CAN I GET SPOKED RIMS FOR MY 81 XJ550?

DOES ANYONE KNOW IF I CAN GET SPOKED RIMS FOR MY 81 XJ550? I HAVE A 74 KZ400 PARTS BIKE BUT I DONT THINK I CAN USE THE RIMS OF THAT BIKE WITHOUT A LOT OF SHOP MADE MACHINED PARTS TO LINE UP THE BRAKES TO THE TO THE FORKS? ARE THERE AFTERMARKET RIMS AVAILABLE OR MAYBE A DIFFERENT YAMAHA MODEL OR YEAR THAT OFFERED SPOKED RIMS?

 

yeah, im curious too

 

Yeah, me too. Yamaha was always a "parts room engineering" company, especially back in the mid '70s -late '80s. The PROBLEM is, while many parts and even PART NUMBERS carry through (look up the clutch basket for your 550 and see how many years/bikes used it...) a lot do not. Worse yet, a lot of things that APPEAR to be virtually the same are not. I really would like to do one of my Seca 550s with black powder-coated rims laced with black spokes, but I haven't figured out which brake/hub assemblies are the same. There's gotta be, probably from the XS line. The XS 400s and 650s had wire spoked wheels during the same era our bikes came with cast wheels. I was also gonna look at the XT/TT500 rear brake... I have the "luxury" of a friendly MC salvage yard about 8 miles away, I'm gonna go over there with a set of dial calipers one day and figure this out. I'll bet anything there's a 650 or 750 (or even 400) front hub that's the same and provides the same offset for the rotor. I WILL eventually figure this out...and let everyone know.

 

I have thought about spoked wheels myself. But with no parts yard around. I gave up for now. You could also take a look at the Virago`s some of them look the same.

 

I'd look at using wheels from an early TX/XS650 or air cooled RD250/350, good thing with the front wheels is the late model 300mm floating discs bolt straight on

 

I know it HAS to be possible, just not obvious. This one is a "long term" project for me, once I get the bike all the way up and running. Like I said, I WILL EVENTUALLY figure this out. All that's REALLY needed are the correct hubs, rims are generic and you can lace up about anything. COST becomes a factor at some point. I'd rather do it with existing stuff if possible. I'm going to bookmark THIS THREAD and use it as base camp for this project. Any progress will be posted here, anyone else with progress on this idea can post here too. In the famous last words of...well, somebody..."hold my beer, we can do this!"

 

I think the important thing to remember is that it was his LAST words!

Fitz, where exactly is the salvage yard of which you speak?

 

There's "Slicks' Salvage" located at 519 N. Mason Street Mason, MI 48854. (517)-676-0583. They "specialize" in motorcycles, ATVs, and PWC's. I do know they have two XJ750s there, one nearly complete and one good for parts.

 

http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic ... spoke.html

A link to possible shaft drive spokes ^ ^

There was a guy from Italy who had spokes from a Virago on a cafe' customized Seca with a hidden battery, Here it is !

http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic ... irago.html

They made a chain drive Virago. 550 ?

 

It's EMC in Yale (Eastern Michigan Cycle, hence the initials) and the owner is pretty casual, just don't trust him with your grandma, if you get my drift... But he's easy to deal with and you can poke about to your heart's content... has a lot of OLDER stuff, TX750's, XS's etc. I figured it would be a starting point.

 

The TX/XS would be my starting point as well, as a crossover example the rear wheel from a air cooled RD350 goes straight into a RD350LC only difference is the axle diameter all the spacers are ok and the wheel lines up so it wouldn't suprise me if the XS/TX stuff fits

If you asked this question in a few months I'd be able to give you an answer as I am doing the same conversion

 

I once had an 82 XS650 that had maxim wheels on it. I am not entirely sure what all was involved in the swap as it had been done by a previous owner, but there were no custom parts. I am willing to bet that 82 XS650 special II spokes will bolt right on with no mods. Chances are that you will have to use the xs brake setup as when I put new shoes on my xs650 I had to purchase xj550 maxim shoes.

 

This just got posted by a fellow member in a different thread. http://york.craigslist.org/mcy/922061890.html I believe this might just be our answer, at least for the 550s. I'm going to begin a parts fiche comparison of things like spacers, axles, etc., and see what crosses. 1981 was an XJ550 year too...

 

the forks of an older rd350-400 will slide right into your front end if it's a 550

rd's are 35mm fork tubes just like the 550 seca

this won't work with a 650 since they're 36mm fork tubes

 

I'm going to the bike wrecker this weekend, with my frame and swingarm and try a bunch of combos. I'll post the results.

 

mrkil,
Duct tape 'll make 'em fit!

 

I was hoping to KEEP the 550's front forks and find a compatible wheel to bolt up, since I'm going to be using an aftermarket rotor anyway. I would be concerned that beyond the obvious difference in weight and therefore springs that the RD fork's damping might be valved differently as well. The rear on the bike in the photos looks nearly identical in the area of the axle. I wanted to try to do this by just swapping the right wheels if possible.

 

I found an 18" early XS650 wheel and it appears to be an easy fit. I'll take pix of installing it next month. There wasn't many good spoke wheels left at the shop. I might lengthen the swingarm 2-3 inches to make the bike longer and lower.

 

any news on the xs rear wheel fitment?

 

BigFitz wrote:

It's EMC in Yale (Eastern Michigan Cycle, hence the initials) and the owner is pretty casual, just don't trust him with your grandma, if you get my drift... But he's easy to deal with and you can poke about to your heart's content... has a lot of OLDER stuff, TX750's, XS's etc. I figured it would be a starting point.

I wish I knew of a large and friendly mc salvage yard here in the Portland OR area, I would go out on a sunny afternoon, have a soda, sit on a nice comfortable lawn chair and just enjoy the view! I LOVE salvage yards of all kind!

BTW At least Grandpas safe with the dude! Ouch!