Hey, i'm new to these forums. I've recently bent my left rear rim real bad on a jump i took that was too big. The prices for a factory replacement are crazy. I've been shopping for after market aluminum rims. I'm wondering if aluminum rims are strong enough for rough trail riding. Where i ride, we hit a alot of big rocks and stuff. Should i get aluminum or stick with steel?

 

Do a search because there have been a lot of topics on this. I would go with an ITP or similar aluminum rim.. There are a couple that are similar and a few bucks cheaper. Shop around.

 

I also pounded the rims on my Wolverine pretty badly, one time I had to pound it back with a rock,the bead was showing,but it still held air !! I ended up buying some used aluminum rims with reinforcing rings for 50 bucks for the back, then bought some used front rims and bought some OMF rings for the front and had them welded in. No more problems with rocks and such, aftermarket tires help,too, a lot of them are set up to protect the rim bead by sticking out farther, where the stock Yamaha rims have that studpid lip sticking way out past the tire, just begging for a rock to smack it !! Check my pics, got a good side view of the Wolvy so the rims really show up nice. OMF will sell you rims with rings welded in, cheaper than buying rims,rings, and having to weld them in seperately. Pounded my tires/rims pretty good, lots of jumps and plowing through a lot of logs and rocks, no problems so far, those aluminum rims hold up good, and are a lot lighter than steel, too !!

 

Thanks ya'll for the replies. 95, i've never heard of the reinforcing rings but i think i'll try them out. Does it make it harder to mount the tire? My buddy is gonna give me the factory tires off of his Brute Force 750. I think they are 25". I guess i'll get some aluminum rims to put them on. Thanks for the help!!

 

The rings don't affect the tire mounting,but on narrow rims,like on the front, it does make the valve stem a bit tight, but still reachable for checking air pressure/adding air.