Cast aluminum wheels for motorcycles became available in the aftermarket in the mid-seventies, these ones were a different approach, chromed all steel mag wheels, probably intended for the chopper market, the company was a division of Hurst who made the Hurst Airheart hydraulic brake systems. A quick google shows Hallcraft also did spoked wheels and spool hubs, apparently going out of business in the early eighties.
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Hallcraft was strictly chopper oriented (99% sure, anyway). In the early seventies, man I sold a lot of Hallcraft wheels. Their big thing was a 5" SLS drum brake, all steel (and chromed, of course) -- just an unadorned cylinder about 3" (?) wide.
These were so successful, in terms of zillions sold, because most US states mandated front brakes for motorcycles but imposed no minimum-performance standards. They'd stop your bike if you were pushing it, and they'd keep it from rolling backward if you stopped on a hill; in other words, they were about as good as Harley's older stock brakes (criminally, including the SLS "hamburger" that persisted on the Sportster for way too many years).
... Oh, yeah, Hurst-Airheart: Hallcraft did sell a pretty cool twin-disk model too. But it was pretty much just for looks as well; the plain steel disks were only 5" diameter. I think these brakes may have been developed for go-kart racing.
Hallcraft had quality control "issues," with extreme results, in the mid/latter '70s. Briefly, their wire-spoke wheels collapsed, in at least one case on the same day they were installed.
I hadn't known Hallcraft made solid wheels like the ones you dug up to show us, Mr. G. The brand I recall everybody running were Invaders. With a little time and some miles, they broke too: next to the welds, spoke to hub and/or spoke to rim.
To conclude this episode of me trotting out every boring thing I know, if anybody's interested I can direct youall to a few build threads wherein some frighteningly anal custom builder whips up his own five-, seven, or twelve-spoke steels with stunning results.
I expect they were also very heavy? Strictly a visual improvement:-)
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