We all had spoked wheels on our bikes in the olden days and we hardly found anyone complaining about then apart from the usual wheel issues that occurred to pretty much everyone. But then life was going all good when suddenly a new kid on the block arrived; Alloy Wheels. Now these were all cool and sleek with a minimalistic yet beautiful looking design which made the bike look a bit futuristic and yes, it was the technology of the future. But then what was the exact reason to come up with alloy wheels? Let’s check it out.
What are Alloy wheels?
Alloy wheels are as the names suggests made of alloys; i.e. a mixture of two of more metals to give the end product greater strength and more advantages over the previous spoke wheels. Suddenly there came the advantage of tubeless tyres with the alloy wheels and within a blink of an eye, the entire automotive industry was going towards a new direction of alloy wheels.
How are Alloy wheels better?
First of all alloy wheels are sturdy. They do not bend, they do not budge. They remain the stiff kind as to what they are. Spoke wheels used to have a huge issue of the spokes being bent time and again which required wheel truing or in extreme cases replacing the spoke wires. But with alloy wheels, all those issues were gone. It was pretty much like “fit it and forget it”.
Secondly alloy wheels are lighter in weight. They are strong and yet light is one of the biggest advantage they gave to the bikes, because of this the bikes suddenly dropped their weights resulting in a better power to weight ratio of the bikes.
With alloy wheels the bikes started riding a lot more stably on the road due to the non-bending and budging of the alloy wheels. This allowed for the bikes to go fast on the roads without worrying about the wheels. The bikes were also able to get a lot more grip out of the tyres in the corners due to this stability of the wheels. Today if you check out, apart from the off-roading bikes, all the bikes from the commuters to the super sport ones get alloy wheels. This is because the entire wheel is a single cast entity and hence there are no joints on it which could break easily (unless any manufacturing defect or any accident comes into play).
Alloy wheels are also easy to maintain like for cleaning purposes and all. They are minimalistic yet classy in looks which allows for an easy and quick wash and also makes it easier to reach the far end of the bike parts due to them. One of the best example is the clean cleaning and maintenance which has become a lot easier due to alloy wheels which was not so during the days of the spoke wheels.
And coming to the most important factor which we mentioned before is the capability to fix tubeless tyres on the bikes. With tubeless tyres the issues with the tubes being punctured and the tyre bursting issues were all gone like a snap. It suddenly became a lot safer for bikes to play on the road and not just that but also travel quicker.
So if we look at it from a broader spectrum, alloy wheels are definitely better than spoke wheels in most of the ways. Yes, it is not 100% foolproof because after all, the place where spoke wheels can be repaired, alloy wheels if cracked need to be directly replaced. There is no way in which they can be reused unless being melted and recast completely from scratch.
By: Pratik Patole
What are Alloy wheels?Alloy wheels are as the names suggests made of alloys; i.e. a mixture of two of more metals to give the end product greater strength and more advantages over the previous spoke wheels. Suddenly there came the advantage of tubeless tyres with the alloy wheels and within a blink of an eye, the entire automotive industry was going towards a new direction of alloy wheels.
How are Alloy wheels better?
First of all alloy wheels are sturdy. They do not bend, they do not budge. They remain the stiff kind as to what they are. Spoke wheels used to have a huge issue of the spokes being bent time and again which required wheel truing or in extreme cases replacing the spoke wires. But with alloy wheels, all those issues were gone. It was pretty much like “fit it and forget it”.
Secondly alloy wheels are lighter in weight. They are strong and yet light is one of the biggest advantage they gave to the bikes, because of this the bikes suddenly dropped their weights resulting in a better power to weight ratio of the bikes.
With alloy wheels the bikes started riding a lot more stably on the road due to the non-bending and budging of the alloy wheels. This allowed for the bikes to go fast on the roads without worrying about the wheels. The bikes were also able to get a lot more grip out of the tyres in the corners due to this stability of the wheels. Today if you check out, apart from the off-roading bikes, all the bikes from the commuters to the super sport ones get alloy wheels. This is because the entire wheel is a single cast entity and hence there are no joints on it which could break easily (unless any manufacturing defect or any accident comes into play).
Alloy wheels are also easy to maintain like for cleaning purposes and all. They are minimalistic yet classy in looks which allows for an easy and quick wash and also makes it easier to reach the far end of the bike parts due to them. One of the best example is the clean cleaning and maintenance which has become a lot easier due to alloy wheels which was not so during the days of the spoke wheels.And coming to the most important factor which we mentioned before is the capability to fix tubeless tyres on the bikes. With tubeless tyres the issues with the tubes being punctured and the tyre bursting issues were all gone like a snap. It suddenly became a lot safer for bikes to play on the road and not just that but also travel quicker.
So if we look at it from a broader spectrum, alloy wheels are definitely better than spoke wheels in most of the ways. Yes, it is not 100% foolproof because after all, the place where spoke wheels can be repaired, alloy wheels if cracked need to be directly replaced. There is no way in which they can be reused unless being melted and recast completely from scratch.
By: Pratik Patole