Stelvio wheel swap with Norge

[Kuni0]

I've recently had this thought, and don't know if I'm mad or if there's any baseline to it. For a while I've been thinking about getting some cast wheels from AF1 and mounting them on my Stelvio. I'm a road going rider, and I don't need the extra strength (or weight) of the spoke wheels, and I'm always dealing with a few psi lost on the rear every few days. The idea of having wheels that don't leak air and have better handling is tempting. But in looking around a few pictures and ebay listings, I realized the Norge seems to have a similar 4 bolt wheel design for the rear and it got me thinking if I could swap both wheels on my Stelvio? I know there would need to be some suspension re-adjustment going to 17'' but I was wondering if anyone knew if it was possible?

[Scud]

I don't know about the wheel swap, but I had the same problem with losing some air pressure. I put in some Ride-On tire sealant and balancer and removed the wheel weights. Now they hold pressure, and I have a little insurance against tire punctures.

[pete roper]

Nip over to the Stelvio thread on ADV rider and give a shout out to @Doc. over there. He has 17" wheels on his Small Tank Stelvio and can almost certainly give you the 'Good Oil' as he is very competent and far from stupid.

[PhillipLarsen]

 I had the same 2 to 3 psi leak per week on my 2012 Stelvio last year(39,000 Km) on it. Wanting to fix it, put the wheel in the water tank and was leaking a very little at many spoke nipples (about 70 %) past the o rings. Three or four had subtantial bubbles.

As I was about to replace the tire decided to address it. I found correct o rings in quantity and the right material reasonable price by the 100. 

Replaced all of the o rings one at a time on the rear wheel using correct silicone grease. There was white powder in the o ring / nipple area on most of them, I think was either salt or road grime. The bike had been used by the previous owner / friend in early spring when there is still salty water on the wet road when the snow leaves. I cleaned every thing very clean and lubricated.

Was much better but still leaked about 2 psi per 2 weeks. This winter was wanting to cure the issue, considered either a tube or some sealant. Decided to put it in the tank again and see what was going on before giving up.

It was leaking at the nipples past o rings again at about half of the o rings. Took the worst ones out to sample what could be going wrong. What was clear is the bores in the rim were not smooth, slight ridges and not very good finish. I decided to try something. Cleaned each bore very clean, then sprayed black thin gloss engine block paint in each bore, let it set a few minutes, then a second coat. it smoothed out the bores and imperfections, came out shiny smooth in the bores. Let it cure one day before putting nipple back in with oring / silicone grease.

I did four nipples at a time over a number of days until done.

When all done, tire back on, pressure in, let it sit 4 weeks, with no measurable change in pressure, into the tank to check to be sure, no leaks at any nipples. Have now ridden about 500 km and still no change in pressure. I think the imperfect bores were allowing the o rings to allow a little weaping.

The front tire has always been much better, only leaking about 1 psi per month, but when the wheel comes off for tire change in about 5000 km, I will do the same to the front wheel, including the paint in each bore of the rim.

 

[Lucky Phil]

I was wondering how they sealed these spoke nipples. So blind nipples with an oring on the OD that seals in a bore hole in the rim. So what 36 spokes/rim x 2 rims = 72 spokes and orings with matching rim holes, made in Italy. What could possibly go wrong, lol.

Ciao