1983 BMW R80ST Refinish, Lace And True Wheels

The R80ST has spoked wheels front and rear. In order to refinish the wheels using vapor blasting, I remove the spokes. This let me assess the condition of the spokes and spoke nipples so I can decide if I can keep most of them, or they need to be replaced.

On the rear wheel only 17 out of 40 spokes weren’t bent or rusted and only 8 spoke nipples were not damaged. On the front wheel every spoke was bent. So I replace all the spokes with stainless steel spokes and install new plated brass nipples.

This documents shows how I do this work.

And this video shows the techniques I use in more detail.

VIDEO: 1983 BMW R80ST Lace The Spokes And True The Wheels

Here is what I started with.

Front Wheel-Before

Front Wheel-Before

Front Wheel-Before

Front Wheel-Before

Rear Wheel Before

Rear Wheel Before

Rear Wheel Before

Rear Wheel Before

And here is what the wheels look like after refinishing them and lacing and truing the wheels with new stainless steel spokes.

What All Done Looks Like

What All Done Looks Like

16 thoughts on “1983 BMW R80ST Refinish, Lace And True Wheels

    • Jason,

      Click the link to the document and you will find a link to Colorado Vapor Blasting, a division of Vintage Twins in Arvada.

      Best.
      Brook.

  1. Wonderful work. Curious that all those spokes were bent – is that common? Or was there damage to the wheel that caused it?

    • Stephen,

      I have no idea why they were bent, but the bike was in storage for 25 years before I got it and the front tire was flat. They are straight now. 🙂

      Best.
      Brook.

  2. Thanks Brook for a very detailed account of how to respoke the wheels! Appreciate the hard work with the videos to show us how this great bike is coming along!

    • Mike,

      Thank you. This video has the most “not used” segments of any work I have documented. It was hard to try and be succinct but not overly long. But in the end, it’s over 45 minutes long which is pushing the boundaries of folks attention span.

      Best.
      Brook.

    • Chris,

      I don’t think Woody’s has much to worry about as it took me far too long to complete this work. They would likely complete 50 sets of wheels in the time it took me to complete one set. 🙂

      Best.
      Brook.

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