wider rear wheel

[blaise]

Hi,
Has anyone fitted a wider rear tyre? At present I have the widest possible that can fit. About 3mm clearance on the shaft side. I am satisfied with the handling, but the asthetics from the rear of the bike leaves a lot to be desired. I am looking for about 25mm on either side. I would like to fit a 180 x 70 or 80 rear tyre. I forsee a few challenges.
Moving the drive shaft at the motor and getting a spacer at the rear wheel. The swingarm side will need some machine shop work with spacers for the rear caliper bracket. A new machined rear axle to suit. the shock absorbers will have to have modificatios made to either the top or bottom support bracket. (I do not know which)

Before I attempt this I am trying to get a handle on the costs. So if anyone out there can see any other potential pitfalls, I will appreciate it.

Also if this is a complete idiotic idea let me know.

Thanx for all the help.
Blaise.

May the road be long and wide.

[uk1.1s]

Rear wheel option 1

Blaise,

Been some diiscussion somewhere else on the forum on this following someone posting some Dutch pictures of modified XS11's with different wheels / tyres.

Try the Dutch XS1100 club website pictures if you can't find the thread here. Chopper commented that the back end was from a 900 Diversion which should mate up to the XS1100 back end with some spacing as the rear wheel crown drive (or whatever the proper term is) is compatible.

'Course a 900 Divvy is unlikely to give you the huge sports bike rear tyre option that you are looking for, but I think it'll allow much wider sizes and maybe more choice of rubber. Heard some talk of massive rear tyres actually reducing the corner ability of a bike as they can make 'em really heavy to turn in. Contact patch is much better if you are trying to reduce rear end slide in corners on a track bike for example.

As an aside there are people out there who make up chain drive conversions for V-Maxes (and I've seen photos of this on an XS11 too years ago). Supposidly, a chain conversion could open up your options.

Lots of money could be spent, but if you are keen to improve handling, beware that it could result in the opposite. If the idea is cosmetic for a custom bike then the ultimate optimum handling may not be an issue.

[uk1.1s]

See Big Meats thread

Blaise - forget my ramblings - there's some more serious talk on the subject on the "big meats" thread

[blaise]

saw the big meat thread straight after the posting. A whole lot of thinking needs to be done. Would like to keep most of the original parts with some mods. I not to sure that the handling will get worse.

regards
Blaise
May the road be long and wide

[uk1.1s]

Wheel project

Good luck Blaise - be interested to hear what you decide to do.

For info (in case you don't have it)- here's a link to the Dutch site showing off some of their projects.

http://home.hetnet.nl/~ixes1100/indexx.html

Looks like they've had some fun making a few specials

Graham