Bill the Bong
Grey Hound
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2008
- Messages
- 6,587
- Reaction score
- 1,167
- Location
- Kanoneiland
- Bike
- Cagiva Elefant 900
As the route for 2013 Amageza became clearer, I used my KTM 250 SX-F and my Big Boy 250 SRX 
to train for rocky terrain (I should have trained for river crossings, but that's a different story). Essentially I used both bikes like trials bike (even though the BB is as heavy as a Fortuner). After a while, the KTM's front wheel started to resemble a stop sign - lots of straight lines. Going fast invited a tank slapper. The Big Boy's front wheel just did not suffer any damage other than scrapes and gouges.
Those who have done this, will know that a KTM Excel rim will be about R3500, give or take. The real possibility of screwing that up again, made me decide to fit a Big Boy rim on my KTM. A whole Big Boy wheel will cost substantially less than R1k.
That's for a rim, hub, spokes, nipples and wheel bearings.
There are 2 issues with the BB rim:
The excel is a 1.6 width rim
The BB is a 1.85. That worked out to an effective 5mm difference.
The other issue is that the BB rim uses smaller nipples. Every nipple hole had to be drilled out to 8,5 mm, a 0,5mm difference. Obviously the rim is aluminium, so that takes 3 minutes. Just take care to observe the slope of the holes.
You disassemble your new Big Boy wheel with a bolt cutter as you only want the rim.
When you disassemble the KTM rim, use zip-ties to keep the spoke pairs together, that makes reassembly a piece of cake
Assemble, tighten and true the wheel. After about 2 or so hours of gently faffing around, you have a new, high strength Chinese KTM front wheel
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
to train for rocky terrain (I should have trained for river crossings, but that's a different story). Essentially I used both bikes like trials bike (even though the BB is as heavy as a Fortuner). After a while, the KTM's front wheel started to resemble a stop sign - lots of straight lines. Going fast invited a tank slapper. The Big Boy's front wheel just did not suffer any damage other than scrapes and gouges.Those who have done this, will know that a KTM Excel rim will be about R3500, give or take. The real possibility of screwing that up again, made me decide to fit a Big Boy rim on my KTM. A whole Big Boy wheel will cost substantially less than R1k.
That's for a rim, hub, spokes, nipples and wheel bearings.
There are 2 issues with the BB rim:
The excel is a 1.6 width rim
The BB is a 1.85. That worked out to an effective 5mm difference.
The other issue is that the BB rim uses smaller nipples. Every nipple hole had to be drilled out to 8,5 mm, a 0,5mm difference. Obviously the rim is aluminium, so that takes 3 minutes. Just take care to observe the slope of the holes.
You disassemble your new Big Boy wheel with a bolt cutter as you only want the rim.
When you disassemble the KTM rim, use zip-ties to keep the spoke pairs together, that makes reassembly a piece of cake
Assemble, tighten and true the wheel. After about 2 or so hours of gently faffing around, you have a new, high strength Chinese KTM front wheel
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
