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rota wheels good or bad?


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I'm thinking about getting some rota rkr or rb wheels and would like to know if anyone had problems with them? I have bought after market wheels that did not balance very well or they were out of round. Has anyone had any problems like this or any others. Thanks

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Before this turns into another knockoff vs. brand name debate, you will be absolutely fine with Rota or any other JWL certified wheel. People seem to love to parrot stories of Rota's and other cheaper brands shattering on impact with a pebble. Keep in mind many expensive brand name rims are cast the very same as their cheaper counterparts, so the difference in weight and strenght could be minimal. If you're talking forged vs. cast, their's certainly benefits to forged such as reduced weight and increased strenght, but an incident that would damage a cast wheel will likely damage a forged wheel too, but the forged wheel would be prone to bending rather than cracking which should allow it to hold air and be repaired. Whether the benefits are worth the cost are up to the user. To me, the biggest issue is a moral one, the brand name wheels are an original design while the knockoff gets to reproduce it with less effort and undercut the original, but with that said, people who buy knockoffs are likely in a different demographic from those than can spend over 4 times as much on a similar product. Myself, I have Rota Shakotans, a shameless knockoff of the Hayashi Street, however the Rotas were $350 a wheel cheaper than the Hayashis despite the fact they look and weigh pretty much the same. I would love to support the original brand, but I can't justify spending the extra cash to do so. 

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Try not to put $3,000 wheels on a $1,200 car.  Do as I say, not as I do (sometimes this site is more hypocritez than hybridz).  I try avoid pot holes and curbs just as much with my expensive rims as I do with my cheap rims.  Expensive rims can be pretty tough on me (emotionally)-I recently took my new rims to my favorite tire shop to have some stiff sidewall Hoosier A6 mounted.  I handed the wheel and tire to the old guy with the pipe in his mouth and sunken eyeballs, the one I always give a tip to, the one who has been mounting tires since Romans drove chariots, and as I was handing him my beloved equipment, I jinxed myself by saying:  "Thank you for always being so careful with my stuff."  Well, the tire machine had some wear in the little skid thingy that pulls the bead over the rim and he gouged the hell out of my brand new rim.  I was glad it was a $225 Rota instead of a $600+, custom-offset CCW or something fancy like that.  I have come to think of wheels as expendable, perishable items; and I think there is a greater chance of having the mounting dude wreck them than there is of a spontaneous failure at speed.

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Before this turns into another knockoff vs. brand name debate, you will be absolutely fine with Rota or any other JWL certified wheel. People seem to love to parrot stories of Rota's and other cheaper brands shattering on impact with a pebble. Keep in mind many expensive brand name rims are cast the very same as their cheaper counterparts, so the difference in weight and strenght could be minimal. If you're talking forged vs. cast, their's certainly benefits to forged such as reduced weight and increased strenght, but an incident that would damage a cast wheel will likely damage a forged wheel too, but the forged wheel would be prone to bending rather than cracking which should allow it to hold air and be repaired. Whether the benefits are worth the cost are up to the user. To me, the biggest issue is a moral one, the brand name wheels are an original design while the knockoff gets to reproduce it with less effort and undercut the original, but with that said, people who buy knockoffs are likely in a different demographic from those than can spend over 4 times as much on a similar product. Myself, I have Rota Shakotans, a shameless knockoff of the Hayashi Street, however the Rotas were $350 a wheel cheaper than the Hayashis despite the fact they look and weigh pretty much the same. I would love to support the original brand, but I can't justify spending the extra cash to do so. 

 

Couldn't have written that any better.

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At the end of the day the reason "we" put rims on our cars is "Looks".....this pretty much sums it up......I have said this before, example.." On the rbr's, Panasport was the first one to make this rim" However, you cannot get this rim from panasport bigger than a 16" and then theres width, you cannot get the nice wide rims either from panasport. In my Case, that's why I bought Rotas and Not panasport.....On my previous turbo zx I had 16" Panasports which I loved " I bought the Car with them already" however , On this Turbo I have now, I wanted a more aggressive look with 17" and Staggered, I could not get this set up from pannasport, So I went rota's.....Rob

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Thanks you guys. I could spend 2k or3k if I had to, but if the rota is good then why spend that much. I don't want to spend a lot of $ just to impress people, I want a rim that isn't to heavy, looks and works good. I have spent a lot on rims that were not that good

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