I know you have a lot of saddle miles and time on your Great machine and that's awesome. Do you run 12" Tires & Disk brakes or the stock10" tires and brake hubs?
Neither, there's not a single CT70 wheel part on the bike, and that was one of my points. Most of the front end pieces I designed & engineered, then had CNC machined locally. A few of them I either machined personally, or custom-fabbed.
Since 2000, I've systematically worked to upgrade virtually
every aspect of the bike. Some of the upgrades took years to reach a successful conclusion, along with stupid amounts of time & money. It also involved throwing-out a lot of my own work. At this late date, I could probably list all of the stock parts on my red bike...on a matchbook. That's quite a bank of experiential knowledge, nearly all of it offered-up for free. It wasn't done to make money, the market for high-end customs in the US of A is minuscule, my time limited. For me, a prime motivator has been "lessons learned, lessons shared"...coming up on 15 years worth here and close to a decade co-administrating the erstwhile UK board, beginning in 2001. If I don't know something, I'll say so...or step aside and let someone else who's more knowledgeable on that topic take over. OTOH, if I see someone headed down the wrong path, it's just not my nature to let it go, unremarked. Take it or leave it, I'll at least put the facts out there.
4-5 years ago, I was seriously preparing to have billet aluminum rims produced; the amount of research that involved most would find mind-numbing...and about as interesting as watching paint dry. It yielded data that most will never have, and few would ever care about. For a customizer/builder some of it may be useful. If we go by the numbers,
everyone gets a clear, apples-to-apples, comparison. There will likely be a few surprises but they'll be pleasant ones.
I did run stock brakes & hubs for the first 3K miles. Only thing I didn't like was how they performed at 55mph+, while riding with a passenger aboard. Riding solo, never had any issue(s). Getting back down to 50mph, via compression braking, became part of my riding technique, second-nature almost. For me, bike + rider has always been a good 50-60lbs heavier than you're dealing with....and that's riding solo. Tires & wheels, on one of these bikes, can't make anywhere near that kind of difference.
Of course you can upgrade to a disc brake, anytime you like. You will face two issues: suspension quality and speedo drive/speedo accuracy. Getting OEM level, or better, front suspension and a disc brake isn't cheap, but is still possible. The speedo input error has no solution. No one makes an aftermarket speedo drive with the factory ratio. Cutting to the chase, you will end up with indicated speed being less than actual...same with the odometer. Few things are more frustrating to a gearhead. That's why I went to an electronic speedometer, when I'm not a fan of digital gauges. With a road bike, accuracy matters.
The main reason for running 12" wheels...because you like the look. If your local roads are in decent shape, they'll be fine. Around here, you'd have your fillings rattled loose, before ultimately having one, or both, damaged. That extra inch of sidewall height protects the rim and adds compliance to the ride quality.
If you're interested in a by-the-numbers comparison of your wheel/tire combo, just plug-in as many of the numbers listed previously and I'll post the math here. If not, "
vaya con huevos"
