A 16" wheel on the front too?

Douglas65 · New Member Joined: Aug 03, 2008 Posts: 5

Hi all, I just bought a 1980 xs650 Special with less than 600 miles on it and I am thinking about changing a few things...

ostly I am looking for ideas from those that are more into frame geometry and such. You see, I like big tires. Mine has the 16 inch on the back with the 19 inch on the front, and I got to thinking, "what would it take to mount another 16 incher on the front? And would I really want to do that? Most of all, would it be safe and rideable with such a big front tire on it??

I have seen some bobbers with huge front tires in front and it looked really cool to me, so I know it must work. I am getting another 16" rear wheel soon so that is no problem. Would a new tripple tree need to be machined to widen the forks, or could one be found "off the shelf"?

Any ideas?

Joseph · Full Member Joined: May 22, 2007 Posts: 767 Location: NY

whered you score such a low milage bike. My 80 had about 8500 I thought that was low. Got any pics does it look like it has only 600 mi?

Douglas65 · New Member Joined: Aug 03, 2008 Posts: 5

The camera has been down for a while now - if I could find the .15 cent part, the $300 camera would be working...

Bought the bike from a guy in NJ. He seems to be a collector of bikes. Buys them, tinkers with them, sells them, but mostly talks about them, or so it seems. Any way, nice guy. The bike cost me $1800.

It looks pretty clean over all. Course the aluminum is a bit aged from almost being 30 years old, but there is no rust, and there has been minimal messing about with all that I can see. The nubs on the center of the front tire can Just still be seen. I am always doubtful when I see anything advertised as "only xx,000 miles after all these years", but I believe it this time. Also, the title, I received was the original "title of origin" or what ever it is called straight from the dealership.

So back to the tire/wheel idea, good/bad/other?

xsleo · Posted: August 14, 2008, 2:06 am Post subject: Re: A 16" wheel on the front too?

i have been thinking along the same lines , in the catalogs they sell a kit for older harleys that use a 35 mm tube front fork, it is a wide glide kit , comes with all the parts to convert a narrow glide to a wide glide. that will allow a fat tire to be used. they cost alot more than i want to spend, also most of the parts work with a harley wheel, spacers , axle ect. if some one could build a set of trees and the spacers and longer axle, and use the 650 wheel and brakes, he cold probably sell a few. the stock 650 trees aren't wide enough to fit a wider tire. a 120 might fit if you ran without a fender.

Douglas65 · New Member Joined: Aug 03, 2008 Posts: 5

Hmmm, as I sort of expected. Probably a good thing I brought up the idea with my wife about a cnc mill last year. This way it won't be such a shock to her...

What Happened to 650rider.com?

Yamaha xs650