MTFCA Forum

Good morning everyone I have managed to get some rear wheels for my TT, can anyone enlighten me on what I have as the bloke I got them from had no information as he found them and thought they would be a cool garden ornament. Would I be right in assuming that they are 23” (30 x 3-1/2) if so are they complete and what tire type and size do I require.
Any help will be greatly appreciated

I think the pieces missing are the locking pieces that go where the holes are in the rim. You should also have the retention ring. I've attached a photo of our rebuilt wheels. The outer ring and lock ring are both in silver but you can see the split.

Yours may be a single piece outer rim. It's hard to tell from the picture. As for the tires, we put 700 20s on ours.

They look like one piece rims to me, like those used on 21" wood wheels on 26-7 T's. The rusty one looks to have the latching mechanism missing at the join. If you take the other one off the wheel, hopefully that will show you what is missing.

Hope this helps.Allan from down under.

Matthew, the wheel and rim on the right and the rusty rim are Kelsey 23", they use a 32x4 1/2 tire, some times a 33x5 tire is used. They are 23' rims, but are not made for clincher tires(30x3 1/2). The wheel on the left appears to have a wood fellow, I have no idea what it is. It does appear to have a TT hub in it. It is probably an aftermarket or one that has been adapted from another vehicle. Hope this helps. Dave

Not a good close up and flat tire but this is the 23" kelsey wheel Dave is talking about. I am running 33x5 tires.

Steve, look again. Forest's wheel is a split ring, it's a 20" wheel. Matthew's is a 23" Kelsey wheel split rim, Kelsey didn't make a 23" split ring rim as far as I know. Dave

Yeah, i should have caught that.

Thanks fellas I assume the rim is split to allow fitting of the tire before clamping the wheel into the rim.

Yep. They made a tool for that.

Sorry for the delay in my reply, Dallas in your photo is there anything held between the wheel felloe and the spit rim by the wheel clamps it looks as if there are several lines or pieces where on the wheels I have there is gap when the rim is placed over the wheel.
As always any help is greatly appreciated.

Matthew, nothing at all. The rim has cuts in the square bead, Im guessing its easier to form the rim this way. One notch that slides together on the splut in the rim. No seperate ring on these rims. Here is a photo of my spare rim.

Some of those Kelsey rims used a seperate ring and some didn't, I've had both. I believe the ones that didn't have the rings were later and probably easier and cheaper to make, although that is just a guess. I've also had rime that had the cuts in them and ones that didn't. The ones on Dallas's TT have the cuts, and they aren't all spaced evenly. To me it looked like they sawn by hand, probably as was said to make them easier to mount and break down the tires. If so, it must have been a popular modification as I've seen a lot of them, also a lot that didn't have them. Dave

Thank you everyone a bit of research armed with your advice has reveled that the rims I have require a clamping ring that I have been able to source from the same guy I obtained the wheels from but now I have discovered a small rust hole in one of the rims any advice on how I would repair the rim would be as always greatly appreciated.

Dallas, look at those back tires again. They're 32x4 1/2, unless you've switched them. Dave

Dave is correct. 23x5.00 tires ( 32x4 1/2) Lucas