18 inch rear wheel on an XS1100

[DEEBS11]

Boy, the Excelsior tire is pretty tight. I think the 6.5 inches might have more width at the sidewall.

[DEEBS11]

Looks like the tread is 6.5 inches wide. 25.4 inches tall. I wonder if that width will fit inside the swing arm.

Edit: My present tire is 5.6" at it's widest point on the sidewall. The 6.5" tread tire 9above) will add another inch or two sidewall which would be close to 9". A 165/80-15 is too wide.

[DEEBS11]

I'm looking into running this tire.

[DEEBS11]

Found it! Leave it to Step Toe.

[DEEBS11]

I found this on the internet years ago from Australia if I remember correctly.

[DEEBS11]

[DEEBS11]

My question is about the stock cush drive. The rubber inserts. Has anyone ever removed and replaced these? Are they vulcanized? They would need to be removed (ideally) in order to take the heat that welding will generate.

[DEEBS11]

Well, my project has kind of evolved as projects do. I am looking into having a custom 15" to fit a car tire wheel fabricated using the stock hub as shown with this BMW wheel.

[Mathh]

I have forgotten most of my experience with 750/850 wheels but I do remember that I had to check if the offset of both triple and 1100 wheels were the same. The triple wheel is more narrow so it would make sense that the offset is different on both wheels.

[bikerphil]

Another thing to think about is with the 850 drive mod, you are only using 2/3 of the driveshaft splines at the U joint due to the 16mm spacer you need. Might not be the best idea with the added weight of the rig. Who knows?

I think 3phase had a custom yoke welded up so the full depth of the drive splines could be used.

[LAB3]

You also may want to consider the 64 weight rating, it may or may not be lower than what was available when these bikes where built.

In your instance and to tell you the truth mine as well you might want to go with a 16X3.00 rim off of a Special, that way you could run a real live touring tire out back (MT90-16) In that case the ,850 drive gear swap makes quite a bit more sense.

[DEEBS11]

....or just keep changing the tire every 6,000 miles. That's about every 3 or 4 months. Might just be easier and less expensive.

[DEEBS11]

Yikes. 22 inches is quite small. Would need an XS850 rear drive in order to compensate. Perhaps a long term project. Maybe just install the entire swing arm ect.

[DEEBS11]

Good point Ray. I did check the web site and found this. I know Guzzi sidecar guys that use these on the drive tire with great success. However, it might be a little short. I will have to look into that as well. My present tire is 26" tall.

[DiverRay]

Just make sure it's designed to be a drive tire. Some tires are constructed in a way that they will not handle the power to the ground. The forces can tear them apart if it's not designed properly.