As mentioned earlier, I had purchased the tires I’d need for the build. The front wheel was to stay with the stock 19″ rim which just meant finding the right vibe for the tire. I knew I wanted it to have a bit of an adventure bike feel, so I was looking in the dual-sport arena. Getting the wheels off the bike wasn’t a big deal, though I almost missed that the allen bolt locks the axle bolt in place. I little bit of cursing ensued when I couldn’t break the axle bolt loose, followed by a little more cursing when I realized the level of ‘well, duh’ I had achieved.
Getting the front tire -off- it’s rim was no biggie either, but despite all of the methods I tried – dishwashing liquid/rim lube, tire irons (though I clearly bought the wrong size), zip ties to compress the inner rim together which was supposed to make slipping the new one onto the rim easier… none of it worked.
In the end I tapped out and took it to my guys at Beechmont Motorsports and they mounted and balanced it for me. Bless them.
The rear wheel was much more of a project, as I was going from the stock 15″ cruiser style to an 18″ rim, which meant cutting the existing hub out of the old rim, buying new spokes and the new rim, and learning how to lace and true a wheel. Enter Buchannan’s, they’ve got anything and everything when it comes to motorbike wheels. I had to figure out which rim I actually needed and went with an Excel WM4 (2.50) x 18″ shouldered aluminum rim – 36H, and the custom-cut spokes to match it to the Suzuki’s hub. All of this was a little steeper than I had intended to go price-wise, but there simply wasn’t another option that I trusted. Time and time again in this process I’ve come across companies that truly embrace honest-to-gosh customer service, and the timeliness of answers to my questions and speed of order fulfilment kind of has restored my faith in the world.
Built a simple truing stand out of scrap lumber. 
Tightening the spokes and truing the wheel was a part I expected to be a hellish nightmare. Not only are you getting the hub perfectly centered to the circle of the rim, you’re also getting it perfectly perpendicular to the plane of rotation. All of the stuff I read and videos I watched said to do no more than 1/4 turns with the spoke wrench once you started getting close, and to test that they were appropriately tight you were to tap them with the wrench. If they ‘ping’ like a big thick guitar string, you’re good. If they ‘thunk’ they’re not tight enough. All in all it was a relatively zen-like experience. I then sent it and the tire off to Beechmont Motorsports again to get it mounted and balanced.
Another box checked on the massive list of things to do.