Change from stock 17" to 16" wheel. Pros and cons?

[596silverblue]

'78 model. I was considering putting a 16" wheel on, mainly to lower the seat height a little. What's the good and bad points of doing that? Can you re-calibrate the speedometer, would I need to replace it, or just learn that when it says "65" it means "60", or something like that? Any tips appreciated.

[DiverRay]

The speedo runs off the front tire, so no problem there. You WILL notice higher revs per mile, though. The rolling diameter of the 17" is a little longer than the 16", so instead of turning 4K RPM at 60, you will now be turning about 4,300 RPM. Because of this, you fuel mileage will go down a little as well.

[LAB3]

I've been considering the same thing and besides the rim you'll also need a "Special" rear brake caliper bracket as well as the axle spacer that goes onto the right hand side.

Why I haven't already done it is beyond me, should have done three rear tires ago. Since about 1/3 of the miles I cover are fully loaded with touring gear and pulling a trailer there's no better choice than to go to either a MT-16 or an MU85-16 touring tire, there's really no touring tire choice for a 17x2.5 rim.

The user DEEBS has mounted a 5.00x17 car tire onto his side car rig, that's another choice.

[DEEBS11]

LAB3, it's actually a 16" and I love it! I had swapped out the 17". You need a caliper bracket and right wheel spacer from a Special to do it.

[DEEBS11]

Some more info on the swap.

[LAB3]

My mistake! Remember looking for and finding a 5x17 and shortly thereafter you posted some pictures, the tread pattern led me to believe it was the 17.