Wire spoke wheels

If I could change anything stylistically on my 650 Maxim it would be wire spoke wheels. I just dig the old school look vs. alloys. I was checking out @Mezzmo XJ build with a different alloy wheel from a 900 so I'm wondering if Yamaha made a shaft drive bike with wire spoke wheels (and ideally drum brake). Browsed through several pages of google photos but couldn't find any shaft drives with wire wheels. Presumably finding a front wheel with the disc on the correct side would be relatively easy vs. the rear? Has anyone else contemplated or attempted this kind of swap?

 

Should have searched harder - 1986 XV700

 

Ha, well I'm vacillating between "in for a penny, in for a pound" and "you need to have your head examined" and if past performance is any indication in for a penny always wins. When it's all said and done, assuming I give in to my neuroses, I may end up spending more on these wheels than the rest of the bike.

Found a couple of XV wire wheels on ebay and should have them in hand soon. Stay tuned...

 

Nice, keep the pics coming!

 

Are you planning to stick with the 15" rear or re-lace to the OEM 16"?
A 140/90-15 might be tight.
I think the Virago came with a 150/90-15

 

Therein lies the potential expense. A 16x3' 36 spoke rear rim seems to be unobtainium. I found a shop that will custom drill/dimple a blank steel wheel and relace with custom spokes but the wheel itself is mondo spendy on top of $275 for spokes/lacing/truing. Considered a less expensive 18x2.5" XS650 rim but tire option are too limited. So probably going to bite the bullet and upgrade to the 16" rim.

 

I know nothing about rim assembly but google search of that size comes up with hits. Something like this work?

https://www.bmikarts.com/16-x-300-3...bF8m4b22-EVTLOzQtSxE0_IAT4Z2RKhhoCJkEQAvD_BwE

 

I was looking at that rim, when I spoke with the shop he said Harley never made a 36 spoke wheel so it was probably a misprint and even if it had 36 holes depending on how it's laid out might cause the spokes to bow and be unusable. I may give them a call to confirm 36 or 40 holes.

 

Then the front wheel - eyeballing the hub from photos and based on the diagrams I'm hoping I can just remove the brake disc from the right side, put the current XJ disc on the left side, change out bearings and the spacer.

Fingers crossed big time on that.

 

These guys are the best in the business.
http://www.buchananspokes.com/categories/index.asp

Just send them your hub and tell them what size rim you want.
And your wallet, LOL
It will be done right though.
Make sure you mount the wheel in your bike as it is now before you consider re-spoking it.
You'll see if the stock Virago wheel is centered where it needs to be.
Take measurements of your Maxim now, determine where the centre of the OEM rim sits.
If you need some offset the wheel builder can do this with the new spokes.

 

Ha, that's who I spoke with and based off a ten minute phone call I have absolute confidence in them. I hope they're the best because they're about the only I could find. Their labor prices seem totally fair from what I've seen, it's just the rim that's pricey.

Def gonna test fit everything before getting too carried away. I'll have them in hand soon enough.

 

I went from a 19" to 21" on the front of my BSA scrambler so I could fit a real knobby tire.
The English parts distributer in Canada (Walridge Motors) did mine, he was very reasonable.
Assembling and truing the wheel was $75 CDN labour.
It would be crazy to even think about doing that myself for that price.

 

The Virago rear hub/backing plate is about an inch wider than the stock wheel, there's not enough clearance even after undoing the four retaining bolts on the final drive. Didn't feel like completely removing the final drive mating it to the wheel and installing as one, but it seems that may be the only option. Pain in the neck but barring a flat tire once it's installed it probably wouldn't come off again for a decade.

 

I read before somewhere the Virago wheel needs removal of the final drive. You’re right once it’s set up you don’t need to remove it until the tire is worn out.
Show us a pic.

 

Is the Virago brake drum wider?

 

The hub is wider from bearing to bearing, about .75 inch. The Virago axle is longer by the same amount so lucky it came with the wheel. Backing plates are different diameter but same width.

 

Bearing in mind the immortal words of Winston Wolf, from a quick fitting it looks like the front wheel is gonna be a go-go!



Turns pretty freely, a little drag on the brake pads. I didn't feel like pressing the caliper piston properly and with the old OEM xj650 disc it was too tight. With the Virago disc it fit - both discs are the same diameter but the XJ disc is probably a couple mm thicker. Virago disc is the same thickness as the EBC replacement disc on the bike now so it should be good.

Interestingly enough, the XV535 has a 17mm front axle vs the 15mm XJ650 so the wheel will fit/spins but I won't be able to make a final call until I get the right bearings and spacer in the wheel and it's spinning true. And the seal, ha, the XJ spacer practically rattles around inside the right side seal on the Virago wheel. Will be huge not having to fool with different forks, brakes, etc..

The rim is 19x1.85 vs. the stock 19x2.15, hopefully no worries to keep the same 100/90-19 tire. Or maybe an XV700 rim laced onto the hub since they're at least affordable vs. having a new rim punched.

 

There is a front wheel on eBay now from the xv700 for $100. I think it’s a direct fit.
Might be easier than adapting the xv535, I didn’t know it had a larger axil

 

Based on the replacement part specs I think all it's going to take is an oddball size set of bearings and oil seal on the right side. Gonna knock out the old Virago bearings in the a.m. to measure and confirm against a new set of XJ bearings but it's really looking like I can pull the front wheel off with $60 worth of bearings and seals.

 

Winston Wolf has entered the chat.

Knocked out the Virago bearings and confirmed the measurements 17x47x14, which can be replaced with a 15x47x14 that isn't common but is available. I found a 22x47x7 oil seal for the right side, left side uses the usual seal.

The spacer is another story, the Virago spacer is shorter than the XJ - 68.5mm vs. 72mm which means I'll need to have 3.5mm machined off the XJ spacer. Bummer but hopefully not a showstopper and clearly better than the XJ spacer being shorter. Thinking I might just order a couple extra bearings then test fit without the spacer to confirm brake clearance before dicking with having it machined. In the wheels that adds up to 96.5mm bearing to bearing on the Virago and 98 mm on the XJ. Presumably .75mm less on each side of the wheel is no worry?

Not gonna fool with the rear much until I get the front sorted out, except I've been reconsidering whether to have a 16" rim punched and laced. Keeping the stock size tire and not having to worry about fitment is ideal, but a plain steel rim is $270, $438 for chrome (which I would do in for a penny and all...) then ~$350 for spokes, lacing, etc.. Alternatively, have the OEM rim straightened then use a 140/90-15 tire to keep the overall diameter about the same. There is 6.5mm clearance between the tire and driveshaft housing now, with a 10mm wider tire that would leave 1.5mm. But I could possibly have the rim laced ~ 2-3mm offset towards the brake side? Gonna call Buchanan's back see what they think. I love this machine but I bought it for less than the cost of that 16" chrome rim.

 

Someone managed to pull it off on a Seca.

 

Doesn’t do it for me

 

Spoke wheels on bikes I have owned always have corrosion issues after awhile. Harder to clean and maintain.

 

Confirmed the rim can be offset enough for extra clearance to fit the 140/90-15 rear tire so that's the direction I'm going. Dude said it might require new spokes which I was already sort of planning on anyway. Gonna break it down to strip/polish the hub and rim. Rim is aluminum and in pretty decent shape - no significant dings or gouges and at least eyeball straight.

It takes me less than an hour to clean/polish the spokes on the Shadow and it's got more of them. Having a lift makes it so, so less tiresome.

 

I would not offset the rim/tire. The track (front to rear" should be +- 0.020" if you want to be fussy on specs.
Cheers, 50gary

 

The stock Maxim has less clearance on the driveshaft side.
Are you offsetting the 15" rim to clear the swing arm or offsetting to centre the tire on the bike?
If that is the case then I share @50gary point.

 

Right, offsetting to ensure there's enough clearance on the drive shaft side.

If the rear is offset .08" vs. +/-.020" how and how much would that affect the way the bike rides?

 

Doesn’t sound like enough to be noticed

 

Check it, early '80s XS650 Specials came with 130/90-16 rear tires mounted on a 16x2.5" 36 hole rim - which MikesXS has in stock for ~$90. They also had a closeout 19x2.15 front rim I snatched up. The front rim I have is dinged and the new one probably cost less than having the old rim properly straightened. Need to finish polishing the hubs and have the spacer shortened then it's off to Buchanan's for new spokes and assembly.

 

After some digging it appears Yamaha used the same style front hub on 1974-and-on TXs, XS650s and the earlier model XV535s (like the one I'm using). The 81-82 XS650 Heritage Special used a similar hub drilled for 64 spokes which looks totally bitchin' and I wish I had discovered sooner. It will prove extremely useful to justify buying another XJ.

 

The hubs cleaned up real nice, the rear is on its way to Buchanan's for spokes, etc.. Dude said about 1.5 week lead time before they can get to it so late March before it's back in hand.

Took the two front wheel spacers to a local machine shop to have the XJ spacer trimmed down to match the XV and they turned it around in ~4 hours for $20.

Mike's XS sells a polished stainless spoke kit they claim fits the front hub/rim and it do. I'm gonna say that pretty much confirms interchangeability between the XS650 and earlier model XV535 front hubs. Looks so much better than when it arrived but should look even better after I clean off the anti-seize that ended up thinly smeared over everything.

You might think finding a trustworthy shop to true up a wheel in one of America's 10 largest cities would be no worry, but think again. There's a very well regarded shop just up the street but he only works on Harleys. Finally found a European motorcycle shop not too far away also with a sterling reputation so I'mma drop it off next week. Lacing it myself with off the shelf spokes and using a local shop is gonna save at least $200 (primarily the shipping costs).

 

I could not be more pleased with how this little escapade turned out, I may die from priapism.



Before and after



Turns out the rear wheel is not an exact fit. Had to remove the final drive as expected but once everything was in place the rear wheel is offset about a half inch toward the right side.



It's clearly obvious even with a quick glance but I've put about a 100 miles on it since the swap and whatever effects it may have are small enough I can't feel anything. I reckon only time will tell but for now I'm just gonna enjoy it as is. So who knows, maybe a 140/90-15 or even 150/90-15 tire on the original rim might fit - I didn't want to spring for new tires just to test fit.

Total spend on the rear - $100 for the donor wheel, $90 for the new rim, $400 for polished stainless spokes + reangling the rim + lacing and truing and $100 for shipping to Buchanan's and back. Oh, and $20 for a shiny chrome brake backing plate I found on ebay.



Which turned out to be a negative cost because the brake shoes and springs were literally brand spanking new and saved ~$50 for a new set. Going to a 16" rim really opened up the profile of the wheel and the added spoke length looks a lot better than the stock VX700 piece.



The front wheel was plug-and-play. I ditched the oem brake rotor bolts and stays for some swanky chrome button head hex bolts and blue locktite. The brake rotor is perfectly aligned and front brake works exactly as it did before the swap.



Older model XS650s came with a snazzy looking chrome dust cover vs. the XV535s black plastic and I just couldn't resist this NOS piece I found on ebay.

Total spend on the front wheel - $100 for the donor wheel, $40 for bearing and seals, $15 for a new spacer and $20 to have it machined to size, $150 for a new rim and polished stainless spoke kit from Mike's XS, $60 to have the wheel trued, $50 (ooof!) for the dust cover. Oh, and another $60 for HD innertubes + $100 to have two tires swapped off the old mags onto the new wheels.

Fin

 

It looks great.