[Fs 650 rider]

Hello Nice to meet you evreryone. New in the block ,always happy to discuss things and topics with like minded people.

Recently i sourced a set of Alpina carbon matrix rims ,without hubs or spokes. The dimensions are 3,50x16,5 front and 5.00x17rear.
I want to build them as a track set of wheels for my Husaberg, but i have some confusion as to how I am going to do it .

First For them to be tubeless from what I can gather ,I need the Alpina spokes right?

Second what's the difference between alpinas STS and the older A system? Which one my wheels use?

Third what kind of hubs should I use ?(talon,haan, kite etc.) Probably the lighter and stronger the better in my view.

And lastly does the hub type affect the ability of the rim to become tubeless ? (In short, do I need to find alpina hubs or anything wroks?)


Thanks in advance.

 

[BeauChallis]

You can use a behr hub or kite (alpina) hub with the proper alpina spokes, but they're all discontinued and alpina wouldn't sell the spokes separately even when they did make them lol so good luck.
You coukd use any hub you wanted (talon) with custom made spokes which is probably what you'll have to do anyway as chances of finding a set of basically nil. I have only seen one other guy put a talon hub in a carbon alpina rim and I think he musty have used to alpina nipples with custom spokes.

We seal our own rims to tubeliess with 3M ultra tape it takes a few sessions of finding air bubbles to get it right 100% but have rims here that hold air better than the alpina wheels. So maybe you can make some spokes and then seal them afterwards this way.

I dunno about sts or A system but alpina won't part with any bits my mate had a carbon rim that a spoke broke around the rim area and he had a complete nightmare getting it sorted and this was about 4 years ago when they just about still made the wheels.

Either way little bit of a mission you've got there, best of luck mate!

 

[shift1313]

I'm pretty sure Alpina still makes rims and sells their spokes.

Spokes & Nipples | Alpina Wheels

www.alpinaraggi.it

I bought mine through my suspension guy and not direct but I remember it taking for ever. The nipples are the secret sauce to make them tubeless. My rims have kite hubs. I like them as they used the same wheel spacer setup where spacer rides in the bearing so they work for more years. I have tusk impact dirt rims and their hubs have the same setup.

I'd start with that link and look at the spoke pdf. Might try a dealer or shop that sells them if you have trouble direct.

I had tried to make my own tubeless wheels and never had good luck but my Alpina rims hold air great.

 

[Fs 650 rider]

Thanks for the replys chaps. A bit of a mission indeed.
Your posts helped a lot because I was a bit concerned that i bought some desk furniture instead of wheels. So now bottom line they I know that they can be mounted with any hubs-spokes and even with tubes.

Thats the worst case scenario , so let's identify the best possible one. If I want the full candy, this side of forged mag wheels, I should try and get the OE Alpina nipples and spokes . As for the hub from what @BeauChallis said ,it should be possible to fit the OEM. The stock Alpina hubs are Kite? Sport or elites right?
But Kite doesn't have any listing for my bike or any husaberg for that matter . I would assume that some other models use the same hubs , (possibly ktm) If anyone knows about this that would be a huge step .

@shift1313
Yeah i pulled the trigger for them after seeing k that catalogue , coming to the same conclusion as you. And if the going gets tough , I would kill my wallet to send them to Italy probably.
Today I sent an e-mail to them about the situation hopefully they will come back with some sort of answer.

 

[BeauChallis]

Ktm kite hubs are the same yeah except is it an old husaberg or the 70° engine? The old ones you can fit ktm rear wheel round the other way as the sprocket is opposite side but I dunno how that affects spoke angles. 70° berg is same as normal ktm so that's fine. Behr/oem and kite share the same spoke angles so you can spot carbon rims on stock hubs on some old factory bikes but talon are different angles.

 

[Fs 650 rider]

Thanks for the insightful info Beau.
My berg is a 2007 Fs 650 (before the 70 degree engine).
I think the rear axle(bar) is something like 28mm for the hole of the hub.
As I was browsing Kite's catalogue , it came across to me that there is no cush drive option. As my bike is like 10-15bhp up from today's 450-500s that is something that would put me into some thinking.
I am still waiting for the rims to arrive so we should have some progress after that.

 

[shift1313]

Thanks for the replys chaps. A bit of a mission indeed.
Your posts helped a lot because I was a bit concerned that i bought some desk furniture instead of wheels. So now bottom line they I know that they can be mounted with any hubs-spokes and even with tubes.

Thats the worst case scenario , so let's identify the best possible one. If I want the full candy, this side of forged mag wheels, I should try and get the OE Alpina nipples and spokes . As for the hub from what @BeauChallis said ,it should be possible to fit the OEM. The stock Alpina hubs are Kite? Sport or elites right?
But Kite doesn't have any listing for my bike or any husaberg for that matter . I would assume that some other models use the same hubs , (possibly ktm) If anyone knows about this that would be a huge step .

@shift1313
Yeah i pulled the trigger for them after seeing k that catalogue , coming to the same conclusion as you. And if the going gets tough , I would kill my wallet to send them to Italy probably.
Today I sent an e-mail to them about the situation hopefully they will come back with some sort of answer.

Let us know if you hear back. They had a special email for info on spokes and nipples. I know they do take their time......

 

[Fs 650 rider]

Well here is a small update on how things are progressing. The rims came in two days ago and they are in really good nick. No scratches or anything noticeable on them, just a really small chip inside on the front one .
Alpina Italy, did not reply to my e-mail , so i took the liberty to speak with Karl from Alpina uk. He said that OEM hubs would work if the holes are designed for my bike . Bummer because I think the wheels were fitted on a CRF 450 previously. After that we talked a bit about spoke angles and patterns which confused me even more.(Japanese style, euro style etc.) Basically from what I understood the problem is in the angles of the spokes in relation to the hub.

If anyone has some info regarding the various styles-patterns and if a conversion from style to style possible please let me know.

Maybe going full custom with whatever nipples, spokes, and hubs is the solution.