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Posted by: byndbad914 Jul 26 2007, 06:07 PM

Well, I wasn't in a big hurry for the wheels, but yeah, going into month 3 is starting to wear on me. Right at the point of doing a charge-back with my VISA card (they had no problem charging me immediately - that always seems to get done with the utmost haste) and telling them to pound sand.

If they didn't have the look I wanted and weren't so light, I would have already done it One of those rock and a hard place things - I want 'em but kinda want to say screw them just on principal...

Posted by: ottox914 Jul 30 2007, 10:05 PM

I've had no problems with the Keizers I run, and have set up 4-5 other guys in the club with that brand of wheel, they have had no problems and great customer service when they mashed a rim being stupid.

Posted by: jhadler Jul 30 2007, 10:58 PM

Well cr*p! That really sucks. You know, it's really poor business practice to charge your credit card before they actually ship the product. If your card has already been charged, then you should already have the wheels en route. If not, I think you should demand a refund.



Have you looked at CCW? I really like the BBS-esque look they make. Hmm, I wonder if litespeed is still around. They made super light, and really great looking wheels. I think their wheels would look really great on a widebodied 914. And if I remember, they were located in Colorado.

-Josh2

Posted by: byndbad914 Jul 30 2007, 11:05 PM

I more or less agree - they wanted $$ upfront since they are custom pieces so I can see why they would want to see the money before they started. That said, I think it should have been 50% at the most...


Yeah, I liked the looks of the CCW wheels but the weight quote was about 5lbs higher for each wheel, which I felt was significant. I would LOVE to have a set of Litespeeds but that company was defunct a few years ago when I was looking then. I have seen a few widebody teeners with them and they look great IMO. There are a couple cars on this forum with them in fact.

ottox - I looked at the keizer website, I may try to give them a call. That 5-spoke design wheel actually looks a bit like the Litespeed wheel in fact!

Posted by: jhadler Jul 31 2007, 12:59 PM

Yeah, but light and strong tend to be mutually exclusive. Super duper light wheels tend to react very poorly to curbs, berms, and off-track excursions.



Yeah, I kinda thought they were no more, but hadn't really looked for 'em in a while.



Hard to go wrong with Keizer. Another couple wheel makers you may want to look at are Real and Weld. Keizer used to have some quality problems years ago, but they seem to have really turned that around. And as Grant said "silly light"...

-Josh2

Posted by: Garold Shaffer Jul 31 2007, 01:09 PM

I have a nice set of 15 x 7 Keizer rims I want to sell. They are 4 bolt style. They fit a stock body car as long as the rear fenders are pulled.


Attached image(s)

Posted by: byndbad914 Aug 24 2007, 08:49 PM

well to quote myself on the light part, the wheels showed up FedEx this morning. One already has shipping damage to the lip (m'fers!) and of course I called Kodiak to start the process and they haven't called back today.


So I am quoting the light part cuz they said the wheels would be 12-15 lbs and I said "for a 16x11?? SWEET" since, I mean, 10 and 11" is pretty wide wheels by most peoples' standards.

They are 18lbs each. Pretty much what CCW quoted me at 18-20lbs, so they aren't as light as they are claiming. Do they look good? HELL YEAH. When they showed up I came, I saw, I came again (those two smileys combined with an ERK! FLAVA FLAVE) The anodized centers look pretty nice, the very center on a couple looks not quite perfect but not really noticeable at least. I just really like the 10 spoke design.

Posted by: byndbad914 Aug 24 2007, 08:50 PM

sitting next to the car

Posted by: byndbad914 Aug 24 2007, 08:50 PM

Posted by: SirAndy Aug 24 2007, 10:06 PM

what compound are you running on the goodyears?

Andy

Posted by: byndbad914 Aug 24 2007, 11:06 PM

R430s. These are the radials, I will be moving over to bias plys when I can't find good take-offs $460 each for the fronts and $530 each for the rears These were almost new for $75 each used. If I go bias ply I will still probably stick to the R430 compound

Posted by: Joe Ricard Aug 26 2007, 05:59 AM

I'm thinking Kiezers for the rear. 15 x 10 front 15 x 8

SORRY TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR BAD EXPERIENCE.

These guys sure didn't get any good advertisement from this transaction.

I will buy Diamond wheels again before Kodiaks. Thme guys in Milwaukee rock.

Posted by: byndbad914 Aug 26 2007, 02:06 PM

I heard about the Keizers after I ordered, but I heard they are light. Apparently I should have spec'd .160" wheel halves for a race wheel - but I don't know WTF to spec, I like to race but I am no wheel pro. I told them they were for a race car and that I liked the fact they were supposed to be light. For them to use apparently thicker barrels was their choice, not mine.

I suspect what happened is I heard rim halves are almost impossible to get right now, so they probably built mine with thicker halves cuz that was all they could find, then just didn't tell me. Just a bummer to find out my 16x10/11 are heavier than other guys 17x9.5 (a guy who helped me tremendously just to get them is a dealer and his were 16-16.5 lbs, so why mine are 17.5-18 is beyond me).

The wheels themselves look awesome, and I would sorta be stuck with them anyway cuz I really like the 10-spoke design they carry In the end I am happy with the wheels, I just hate being lied to about lead-times. And I talked to the owner for awhile at week 12 and told him I wasn't going to bust his balls because I am more than familiar with supplier issues, CNC machine failures, etc with my own personal experiences. But at week 14 with no returned calls, that is when I get ticked off. Service in a whored-out industry like wheels is going to be the key divider.

Diamonds were definitely on my list BTW but didn't have a pattern I was really happy with. They are awesome wheels too, tho'.

Posted by: jhadler Aug 27 2007, 05:19 PM

Sounds like you got the stinky end of the deal...

The frustration of the delay seems only compounded by the fact that the wheels are not what you expected (weight wise).

I'd be kinda bummed too...

Still, they do look pretty slick.

-Josh2

Posted by: ChrisNPDrider Aug 27 2007, 05:45 PM

Those wheels look awesome!
I've read all about this on the Pelican BBS...Are you planning to order some lighter wheel halves or can you run these (with the nicked edge)??

Posted by: byndbad914 Aug 28 2007, 03:13 PM

I am going to run these as is - Kodiak will polish up another half that matches what I have and send it out so I can swap out the nicked one down the road when I change tires again.

In the end, I was surprised as the wheels and tires I removed were about 3-4lbs heavier with tires so in the end I am a little lighter on unsprung weight. What it would take to save 2lbs per wheel right now, frankly, isn't worth it.

but yeah Josh, sucks to come in heavier than I thought. However, given how bad Pueblo is maybe I want the thicker (hopefully equating to stronger) wheels

the rear tires are wider than before, but same diam, so with a bigger wheel diam 16" v. 15" it was nice to see I still lost some weight. I didn't think that would be the case given the wheel is 18lbs, so that may be very tire dependent right now (I don't recall the wheel weights before). So, if I go to a Hoosier tire, the weight may change again. I dunno.

the fronts are barely wider, but smaller in diam, so that was the 4lb difference. The backs had the 3lb difference.