With original Honda wheels of this size being increasingly scarce and with Chinese clones of either dubious or unreliable quality, 17" Pit Bike wheels are an acceptable and popular substitute. Pit Bikes are dirt bikes or motocross motorbikes for kids, and for me, the fact that they are designed for relatively rough use is reassuring, compared to wheels designed for commuter bikes. Mine came with solid spokes with a reassuring ring to them. You get some really decent quality for an incredibly low cost, especially compared to used Hondas and their clones; £18 each, (incl postage) as compared to around £50+ a piece for the alternative.
The PB wheels come with 6202-2RS bearings, which have an internal diameter of 15mm, which is too small to fit them (at the front) on to stub axles, which are 17mm. So I shall be replacing them with 6003-2RS, which have the same outside diameter of 35mm, but the larger internal one.
Friends in the hobby are presumably so experienced with all this that when describing how to replace the bearings, they just blithely say "knock them out". So with our poached eggs on toast this lunchtime, Lucy and I watched a few YouTube videos on how to extract bearings and less that ten minutes after lunch, I returned from my workshop with bearings and spacer from the first wheel in hand, a broad grin and a grand feeling of satisfaction. You really can learn almost anything from YouTube.
This provides a tiny land you can knock against to force the far bearing and spacer out. Alternate opposite sides (12 o'clock, then 6; then 3 o'clock, then 9; repeat). This stops the bearing from becoming jammed, but is more of an issue when removing old, and rusty bearings. (This also something to keep in mind when putting new bearings in).
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