Custom Wheels

DaCol.

D' Colonel
Donating Member
I was looking  
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at some PMF wheels and others for my Busa. Cost  
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, for both $2,400 Bucks. Geezzzzzzz  
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, I bought custom polished wheels programed for my offset for my Vette last year at $299 ( or $1,200 for all four) each  
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. And the top price I looked at for the Vette was $500 each, still less for 4 than 2 for the bike. So, anyone know why a Bikes wheels cost the same for one, as 4 for a car ? I know you could sell alot more bike wheels for $1,200 a set (still twice as much as cars in some cases) than at $2,400  
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i think its because they make SO many car wheels, that they can CAST them. whereas they dont make enough bike wheels to justify making castings. so they have to machine each wheel from a solid billet hunk. or at least machine them from a big blank. in any case, they cant just cast them and polish like a car wheel.


but yeah, i may get wheels if they weren't so friggin expensive too. this reason is more of an educated guess though...
 
Take a look at HRE or Iforge or any other high end, forged car wheel company and you won't touch a wheel for 500$. There is a HUGE differance between cast and forged, in both price and quality.
 
When I built my 30K custom bike,I got the RC component billet wheels. They cost me 1200.00 a pc. before chroming!
I had to bite the bullet and just do it! Sux,but that is the price you pay.
Seems that just because it is for a motorcycle the price goes up...
IMO,the car wheels are not made nearly as nice as the time and effort put into the bike wheels.
 
(StuckInBaghdad @ Sep. 20 2006,11:04) Take a look at HRE or Iforge or any other high end, forged car wheel company and you won't touch a wheel for 500$. There is a HUGE differance between cast and forged, in both price and quality.
Look at ccwheel.com (Complete Custom Wheel in Daytona, Fla 383 258 0083 . Great wheels, made your your offset and just beautiful. Also, craftmanship is great !
 
(StreetnTrack @ Sep. 20 2006,13:38) There are some nice forged alum bikes out there for under $1800
yes sir and there have been some super buys on here also..

runeight...
 
My stock wheels work just fine and don't cost me another dime. They're stronger, have no cush drive issues, no spacer issues or premature bearing failure issues, don't require custom sprockets, and for far less than $1,800.00, I could easily make some significant horsepower improvements.
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I wouldn't consider aftermarket wheels unless they became more competitively priced with stock wheels. That's just me however. I see them pretty much as a major waste of cash that unfortunately draws the attention of thieves.
 
(Quasar @ Sep. 21 2006,06:55) My stock wheels work just fine and don't cost me another dime. They're stronger, have no cush drive issues, no spacer issues or premature bearing failure issues, don't require custom sprockets, and for far less than $1,800.00, I could easily make some significant horsepower improvements.
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I wouldn't consider aftermarket wheels unless they became more competitively priced with stock wheels. That's just me however. I see them pretty much as a major waste of cash that unfortunately draws the attention of thieves.
+1

Not to mention you barely see the front in all it's glory and the rear is somewhat unseen as well unless you have a high mount exhaust.
 
They really cost so much because people pay it. If you have CNC skills and can purchase billet wheel blanks you can do your own for $300-$400 each.
 
Playing the Devil's advocate here with numbers pulled from my head that i honestly believe to be close to accurate....
They are expensive to produce and the number produced is smaller. The CNC machines are not cheap. Decent ones START at $250K Aluminum Blanks cost around $200 and labor to create the program is probably around $1000. Don't forget the Insurance Liability policy that has to be purchased to cover their product as well. We'll omit R&D as a factor 'cause I have NO idea what that would be. Now add your operational costs per rim and divide that by a ficticious number you guess you'll sell and you have your cost to produce. Add 50% and you have your retail price. You offer dealers a 30 % discount from the MSRP and you actually make 18% profit per rim after paying for personell and office utilities bookeepers etc..
 
(MoosesBusa @ Sep. 21 2006,08
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) Playing the Devil's advocate here with numbers pulled from my head that i honestly believe to be close to accurate....
  They are expensive to produce and the number produced is smaller. The CNC machines are not cheap. Decent ones START at $250K Aluminum Blanks cost around $200 and labor to create the program is probably around $1000. Don't forget the Insurance Liability policy that has to be purchased to cover their product as well. We'll omit R&D as a factor 'cause I have NO idea what that would be. Now add your operational costs per rim and divide that by a ficticious number you guess you'll sell and you have your cost to produce. Add 50% and you have your retail price. You offer dealers a 30 % discount from the MSRP and you actually make 18% profit per rim after paying for personell and office utilities bookeepers etc..
Only problem is in your assessment of numbers of buyers. I would think there would be 4 times as many buyers at $500 per wheel as there is at $1,200 per wheel.

Maybe, Maybe Not  
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