LS Wheels On An '81 R65

[Bob_Roller]

Got one wear bar showing on the rear tire of my '81 R65 .

The front is about a 'half life' tire .

My '84 LS, has new tires on it, kinda got ahead of myself on that bike, should have held off on tires until I figured out what I wanted to do with it .

So, my question is, anybody know of any possible issues with putting  the LS wheel/tire assembly on a standard R65 ?

I know I have to swap out the rear brake shoes with the LS, due to a larger drum diameter on the LS .

Any issues with the front ?

I have to swap the rotors from the '81 R65 over to the LS wheel .

I can't remember if there is a difference in depth on the rotors between the LS and standard 'snowflake' wheels .

The '84 LS, is minus the entire front brake system .

[Ed Miller]

Might be easier to swap the tires.

[Bob_Roller]

Or, if I wasn't so cheap, I'd just purchase another rear tire !!!!

 

[Bob_Roller]

Measured the rotor depth on the rotors and they won't swap over, the snowflake wheels are narrower at the hub, the rotors are deeper than the LS rotors .

[tvrla]

The LS wheels will fit right on and the brakes will work with the shallow discs. The rest of the front end is the same for all R65s, so just set it up as you would an LS - LS wheel, shallow discs.

The nice thing about the LS wheels is they're wider. They're also fairly light - lighter than the snowflakes I'm pretty sure.

[Bob_Roller]

They are lighter that's for sure .

Not quite sure what I'll do now, but I need to do something soon, our summer 'rainy' season is about here, I don't feel good about riding in rain with a wore out rear tire .

I'm leaning towards putting the LS rear wheel/tire on for the interim .

[Ed Miller]

Not quite sure what I'll do now, but I need to do something soon, our summer 'rainy' season is about here, I don't feel good about riding in rain with a wore out rear tire .

Oh come on, it will make it feel like the bike has horse power!  

[Bob_Roller]

You should be on roads, that haven't been wet for going on 7 months now, any amount of rain, turns the road surface into something between soapy suds and an oil slick .

You need all the tire groove you can get, to help you out .

I just checked the tire pressures on the '81 R65, when I got home from work today, the rear had 22 psi, last week, it was 36 psi .

Got the bike on the center stand and sprayed window cleaner on the tire, no leaks, removed the valve cap sprayed some window cleaner on the valve stem, the valve core was leaking, it was about 1/4 turn loose !!!!!

I've taken the hint, I'm going out to swap the wheels with the LS right now .

[Bob_Roller]

Got done doing the rear wheel swap between my '81 R65 and '84 LS .

Here's a few tidbits of info, I've never heard before .

The rear brake return springs are different between the bikes with the snowflake wheels, and the LS type wheels .

You can't make the standard R65 springs work on LS brake shoes, they are about .25 inches longer on the LS .

Also, the rear axle from a bike with snowflake wheels, won't work on an LS rear wheel .

Did I mention, that it was 108 F. in the garage for the 3 hours I spent learning this !!!!!

[bruce_launceston]

If you want to swap the front wheel I think you will have to ensure that the top hat spacers that are only fitted behind one LS brake caliper are fitted in the same spot on the standard model.
And you will of course need the second brake hose and larger bore master cylinder off the LS as well.

[Bob_Roller]

My '81 already has the dual front disc, I was delusional, thinking I could just swap the parts over from one bike to the other .

I may swap the front wheel out, once it gets cooler outside, like in November .

[nhmaf]

You would also need to swap the rear brake shoes across, as the LS rear wheel brake hub is larger in diameter and needs brakes shoes that are a bit larger than the stocker snowflakes - otherwise you may find that you really have no rear brakes.

Plus, you have the front wheel spaver/rotor carrier depth issue to work out.

The LS front wheels are almost exactly 1 pound lighter than the snowflake front, and the rear wheel is more like 1.5 pounds lighter.

[Bob_Roller]

I got the brake shoes installed yesterday, after fighting it for about 2 hours, then I had the brilliant idea to look for the brake return springs that I removed from the '84 LS, solved the problem .

You pretty much can't make the deep rotors from the snowflake wheels, work on an LS wheel .

You would have to shim, or adjust the calipers, not worth the time and effort in my case .

I'll just live with a mismatched set of wheels, unless, I want to have Speigler Performance perform their semi floating modification to my set of worn out/cracked LS rotors .

At around $480, plus shipping, I think I'll stay with the status quo for the moment, unless I score big on the lottery !!!!!!!

But honestly, I like the LS wheel look, over the snowflake wheels on the '81 R65 .