page_title: Motorcycle wheel
section_title: Brakes
hierarchical_section_title: Motorcycle wheel / Brakes
context_page_description: Motorcycle wheels are made to cope with radial and axial forces. They also provide a way of mounting other critical components such as the brakes, final drive and suspension. Wheels, and anything directly connected to them, are considered to be unsprung mass. Traditionally motorcycles used wire-spoked wheels with inner tubes and pneumatic tyres. Although cast wheels were first used on a motorcycle in 1927, it would not be until the 1970s that mainstream manufacturers would start to introduce cast wheels on their roadgoing motorcycles. Spoked wheels are usually made using steel spokes with steel or aluminium rims. Cast wheels are predominantly made from an aluminium-alloy, but can also be made from more-exotic materials, such as magnesium content alloy or carbon fibre.
context_section_description: Early motorcycles used brake mechanisms such as spoon brake independent of the wheels, but modern machines use drum or disc brakes integrated with the wheels.
  In a bid to improve wet weather braking performance, Spanish manufacturer Sanglas in 1976 fitted inboard front brakes to their top model, the 500S, followed in the 1980s by Honda models such as the VF400F and CBX500F. These used the front brake assembly enclosed in a vented aluminium hub to keep the mechanism dry.
  Buell Motorcycle Company introduced a rim-mounted "zero torsional load" disc brake that was claimed to reduce unsprung weight in the wheel-brake system, including lighter wheel spokes that carried no braking load. This style is generically termed a "perimeter brake" for its point of attachment to the wheel, and had been used in smaller numbers by other manufacturers before Buell. They can rarely be found on custom motorcycle spoked wheels.
caption: Buell wheel and perimeter brake
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