Comstar wheels.

The following extract was emailed to me by Brock.
I've said before, I've used Comstars for years with absolutely no problems, but they get a bad press over here because of their 3 part construction.
I rest my case.

They don't have the spiffy styling of certain cast wheels and they may look flimsy to the unknowing eye, but Honda's new ComStar wheels are probably the strongest ever to appear on a motorcycle. They are easily the most rational. Here's why. The wire spoked wheel has several shortcomings: (1) the tiny area where the spoke attaches to the rim and hub is a weak point; (2) wire spokes are thin in section and "willowy" in character; (3) because of these two weaknesses wire wheels often require adjustment and (4) they flex when loaded heavily in turns, so handling is adversely effected to a surprising degree. However, they do provide an excellent load path from the rim to the outside of the hub directly above the wheel bearings. Most cast wheels carry loads in a straight line from the rim to the center of the hub several inches away from the wheel bearings. Also, they are difficult and expensive to manufacture without flaws (which weaken the wheel) because the molten metal cools at different rates as it flows down the long mold passages which form the spokes and rim circumference. Thick-section castings help cope with this problem, but also add considerable weight.

The Honda wheels have all the advantages of spoked and cast wheels with none of the disadvantages. They employ steel struts bolted to the hub and riveted to a vertical flange located in the center of special D.l.D. rims. This design evolved from extensive testing of dozens of Honda-built wheel systems, including cast aluminum and magnesium. Its advantages are many: (1) the load path is direct to the wheel bearings, so the triangulation strength of wire spokes is retained; (2) the area of contact between the struts and their attachment locations is generous and the bolt-and-rivet method of fastening is exceptionally strong, so the wheels should never need adjustment; (3) this system also enables the factory to use different struts to build in the exact amount of rigidity required for different sized bikes; (4) the rim can be lighter than cast rims because extruded aluminum doesn't have to be thicker in section than necessary to compensate for casting flaws; (5) they are simple and inexpensive to manufacture; (6) this design and construction makes them unsurpassed in strength and rigidity. They are most similar to automobile wheels which carry loads that would dwarf those imposed by the F2, yet are made even stronger.

However, all is not perfect. The shape of the struts and tiny clearances between them make the wheels extremely difficult to clean. For all practical purposes the wheels are one-piece with no interchangeability of parts and no adjustability, so a bad ding in the rim means you have to buy a whole new wheel - as is the case with cast wheels.