What does TLA on harley wheel rims mean?

[Norrimichlson]

Hey friends,

I have a question regarding the 21 inch front wheel of my shovel.



As you can see it says T21x2-15 TLA DOT
I would like to know what TLA means since when i google 21 TLA only harley wheels pop up. Is this a harley thing, is this an origninal wheel? In the inside of the rim it says made in italy. I believe harley produced bikes in italy when amf ran the company, correct me if im wrong. I think I also have a picture of the inside somewhere.

Anyways thanks for your help.

[Norrimichlson]

there we go

[Norrimichlson]

I just had the idea to google the code inside my wheels, turns out cmr is an actual thing, could have thought of that earlier. However i still can't find anything on TLA or if harley had a deal with cmr

[JBinNC]

H-D used rims made in Italy during the '90s, at least. TLA may be the initials of the company that made the rim. H-D rims usually have a part number somewhere.
That 43662-80 is the H-D part number.

Jim

[Norrimichlson]

you are right, 43662-80 is an oem number so we can consider the wheels original

[47str8leg]

H-D used rims made in Italy during the '90s, at least. TLA may be the initials of the company that made the rim. H-D rims usually have a part number somewhere.
That 43662-80 is the H-D part number.

Jim

Italy and Japan during the nineties.
I remember seeing my friends original 1993 dyna rims off his bike when he switched to mags. One was stamped Italy and the other Japan . He was ( and still is ) the original owner.
Always wondered why Harley did that. Only two reasons I could think of is that ;
A) They were so hot selling so many bikes that one supplier couldn’t keep up.
&
B) They could keep costs down through
competition and avoid supply chain headaches If one supplier went down ( i.e.-factory fire , financial, etc.).