Motorcycle wheel wheels are predominantly made from an aluminium-alloy, but can also be made from more-exotic materials, such as magnesium content alloy or carbon fibre. The first commercial motorcycles were built like bicycles, with wire wheels as bicycles had traditionally been fitted with. The Steffey motorcycle in 1902, essentially a bicycle with a two-stroke engine attached, used wooden rims with wire spokes. This style of wheel evolved into a stouter motorcycle-specific wheel, still with spokes, up to the 1960s and beyond. In April, 1922, Borrani started production of motorcycle wheels with an aluminium rim. Although cast wheels had already been used on
Ship's wheel (though sometimes as few as six or as many as ten) shaped like balusters and all joined at a central wooden hub or "nave" (sometimes covered with a brass "nave plate") which housed the axle. The square hole at the centre of the hub through which the axle ran is called the "drive square" and was often lined with a brass plate (and therefore called a "brass boss", though this term was used more often to refer to a brass hub and nave plate) which was frequently etched with the name of the wheel's manufacturer. The outer rim is composed