Campbray Cast Wheels in the mail!

Ordered a set of these wheels from the Euromotors site listed in the following post. I'm hoping they meet my expectations. Being a MK3 wheels are limited I think. I want to deal with as little bolt up issues as possible. No lathe now to make spacers and such.
cast-wheels-t23753.html

The shop owner or worker, Willy seemed very helpful and was willing to deal with shipping to me in the States. I'll be sure to give some feedback on them once mounted and ridden on. My only concern is the cush drive rubbers seem to be absent. They are similiar to what is used in my Carrozerria Wheels, a round disc with a metal shaft in the center from the drive wheel.
Does anyone know where I can source something that will fit or could be made to fit with proper elasticity and durability?

Here is a link to the site:
http://www.norton-parts.com/c-1353573/campbray-wheels/

Congrats on the wheels .... I almost got a set myself .... some one else beat me to them .... anyway the interest in the wheels got me thinking .... so I shopped around and decided on a set of alloys from madass or Don P. on this forum .... little sketchy getting the hubs over there but not too bad or very costly .... so I am pumped too for new wheels ....
Rusty .... sure hope you get the new wheels set up to your satisfaction and enjoy them as much as I might have ....
good luck .... maybe post some photos if you can , eh
Craig

Those look very cool, post pics when you install them please

Craig,
I'm sorry if I beat you out of the wheels. I had mulled it over for quite sometime before I pulled the trigger, well over a month in fact! Another member here contacted me with a really nice set in 18"/19" but they were pre-75. I would have preferred that setup but its too much hassle for me at this point. I still think at ~700 Euros shipped they were a very very fair deal. The owner Willy seemed to be nice to deal with and answered my questions for the most part. Reading English (& Queens English :lol: ) and understanding our phrasing can be difficult for many

My reservations with these wheels will be the cush drive rubbers as I didn't see them included, I'll need to wait until they show up. They are both wider than the stock front and rear wheels, so while I'm sure the tires will fit I just hope they isn't a fitment issue with my swing arm or fender; surely they will fatten up with a wider rim. I'm sure it will be fine, fingers crossed.

I'll be sure and post up pictures of the bike and wheels as its been something I've been meaning to get to. First priority is to sort these brakes and check my cam lift for excessive lobe wear as I have been informed of this issue with soft cams with MK3 and others. My power is rather poor IMO and I need to start with the basics, compression is fantastic so the cam lift is next on the check list.

No worries Rusty .... it was the 18 / 19 set I was after .... sorry , that does sound like it was the set you got , but no it was some one else who decided ahead of me .... and he got the 19" with mod hub for dual rotors .... glad you are happy with yours .... Don sent me photos of my newly built set and they are great too ...
Craig

Well the wheels showed up today. No Cush drive rubbers but I should be able to sort that with some dirt bike rubbers. Willy was a pleasure to deal with, the parts were in fact better than I expected. Castings were a little rough by today's standards but I'm very pleased. Need some fresh bearings and rubber and I'm ready to go. Pictures will follow before I mount everything. I think these wheels are a damn good deal, shipped to the US they were around 740 bucks maybe?
I'm going to weigh them and then the spoked wheels for comparison as well. They feel much lighter. I am wondering if the shoulder will be suitable to run tubeless and leave out those heavy tubes. We shall see!

Making some progress with the cush drive. I ordered some hard rubber tubeing to fit the cush mechanism its a 90 on the durometer scale. It seems pretty ridgid but my research has shown several other folks using compounds this hard. I know it shouldn't be overly soft.

I am ponding on running these wheels tubeless as the Avons state they are tubeless tires. I have read many articles on running spoke wheels tubeless for supermoto bikes and Hinkley Triumph spoke wheels alike. I'm not overly ond of those methods ranging from tape to epoxy. The shoulder of the rims have been discussed on spoked wheels and its importance and the opposite.

I'm going to order a set of valve stems or pick some up today and go for it. Tubes are such a pita, weight wise they add a pile but the roadside repairs with a plug verse pulling the wheel and patching a tube are golden imo. I had tried for a few years to buy Aplina wheels for my 2003 Triumph TBS but had no US support, recently someone in the Ducati venue has started to distribute the wheels but wouldn't sell them without the hubs... I like the tubeless idea and weight reduction but at a cost well over 3 grand it seemed rather excessive.

Anyone out there running tubeless on cast wheels? Thoughts on the matter? Thanks KC

Do your wheels have a suitable cast in mounting boss for the tubeless valve stem?

pantah_good said:

Do your wheels have a suitable cast in mounting boss for the tubeless valve stem?

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You can get bolt in valves that will fit on a normal tubed type hole.

I have Campbray wheels and have toyed with the idea of running them tubeless but theoretically you need a different inner rim profile for tubeless tyres, so I've never actually done it. The BMW Airhead alloy wheels are also designed to be used with tubes but there are people that run them tubeless and I haven't heard of anyone having a huge problem with them so the Campbrays would probably be OK. The only reservation I have is that insurance companies in the UK are notorious for finding reasons not to pay out in the event of an accident and may take a dim view of tubeless tyres fitted to a tubed rim.

As an aside. I know a guy who raced a classic bike, Seeley Matchless, and went on a weight saving spree. Part of this was sealing the spoke holes with silicone and running tubeless tyres to save the weight of the tubes. The rule makers didn't like it and introduced a rule that the bikes had to be fitted with inner tubes. He came up with a clever solution. He fitted the lightest pedal cycle inner tubes he could find, they were virtually like rim tapes, but didn't inflate them. The rules said tubes had to be fitted but didn't say they had to be inflated!

Ian

How did the scrutineers know the bicycle tubes were present and accounted for?

We all know that tubes are a pain, but so is crashing. A nice smooth race track is one thing, but on real world street pavement, where the odds of jolting the wheel hard enough to cause the tire to suddenly deflate due to the lack of a tubeless safety bead on the rim, certainly must go up. Chicken me, having crashed more than enough times to be completely satisfied, I'd put a brand spanking new Michelin tube on those tube type wheels with every tire change.
Bill

I've had more catastrophic failure with tubes that tubeless wheels and tire. I lost my front tire on my Thunderbird Sport and it felt like a pot hole ripped my wheel off, it went flat fast than I could say OH SH**! Similar situation with my DR650 in that the tire went very quickly. I was on 17" Supermoto Wheels and take offs, after a little off road jaunt, I hit the asp haul and noticed the rear was a little squishy, then it went... No patch would have fixed the tube and I never did figure out what punctured either tire?!

I have had nails in my S3 rear tire 190 or 180 I think, went down slow and I plugged it and went on my way. The first thing ain't did with my Paul Smart was ditch the spoke wheels, good lord the rear must have weighed 35 or 40 lbs... Rediculious.

I'm going to try and run without the tubes. Sooner or later I owe you all some pictures. I'm praying for wrench time this weekend. 80-90hrs the past two weeks, I need a ride and a tall whiskey waiting on Saturday evening when I get home

Tubeless tyres are the way to go, however I have found in the past that some manufacturers of tubeless rims are not all that they seemed, as they were to put it bluntly, either porous or leaked between the rim and tyre bead. I had to rub down the alloy a d paint with first an alloy etching primer then a hard enamel top coat, on one bike I got the rims bead blasted and powder coated

I wonder how many others remember reading the investigation carried out into cast wheels by American Road Racer magazine many years ago? I suspect very few if any. It was interesting to read about brand new wheels that were cracked especially at the junction between the rim and spokes due to differential cooling plus the other faults found.......If I remember correctly they had a few NASA people investigate the problem.

I had a Dymag rear wheel split between two of the spokes on my Trident while touring in Spain.
My how I laughed !
sam

Life really would be easier if we didn't have to deal with tubes wouldn't it. I just got thru wrestling a 100/90-19 ContiClassicAttact on a 2.15 Borrani front wheel I finally finished building. That is one stiff tire! Even after being nicely warmed up by the wood stove. I used to think Metzeler's were tough. Getting the valve stem thru the rim was the worst part. Who ever recommended Stubby tire tools, thank you, they're great. So Rusty bucket, you'll keep us posted on your quest to run those tube type wheels tubeless, right? I may never try it, but I'm rooting for you.
Bill

I wonder if anyone remembers the report on cast wheels carried out by American Road Race magazine a few years ago in which rather well known brands were found to be seriously cracked from new????? If my memory is correct they had a few NASA people examining the wheels.

J. M. Leadbeater said:

I wonder if anyone remembers the report on cast wheels carried out by American Road Race magazine a few years ago in which rather well known brands were found to be seriously cracked from new????? If my memory is correct they had a few NASA people examining the wheels.

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I remember you mentioning it less than twelve hours ago. :?

Patience, LAB, patience.
Is there anything that JM hasn't found fault with here yet ?

Some of us are wondering what sort of modasickle she must ride....

Bernhard said:

Tubeless tyres are the way to go, however I have found in the past that some manufacturers of tubeless rims are not all that they seemed, as they were to put it bluntly, either porous or leaked between the rim and tyre bead. I had to rub down the alloy a d paint with first an alloy etching primer then a hard enamel top coat, on one bike I got the rims bead blasted and powder coated

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I believe the inner wheel surfaces will be fine, nice smooth raw aluminum with some single pass knurling for bite at the bead face. The stem mounting shouldn't be an issue. I'm ordering these up today. The cush rubbers are getting cut and mounted this evening after some tax prep.... :roll:

I need to find one axle nut for he one piece axle, the one I have appears to be a Norton nut as it has those crazy little 8's stamped into the face on one side. I think it must be the same size as the front, my rear Mk3 nuts don't seem to want to mate up. I'm probably going to go ahead and drill the axle for castlenuts.

Rusty bucket said:

I need to find one axle nut for he one piece axle, the one I have appears to be a Norton nut as it has those crazy little 8's stamped into the face on one side. I think it must be the same size as the front, my rear Mk3 nuts don't seem to want to mate up. I'm probably going to go ahead and drill the axle for castlenuts.

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the row of 8's signifies a UNF thread