What about all of us that have bought a used CBR.. should we go out and buy a new oem front wheel? Used wheels are fine, just check it for obvious signs of damage and you may need to have a shop press in new bearings and seals.
Most times the damage to front wheels is the lip ( outer edge ) some may have a flat spot that is visible to the eye. Or you can put the used wheel on a balancer-stand, set up a dial indicator to check how true the wheel is. I believe Honda says anything more than .010 inches is out of spec.
That's the problem. The damage isn't always obvious, and if there is no existing damage, it may have been previously repaired. My friend bought a used wheel on Ebay that had microfine stress cracks in the hub. Had he not changed the bearings, he would have never known until the wheel failed.
Re buying a new wheel for those of us with CBR's...that's not necessary. We generally know the history of the complete bike. When single wheels are sold on Ebay, more often that not they come from wrecked, and/or parted bikes - to which the history is generally unknown.
My point is, it's only $100-150 more to get a perfect, brand new wheel and you don't have to fcuk around replacing bearings and repowdercoating. If you are in the position of replacing a wheel, it's not bad money to spend!