Hot Take: All Multi Piece Wheels Look Terrible 

"Shoop" (shoopdawoop993) 02/20/2018 at 19:44 • Filed to: exposed fasteners

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Its mostly the bolts, but especially when the center is colored differently than the rim.

farscythe - makin da cawfee! > Shoop 02/20/2018 at 19:50

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wait.... is there a reason to have multi piece wheels (other than looks i mean)

i mean... to me thats just more points of potential failure

(i mean im not an engineer or anything... but usually one piece better... and lighter)

Pich, with Z32 now featuring Civic [Si] / No > Shoop 02/20/2018 at 19:50

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daender > Shoop 02/20/2018 at 19:54

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Counterpoint:

because

race

car.

Also functional for racing because it’s easier to mount tires (for 3-piece wheels) or at least repair wheels if you can salvage parts of the barrel or the whole wheel face.

Spanfeller is a twat > Pich, with Z32 now featuring Civic [Si] / No 02/20/2018 at 19:59

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I might have to watch the big Lebowski now...

Shoop > daender 02/20/2018 at 20:03

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On a car with a livery they look acceptable because the livery already has a complex texture.

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > farscythe - makin da cawfee! 02/20/2018 at 20:04

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For race cars with stiff sidewalled tires it makes mounting tires easier. It also means you can play with the offsets, and widths by switching out lips and barrels

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > Shoop 02/20/2018 at 20:05

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I respectfully disagree. Only fake 3 peice wheels look bad

wafflesnfalafel > daender 02/20/2018 at 20:06

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BaBAM!

(Though I agree - sometimes they can look a little busy on some road cars.)

Shoop > farscythe - makin da cawfee! 02/20/2018 at 20:08

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I was formula sae, we had multi piece wheels. I don’t really know why. I assume because its easier to change wheel sizes, and mount tires without a machine.

farscythe - makin da cawfee! > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 02/20/2018 at 20:08

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cheers :)

a clean and concise and most importantly short explanation... my favourite kind :)

farscythe - makin da cawfee! > Spanfeller is a twat 02/20/2018 at 20:10

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if you havent yet... you probably should... if you have...

you probably should

farscythe - makin da cawfee! > Shoop 02/20/2018 at 20:14

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welp.. those are pretty solid reasons... and match what another commenter just told me

(and also if they’re on race cars they must have merrit... those guys tend to know what they’re about... more than i do anyway.. i just weld shit.. and occasionally hit shit with shit to make it as straight as i told the bossman it was)

daender > Shoop 02/20/2018 at 20:17

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On an aesthetics-only view, yeah, multi-piece wheels can make or break a car’s look. The problem is that all these replica wheels that fake being a multi-piece wheel ruins the look because it’s overplayed. That said, I love wheel with a polished or machined lip and the whole face painted in either a color that matches the vehicle, offsets the vehicle (black, bronze, white, etc), or goes with a stripe.

This is too much for my tastes because the bright blue doesn’t match anything:

This is okay because bronze/gold looks good on most older cars for that classic sports car style:

This works because of the black trim/rubber and because dark wheels with a polished/machined always looks good:

Textured Soy Protein > Shoop 02/20/2018 at 20:23

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Multi-piece wheels look good on high end cars, and 80s or older Japanese and European cars.

Also modern Nissan Zs because of their ability to fit huge lips in their flared fenders. 

Otherwise I’m not a fan of them on more modern, basic designs.

Shoop > daender 02/20/2018 at 20:44

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none of the bottom 3 work

arsenal88 > Shoop 02/20/2018 at 20:52

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Definitely not because it’s easier to mount tires.

It is not easier to undo 30-ish bolts and nuts, break a seal between wheel barrel halves, remove a tire, clean the mating surfaces of the wheel barrel halves, apply sealant, align wheel parts, and then redo and retorque 30-ish bolts and nuts. That’s like taking a car door apart to get out of the car instead of using the door handle. There is literally a machine for putting tires on wheels. Even ultra low profile super stiff sidewall tires.

Real multi-piece wheels started in racing to optimize weight/strength, sizing flexibility and repairability. Different materials provide optimum strength/weight for different purposes. You can use a different material for the wheel barrel than the wheel face and optimize for the loads and shape of the piece.

Modern forging processes mean you can build a strong and lightweight wheel from one piece but if you bend the rim, you’re done as far as racing on it. You could get away with repairing it for street use but not racing. A multi-piece wheel means you just replace a wheel barrel or even just the half of the wheel barrel (inner or outer) that has been bent. I you want different wheel sizes, you can use the same wheel center for every wheel and just use different wheel barrel halves to achieve any width and offset you desire.

Most people are coming from a street-use perspective. Wheels are repairable enough or they’ll just get a new wheel if something is damaged and there isn’t much need for a multi-piece wheel. That said, if you spent big dollars on a set of HRE, Fikse, etc wheels and you could repair a bent rim for $150 instead of replacing that single wheel for $800....

Shoop > arsenal88 02/20/2018 at 22:09

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For sure, I know, because Ive done it.

kanadanmajava1 > Shoop 02/21/2018 at 04:24

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My favorite wheel (Schmidt TH-line) is a multi piece model. This wheel uses tough Radinox (stainless steel) outer lip so the bolt ring is an essential part of the wheel construction. Some sizes have separate inner lip too.

Shoop > kanadanmajava1 02/21/2018 at 08:12

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Too bad it would look better as a single piece wheel.

kanadanmajava1 > Shoop 02/21/2018 at 08:47

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Ronal Aero 18 resembles it slightly but similar thin lip isn’t possible with a single piece wheel.