Part 1: How do you make omelettes? Oh yeah, break some eggs...

I took my T-registered TransAlp off the road last September when I realised that it wouldn't pass the MOT without spending some money on it.

At the previous MOT my friend Peter (Chessington Motorcycles) warned me to keep an eye on the aluminium rims as I tended to let them get a bit....well, manky. It wasn't until giving the bike a once-over during the summer holidays that I realised why I should be wary.

If you own a TransAlp or perhaps an Africa Twin (I saw a horrendous example of this problem on the front wheel of such a bike...) you may be aware that there seems to be a fundamental problem with the wheels insomuch as the spokes tend to corrode quite readily, as do the rims. The latter however, corrode from the inside and you don't see the results until you change a tyre or worse, actually see splits appearing near the centre-line of the rim. Time to act and quickly!

Now, searches on forums suggest that if you can't get hold of a decent second-hand wheel from ebay (and believe me, I've kept my eye open for months!) then the only option is to get a new rim laced onto your old hub, preferably using new spokes too. If you include having the hub cleaned up and powder-coated too (because they rot as well) you are probably looking at about £220 per wheel. In my case I also needed a pair of tyres so I was looking at potentially £600 to get the bike roadworthy again. I just ain't got that sort of money.

Necessity being the mother of invention (and in too many cases the instigator of catastrophes!) I started looking around to see what other wheels I could use in place of the spoked items. I actually did this a long time ago for my aged Z750 Twin, when I fitted a pair of Lester alloys which I purchased from Graham Little Motorcycles in Sunderland. That would have been about 1983 then! (And the wheels were designed for that bike so all the running gear was transferrable).

Back to the forums and I read somewhere that with a bit of ingenuity the wheels from a CBR600 just might fit, with a bit of help...... Well, enough said!

I don't have easy access to a friendly bike breaker, nor do I have a friend with said Honda so I couldn't draw similarities between the two bikes. I was able to make a few basic comparisons between brake disks (different), sprockets (different again), caliper mounts (you can guess where this is going...) etc. but I had little else to go on. Accordingly then, I bit the bullet and in true 'Del Boy' tradition ('Who dares, wins') decided to go for it.

Ebay has always served me well and so it did last week when I spotted a nice pair of red cast wheels with good tyres 150 miles away in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, collect only. No disks on the front wheel though.

Hang on, there's a different front wheel (VFR400 NC24) with the same disks (I hope!) and a good tyre up for grabs up in Barnsley (they'll post). I bid and won it in 48hours. Total cost there, £16.05 plus £14.95 postage.

I also bid on the red pair in Wisbech, won them then collected them on Saturday. Cost of petrol about £50 and 5 1/2 hours driving. Cost of wheels, £30. Unfortunately some of the cush rubbers were missing so another trip to ebay last night and there's a full set on their way to me for £18.50

So now I have a pair of wheels with disks, good tyres, sprocket..... but will they fit?

Well yesterday was a beautiful day and once I'd done my chores (3 loads of washing, cleaned the guinea pigs, tidied up etc) I did a few measurements of the bits I had now accrued and took the bull by the horns.....

Rear wheel first! Out with the old; swing the caliper out the way. In with the new... I have to say I was pleasantly surprised - it all fitted in quite nicely! Obviously not properly, but I'll get to the finer points later! Finger-tight the nut on the axle and stand back to admire! Like it!

Front wheel now! Jack up the bike under the sump (protected with a piece of wood obviously), pull off the calipers, yank out the axle and throw the old wheel away. Slip the new wheel in, slide the axle back in and admire once again, Very Super Motard!

The immediate improvement in the look of the bike would surely justify the challenges I yet faced? Those challenges I list below;

Rear:

• Disk is smaller than original so caliper doesn't 'cover' the braking surface properly. (About 70%). Can I turn down one of the front disks to suit? Certainly it will be impossible to do anything with the caliper/mount.
  
• The wrong-pitch sprocket is fitted - I need a 525 to match the chain and gearbox sprocket. Currently bidding on a 43-tooth one from guess-where. May need to get a smaller engine sprocket to compensate if I win that one - it certainly will need a replacement anyway, the original is showing signs of hooking so the small one will be 3 times worse!
• Spacers needed on both sides to centre disk on caliper mount. Not an issue, just need to work out exact lengths.
• Sprocket/hub may need shimming a few mm to align with gearbox but difficult to determine until wheel spacers installed. Again, not a big problem at all.
• Cush rubbers missing from hub (ordered).
• Chainguard fouling on inside against tyre so needs 'reworking'.
• Suspension linkage is manky and needs cleaning/lubing.

Front:

• Wheel needs spacers to centre disks between forks. Again, easy.
• Ideally needs correct speedo drive hub as wheel is much smaller than original so speedo will read about 10% fast. The one I was given was broken but hey, no sweat.
• Tyre needs removing and flipping round as the speedo drive is on opposite side of the new wheel and I don't want the speedo going backwards... No great sweat.
• Disks bigger than originals by 20mm so calipers won't go near mounts. Hmmm. Possibly the biggest challenge of all. I have one or two ideas...
• Fork brace inside mudguard is fouling tyre so needs reshaping and new holes drilled.
• Brake hoses may need to have new fork-leg support brackets re-angled.
• Forks are manky so need cleaning up to do the wheels justice!

Now, that little lot might put some people off but it's not that bad. (Surely...?) Obviously safety is paramount here - spacers are easy enough to turn down and changing the sprocket is a doddle but the brakes are another matter. I don't quite know how I'm going to accomplish this - Front and Rear propose two different problems - but I bet it involves using my milling machine and lathes at school where I'm workshop technician. Dead handy, having them at my disposal ;o)

The important thing to me is that for £129.50 outlay I've got a complete 'new' set of wheels and boots on the bike. and with a few hours work and perhaps another £20 or so, it could be MOT-able. And to top that, I think it looks great!

Anyway, More next weekend once I've had a chance to reappraise the situation!