Alternative front wheel

[pago cruiser]

With the irritating thought of replacing my front tire after a bit more than 4000 miles, was thinking today when taking a rest from radiator work in the 95F temps... 

I have this 2003 GL1800 project that I am making into a Magnum Valk - stuffing the engine and drive into a 2000 Legacy Valk frame.   While that's a story for another time, and that project has been taking a rest while I get the 2014 finished... I have a lot of GL1800/Legacy Valk parts laying around...   

First, I checked axles:2014 on the top, Legacy Valk on the bottom.


While Cheap Cycle Parts shows the axles as a different part number, in reality they are functionally identical.  As the Legacy Valk axle is inserted into the USD forks, the "big end" is about 0.25" longer - other than that, same length and diameter for the bearing surfaces - the parallax in the pic is a bit deceiving.

Then I checked brake disk diameters.  The 2014 Valk rotors are 310mm, while the GL1800 (and the Legacy Valk) are both 296mm.  A 14mm difference, call it 1/2". Pulled the rotors off my spare Valk front wheel, then pulled my GL1800 wheel, and started bolting things up...had to add a 1/2" spacer, but it bolts up ok. 

The best news is that a 2014 Valk 130/60-19 tire had a diameter of 25.1", which is identical to the GL1800 130/70-18 tire. And if some one want to do something really different... Metzler makes a 140/70-18 front tire that would fit the GL1800 rim... this would add about 0.6" to the diameter, and about 0.5" in width.



Even better, is that the GL1800 guys get about 10k on the fronts.  Beats our 4000 miles all to hell... 

Did some checking this evening, and found Honda rotors from the CBR 600-1000 are a match to the 2014 Valk 310 mm.  Note - be carefull if you do this, some years are different... Would need to make an adapter spacer, but that's easy peasy stuff.

Not sure I'm going this direction yet... but once you find a GL1800 front wheel, the swap could be done for about the price of a new 4000 mile stock tire...  

Now I have to find Bills old thread on the differences between the 2014 Valk and the GL1800 rear wheel... If a modification there is doable, it means a lot of readily available wheels from GL1800s would fit the 2014 Valk.

Sometimes I think I really need to stay focused...

 

[PAVALKER]

see the avon tire thread below.  better option and you can focus on fairing proj.

[Bill Havins]

Mitch,

Here is that thread: http://www.valkyrieforum.com/bbs/index.php/topic,96291.msg955977.html#msg955977

The spokes on our rear wheels have quite an offset built into them; I have not looked to see if there is any offset in the standard Goldwing mag spokes.  I wonder if this offset of our spokes allows the rear center hub to be made thinner - I just don't know for sure (i.e., "micrometer sure").  It may be that, with a longer set of lug bolts the standard Goldwing wheel would bolt right up.

EDIT:  The final gear set, and the rear wheel mounting studs are the same on the 2014 Valkyrie and Goldwing.  They are even the same part numbers.

Soon after I got my Valkyrie I began to consider what it might look like with a set of wire wheels.  I began to search the internet but gave searching up pretty quickly when I realized specialty shops didn't include measurement data on their websites.

Good luck!

Bill

[pago cruiser]

PAVALKER - Good idea... but inquiring minds want to know if it will work... primarily mine 

Bill - Thanks for the thread link. I'm still gonna check the rear wheel, but the Body guy has the Valk all week, and then I've only got a couple weekends b4 our spring ride with some guys at work.   

I did some googling, and both th GL1800 and the 2014+ Valks both have rear wheels that are 5" wide. So I would think that the offsets would be similar?  That said, the Valk rear tire is a 180-55 R17 while the GL1800 stock size is 180-60 R16.  Width is identical, so it would seem reasonable for the offsets to be identical, or at least really really close.  Not that it matters, but diameters vary slightly, with the Valk at 24.8" and the gL1800 at 24.5".

[Bill Havins]

I would really, really like a set of wire wheels!  But alas, our two-up touring is essentially over.  One of us has brittle bones (as it turns out) so even a stumble in the yard could have consequences.  If I keep the Valkyrie it's just for solo rides, or for "tinkering."  cursed waste of a road machine.

But I still think a set of wire wheels (the way mine is configured) would be a really neat touch.

And tire choices might increase dramatically!

[ledany]

Bill, I guess it would be much more simple to have your wheels chromed rather than wired. Or you could think of something like the HD Fat Bob wheels.

[pago cruiser]

Bill - I think the wires are doable.  The front is just finding the correct hardware, maybe machining a few rotor adapters, and presto:



These guys did it with an 80 spoke design though - looks...odd.   ???

I've done this on a Suzy VX800 as wells as a Yammi XS650, with a standard 40 spoke design (using a GL1000 front hub) and 18" x 3.5" front rims. Buchanan's in LA can adapt almost any hub to any rim.

The Valk rear would be tougher.  I do remember reading where a guy made wire spoke adapter plates for his Comstar (think GL1100) wheels.  Here: that did not take long:
http://motosynthesis.blogspot.com/p/products.html

That might be the hard way though; I'd bet it would be way easier to adapt a rear from another single sided swingarm - something like a BMW GS1200:



A little pricey - pushing $1000 on ebay. You do know what BMW stands for?  Bring. More. Wallet.

And would probably need a custom spacer/adapter, but I think it would work.  HP/torque is similar -the Valk will stress it more directly (I think), but the GS offroad work is hard on equipmeent as well.  And if you select the right model, the wires are still tubeless - I always thought that was an elegant design.

Going the BMW tubeless wires though, you would be pretty much stuck with BMW tubeless rim sizes. 

[Jess from VA]

I hate wire wheels.  To each his own.

Each needs tightened (or checked for tight) from time to time.  You take the little wrench and tap each spoke.  Ting, ting, ting, thunck (tighten that one).  Then the cleaning.  And up until recently (with sealed spokes), they all needed tubes, which go flat in one second.  No thanks.

[RDKLL]

I would love to have spokes on both the bobber and the KTM...

[Robert]

I love the wheels that are on the bike now, they look good and are easy to care for and if scratched all you have to do is powder coat them again. Wire wheels look even better but the maintenance and flex is not what I would want, I do to many miles through to many conditions to want that kind of maintenance.

If I was going to change the front wheel to something different to go with the wing tire size it would have to be similar to what we have now but a custom wheel. It could be made to spec and would already be set up to use the OEM brakes, by just bolting them on.

[Bill Havins]

Mitch,

The rider who adapted the Comstar wheels did a nice job of that - thanks for the link.

My '98 Moto Guzzi had tubeless alloy wire wheels.  Never had a bit of trouble with them.  Yes, they were a pain to clean, but I just dealt with it.

It's nice to have options.

Bill