Spoke rear wheel

[marcmax]

Can anyone tell me what to look for in a spoked rear wheel that will fit an R65LS? I am not concerned about the front right now just something that will fit the rear and work with the drum brake. Will it involve changing the rear drive or just different brake shoes?

[nhmaf]

It *probably* won't require a different final drive, but it will require a different axle, tophat/spacer used, and different shoes (the LS wheel brake hub diameter is larger than the non-LS snowflake wheel, but at least the R65 and the other airheads used the same 18" rear wheel, for the most part, so I think that  if you found an 18" rear spoke wheel from a /7 or a laater /6 it can probably be fit with change to axle, spacer(s) to set the proper bearing preload and achieve the correct offset from the cardan drive side of the swingarm.  There may be other things I am forgetting here.

[Luca]

Max BMW shows the same part number for the final drive on the LS and the 78-85 R65.  

The shoe springs (and other stuff nhmaf mentioned) are different between the LS and the R65.  The LS shoes are taller from the pivot/cam to the friction material.

Interestingly, Max BMW also has this wheel listed for both the LS and standard as the same part number

 36 31 1 239 035       SPOKE WHEEL WITH DRUM BRAKE REAR - 2,15X18      13.45       1        $836.39

[bruce_launceston]

As nice as they look there would be a few downsides, slightly less efficient rear brake, narrower rim giving a different tyre profile and if you find a matching front spoked wheel it will more than likely be a 19" with a narrow hub meaning that you will have to find two 'standard' disc rotors to replace the LS shallow ones and respoke a 18" hoop to the spoked hub if you want to keep the LS steering geometry.

[tvrla]

Never the less, you can run a regular spoke wheel on the rear with just a brake shoe change. I haven't done the conversion so can't comment on the axle - check the parts fiche for compatibility.