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-   -   Fitting tubeless spoked wheels on my Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motorbikes/287463-fitting-tubeless-spoked-wheels-my-royal-enfield-himalayan-450-a.html)

So I got my tubeless cross-spoked wheels from Royal Enfield delivered day before yesterday and the same was installed at my FNG as my dealership was too crowded and was not equipped with tyre changing machine.





Interestingly the order kit was manufactured and packaged on 26th October.



The actual reason why I avoided fitment at the dealership is that they preferred installing the tyre on the rims in the traditional way with a bunch of levers :eek: and also as per RE; it is chargeable to the dot.




Asked them to carry it down (my dealership is on the first floor of a building and damn the package is around 25 kgs approx. weight)



My Baleno RS did the remaining labour part to the FNG.



Time to unbox. And as per RE team and my limited knowledge per se, the discs, ABS ring and the bolts for the discs were to be used from the existing rims but when we opened the package; voila !!

The rims have discs and all the kit pre-installed.. It is Win deal as per me at this price point.




The wheels are from Akront. They are a European manufacturer of rims which was bought by a Spanish company named Morad but not sure about the present ownership. Their products have a considerably good reputation despite some chatter going on around that Akront rims are manufactured in China. :p

Also, the air valve on the rims seems to be a long one, longer than the usual ones we see around. Filling air with straight nozzles will be a challenge as the spokes are crossed and the nozzle opening is about 2” above from the rim.




Got the tyres installed at the local tyre shop. Some folks around were in disbelief at how is it possible for a spoked wheel to be tubeless.

Had some celebrity moments at the tyre shop, lol!




The installation of the front wheel was a bit tedious due to the large 21” size which made a little difficult to fit and get a grip on the machine.



After removing the tyres from the old rim, it seems there is a rubber patch running across above the spoke ends in the rims and to my dismay, these patches are uneven leading to retention of water at some places. Now this stagnant water is rusting the spoke ends. Something all owners should be mindful of.





Following that, Installing the wheels are simple plug-and-play. Remove the old ones; install the new ones. The only item which needs to be changed is the sprocket hub. The cush pads of the old rim and new rims are different. The new cush pads are included in the package.

Old Rim cush pads for sprocket


New Rim cush pads for sprocket


Sprocket fitted on the new rim


Finally, both wheels are installed and well the ride feels great as well as the looks. The aesthetics are spot on.

Fingers crossed for puncture-free rides or at least hassle-free puncture fixes.

Before image (tube spoke wheels)


After image (tubeless cross-spoke wheels)



Attaching some additional images just for the looks.







Atlast, I would say this is a wonderful offering by Royal Enfield. Late but worth the wait and definitely a well spent ₹12,424 in my books.



Hope I was able to provide some decent information about the wheels here.

Thank you for reading.

Cheers,
IamAsHter

Were you notified by RE over email on the delivery? I call the dealer but he says he has no clue and will inform when he gets some info from RE.

Nope !! Only the email regarding delay in delivery till 15th December was received which I guess was sent to everyone by default.

Even at the dealership’s system it was only showing as In Transit (without any specifics). The dealership just received the package out of the blue alongside their usual service related inventory.

Congrats! The bike looks more handsome for some reason with the cross-spoked wheels. However, I'm pretty sure we were informed that these charges were including the fitment what changed ? :Frustrati

On the other note, got an update that the deliveries are right now happening for the salt series only and golden/kamet are not yet available in stock. As opposed to the original plan of sending huge containers, RE is sending out small batches as of now! Mostly next couple of weeks will clear out maximum outstanding orders is what they say! But again this is RE, all you know is we get another mail for delay

I was not comfortable paying these amount to the ASC of RE for just removing the wheels and putting back them on the motorcycle. There was no other work involved. Also, they were going to charge good amount for changing the tyre; which was to be done with the levers.

Thus, I went outside. Spent Rs. 100 for changing both the tyres on the rim and paid my mechanic Rs. 700 for dismounting / mounting of wheels, sprocket and replacement of my clutch cable.


Also, the gold rim seems to be made by JinFei and there are few who have received the gold rims as well that too as early as 26th Oct'24.

One instance is mentioned in this video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMQ65yM7HAw&t=152s

Congratulations brother. I got mine delivered on 5th and got them installed today. The process was almost exactly as yours :) so no reason giving all the details. The only difference, I got Golden Rims installed on Kaza Brown color. ;)

As far as I know JF, Jinfei and Akront (first edition) seems to be the manufacturer of rims for RE. JF, is the OE for Hero, Honda, KTM, Bajaj etc, their logo is usually a thick J with FF (Single F stylized to double) and hence the competitive pricing. JF is a decent wheel manufacturer and is from China and supplies to many reputed OEMs too.

Glad to see RE being the forbearer in bringing tubeless rims. Sadly Bajaj has been a partner with JF so long and yet the KTM doesn't get the TL rims. High time, KTM gets these. Appreciate you bringing this up.

Cheers!
VJ

Wow, nice mix of color. :loveit Kindly provide some pictures if possible.

Attaching one.:)

Also the wheels are made by JFF as seen from the logo unlike yours.

Is there any difference in the material of the Gold and the Black rims? Other than the colour, I mean. Is the material used the same?

As per my view, the golden ones have a brushed type finish / texture and the black ones have spray painted finish / texture.

It's actually JF JIN-FEI. It's a single FF stylized to look like double. I've mentioned the exact point in my post above. :)

Cheers!
VJ

Thanks for the well written and informative blog. Wishing you many peaceful miles.

Being an OG Himalayan owner, wanted to add an additional benefit. The ease of puncture fixing gets the limelight, but am equally important benefit of tubeless tyres is security. Sudden deflation, in the worst case can lead to crash. This enhancement and RE taking the pains to do homologation is a significant step ahead.

Hope they think of the old Himalayan customers as well.

That is a very detailed account of purchase and installation of new tubeless spoked wheels on the new Himalayan. Having upgraded from first gen Himalayan to Suzuki V-Strom 650, it is a feeling of huge relief which can't be explained in words. I suffered punctures on highways and hills as I rode out very frequently back then. It's not just inconvenience but time consuming as well.

I do plan to buy the new Himalayan now after these TL spoked wheels have been made available but would still like to wait for some more time to find out how these wheels perform in long term over testing conditions.