absolutely no issue with air flow over them rotors, it's just that the damn thing's only something like 230mm!!!
Well - take a look at the GL1500 Goldwing sometime. Especially with the light-up rotor shrouds, 'cause they're styled just like the CBX550F hub with the two air scoops one above one below. Now ignore the GL1500 front rim, but look at the disemboweled front wheel from the PC800 Pacific Coast!
THAT wheel is just BEGGING to be cut apart and laced with straight-pull "nail spokes"!!!
Or maybe even the bent-head spokes, provided there's enough caliper-to-hub clearance, or some way to create enough clearance there by spacing the rotors and calipers out wider?
I do know THIS - that GL1500 front fork looks a lot like the forks on Freddie Spencer's AMA Superbike Champion '82 Daytona winner 1032cc "CB750F" - they're 41mm, TRAC anti-dive, 20mm axle, built-in fork brace, the only thing missing is Spencer's bike (never mind all of his team-mates ha-ha) the '82 Works Superbikes had special NISSIN floating calipers, a lot like the OEM DOHC calipers the twin-pot type but I THINK they might've been cast in Magnesium. The Caliper hangers/pivots aren't the same cast alloy bits as the GL1500 parts from 1988, and there are no external oil pipes running from the axle area halfway up the lower fork legs. I'm sure they're TUNED quite a bit differently as well. Would probably need some springs from another 41mm fork like the VF1000R etc. Tough to say. Might even wanna have the tops of the tubes cut & re-threaded, re-chromed even. Tough to say. But it would be a really awesome thing to build for a DOHC-four Honda, a Spencer-replica front end just like the bikes in the museums.
Heck, I've already gotta copy his steering damper mount, as I can't keep mine where it is while mounting the bubble fairing and CB1100R gas tank - with the polished "toaster-tank" sides which make up the brunt of the whole homage to CB450K0 thing. Relocate the damper, oil-cooler, every last damn thing really.
Friggin' wheels aren't gonna wind up on the bike until next year, what with all this other stuff going on. Just as well, when the Comstars have decent tires on 'em.
My 2.50x18" rear Comstar has a 140/80-18 rear tire, put there by the previous owner. Has me thinking I should lace up the CHEAP/"skinny" rims so I can stick that 140 on the type of rim it NEEDS. I really don't feel at all good about riding that tire the way the P.O. did it. It looks so damn pinched in there, like it just wants to pop out!
Seems like ... if I put too little air pressure in there, it'll pop off. Put too MUCH air in it, it'll pop off.
I gotta tell ya I feel better about lacing up my own wheels than I do about riding on THAT type of DIY mods.....
-S.
