AZUSA style 5 spoke wheel help!

Addicted 2 Minis

Well-Known Member
#1
Okay wheel experts, I need your help!. I bought these wheels off eBay thinking they were Ruttman Spyder wheels but they aren't. The seller listed them as AZUSA Astro wheels but they aren't. Both the original Ruttman wheels and the AZUSA Astro wheels have an inner and outer lip on the outer portion of the wheel. The seller had sold a set previously with the complete drum brake assembly as AZUSA Astro Barris Super Stocker wheels. That narrows it down a bit but who made them?, are there other makes/models that used them?. I am not the only one who has thought these are Ruttman wheels as I have seen them sold before as such. They are 6" dia. by 4" wide and have a little ridge around the bolt holes where the sprocket attaches if that helps. The first picture is of an actual Ruttman wheel, the second an AZUSA Astro and the third is of the drive wheel from the set I bought.


Ruttman 5 spoke.jpg AZUSA Astro wheel.jpg Barris mini bike wheels.jpg
 
#2
Tab-Loc Wheels. I have one, but I'm not sure what bikes they originally came on. I think I saved an ad I found on here,
if I find it I'll post it.:)
 

Addicted 2 Minis

Well-Known Member
#4
Wow!, Thanks @ashbyota, I never heard of Tab-Loc before. Funny that they advertise Ruttman as one of the manufactures that use their wheels when the Ruttman wheel is different. The one pictured doesn't have the sprocket lugs but it is the only Astro looking wheel without the inner lip on the outer portion of the wheel. I'll have to do some more research but at least now I have a good start.
 

Addicted 2 Minis

Well-Known Member
#5
Hahahaha, I typed in Tab-Loc and went to images and it brought me right back here, I didn't know there was a wheel thread, awesome!. Thanks @ashbyota and @markus, without your pictures and documentation I would have still thought they were Ruttman wheels.
 

Addicted 2 Minis

Well-Known Member
#7
Well, the set I bought are beautiful from what I can tell, I haven't received them yet. If I don't use them on my beater 68 GT250 then I'll probably list them here for what I paid for them.

001.jpg 002.jpg 003.jpg 004.jpg
 

markus

Well-Known Member
#8
They are/were Ruttman used wheels, as well as barris, simplex, MarkVI, trail horse, and some others. When you get them compare them to the set you have with the extra rib. The "astro" wheels from Azusa are skinnier. I have never had the wide 6 pattern sprocket wheel with the rib but it might be skinnier as well.

From my research Tabloc were the ones that first had them made or distributed them starting in '69. Azusa somehow took over in the 70's and they got skinnier. The 5" wheels they sold came to be the "hex star" wheels that azusa sold up into the 90's. I have one set of the original wide tabloc's left, I actually wanted to get a late model Azusa "astro" and machine the inner lip off for a front wheel when I was putting a bike together since I was using a "big n'little" tire combo so the little 410 size tire fit better up front but never got around to it:


 

Addicted 2 Minis

Well-Known Member
#9
@markus I don't know where you find the time to turn out all the nice bikes you have built. The guy I got the wheels from just sold the last one he had listed, they were kinda pricey and probably too nice for the 68 I am thinking about putting them on. The 68 I call my beater isn't really all that bad but the frame is pitted and I have to weld a washer on the forks to take the slop out, the steer tube has a slight bend in it, the forks turn on the bolt itself causing the fork bolt hole to elongate. I plan to heat the steer tube and get the bend out of it, weld the washer on the forks, have the frame blasted and powder coated and keep it as a rider. Those Hexstars are cool too, I like them better than the Tri-Stars, to me the Tr-Stars remind me of those ugly 3 spoke wheels Ford used in the 80's and the bigger they are the uglier they get.
 
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