News

Shifting from 18 to 17 inch wheels on my RE Interceptor 650

29th October 2021, 21:15 by Dev Shah

The need for going the 17’’ wheels route was due to my constant hustle with the Interceptor’s weight and height. It all started early this year when I came across a seller in Instagram with aftermarket 17 inch aluminum rims. Always loved the spoke wheeled retro looks of the Interceptor and decided to do it when the factory tyres run out of thread.

BHPian Torino recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

So I've switched to 17'' Aluminium spoke wheels:

Initially I had three options in my mind, the most sensible one was to go for the Ceat Zoom Cruz or be a bit weirdly realistic and get the RE Meteor’s plug-n-play rear alloy wheel and take full advantage of the tubeless tyre, or get a pair of 17’’ aftermarket aluminum spoke rims to retain the lovely retro looks and get lower ride height.

And I chose the least sensible option and ordered a pair of aluminum spoke rims from Dismotech Bangalore. Got in touch with Dismotech and inquired about their aluminum rims. They claimed these rims are made for Indian road conditions using 7000 grade aluminum alloy and are robust and lighter than Interceptor’s stock rims and gets a lifetime warranty against internal defects. The rims arrived in two weeks bubble wrapped in two separate boxes. The rims look decently finished, but nowhere near the league of the stock Excel aluminum alloy rims. The rim surface is not perfectly smooth in some places and is finished with glossy silver color paint. The stock Excel rims and Dismotech rims felt similar in weight. Had to shell out Rs 18200 in total to Dismotech for the 2.75x17 front rim, 4.00x17 rear rim and two sets of RE Himalayan’s stainless steel rear wheel spokes. Stock Excel rims are 2.50x18 & 3.50x18.

I’m a fairly sedate rider and performance tyres weren’t necessary, so I got the tyres based on durability, cost & compatibility, hence got the Ceat Zoom XL 110/70-17H bias at Rs. 2099 & Apollo Alpha S1 140/60-R17H radial at Rs. 3040 from Amazon. I went for the 4.00’’ rim & 140/60 section rear tyre combination, since I felt anything over 140 will look out of place on the bike, and rob engine performance. Also wanted the lower ride height from the low profile tyre and wasn’t worried about the trade-off in the ground clearance.

How it all started:

The need for going the 17’’ wheels route was due to my constant hustle with the Interceptor’s weight and height. It all started early this year when I came across a seller in Instagram with aftermarket 17 inch aluminum rims. Always loved the spoke wheeled retro looks of the Interceptor and decided to do it when the factory tyres run out of thread. Started gathering the parts one by one, firstly got the tyres in April and the rims in July and then I got plain lazy and was riding around with the thread left in the stock tyres. And then installed the suspension lowering kit which you can see in the previous posts on this thread. Fast forward to September with the odo just over 19,000kms, the stock factory tyres were going bald and had to be replaced asap and the 17’’ conversion began.

Found a motorcycle wheel lacing guy near my place from Google, the dude laced the front wheel, and then later the day said the rear rim has design fault and he’s able to lace only one side, said thanks and took back the wheels. Few weeks later I took both the wheels all the way to ‘Yousuf Wheel Truing’ in Pudupet, which was suggested to me in the first place by a buddy of mine. The boys at Yousuf did an excellent job and was done with both the wheels in 40 mins. It turns out the previous wheel lacing dude was plain incompetent, there was nothing wrong with the rim. Got the tyres slapped on to the wheels and on the bike at my FNG.

Initial impressions:

Firstly I would like to echo in line with @man_of_steel’s feedback on his 17’’ conversion:

The dreaded death wobble is 100% cured. The bike is now rock solid (in CAPS AND BOLD) even at triple digit speeds.
Stability at highway speeds has increased. Earlier the bike felt nervous at speeds above 80.
Flickability has increased many fold. Much eager to turn into corners now.
Holds the line beautifully once leaned in.
At slow speeds, earlier the bike had a tendency to not turn in and then suddenly used to fall into the corner. Now it handles slow speeds in a controlled and neutral manner.
ABS is working perfectly.
In short. Feels like an entirely different and lighter bike!

Yes, the bike feels compact, doesn’t feel top heavy and handles like a fat Duke 390!

I wasn’t expecting such a transformation in the ride and handling characteristics. Due to lighter & smaller wheels the acceleration feels eager and quicker in each gear now and 100kmph comes up at similar 4100rpm in 6th gear. I’ve ridden close to 100kms now with this set up and I can say the Interceptor with 17’’ wheels feels nearly as flickable as my old FZ16. I've set 32 & 38 psi and feels ok but not sure if thats right psi. What should be the ideal tyre pressure? Is there any logical calculation?

I think I’ve over achieved my quest for low ride height in my Interceptor and now I could more than flat foot on both feet together with ease and can easily work around the foot pegs while walking the bike. On the contrary, I’ve lost quite a bit of ground clearance and I managed to scrap the main stand on few speed bumps during initial test runs with a pillion. Note that the rear suspension is at its softest preload setting and I’m also currently running with the suspension lowering kit. Quickly changed the rear suspension preload to stiffest setting and the ground clearance is much better and the bike managed to clear all of those speed bumps with a bit more slowing down. Not bad, not bad at all! For those who don’t care about lower ride height the ground clearance issue can be sorted by installing aftermarket suspension riser kit.

The odo now reads just over 19,400kms and its time for periodical service. Decided to get the complete service done at Kick Start Garage in Karapakkam, OMR, Chennai. Kick Start Garage is run by couple of ex-RE650 twins trained service advisors and mechanics from the company owned RE OMR service center. These guys have always been the go-to-guys for accurate and precise diagnosis of the issue relating to the 650 twins.

Ceat Zoom XL 110/70-17H bias at Rs2099 & Apollo Alpha S1 140/60-R17H radial at Rs. 3040/- from Amazon: