17"G wheel on 1100GL

[1948man]

I have a 17" wheel from a G. I want to replace the 16" wheel on my GL. The G wheel is not as deep thru the hub as my GL. If the 17" wheel mates up with my final drive, the center of the hub will be offset 1/4" from where the center of the GL wheel is. In other words, the center of the G wheel will be 1/4" closer to the final drive. Is this a deal breaker? I realize I will have to deal with getting the disc to match with the calipers too but I wanted to see if I should even go further. Thanks Jim M

[TheCafeKid]

Its all to do with the rotors, and the spacers... Any of them can be made to work, you just need the right bits

[Nessism]

I have a 17" wheel from a G. I want to replace the 16" wheel on my GL. The G wheel is not as deep thru the hub as my GL. If the 17" wheel mates up with my final drive, the center of the hub will be offset 1/4" from where the center of the GL wheel is. In other words, the center of the G wheel will be 1/4" closer to the final drive. Is this a deal breaker? I realize I will have to deal with getting the disc to match with the calipers too but I wanted to see if I should even go further. Thanks Jim M

Seems strange that the wheel would have a different offset. What pattern 17 are you thinking about using? The early star pattern or the same style as your bike currently has?

[SqDancerLynn1]

Grandpa did it all the time on his old GK

[1948man]

Thanks for the replies. This is a wheel from a 1980 850GL. I guess the GL's went to 16" the next year. Maybe a 17" wheel from a later G would be a better match. I'm not much of a wrench but I can't really picture how to adapt this. It seems the wheel splines have to mate up with the final drive and there's no avenue for spacing. I may be missing something. I can see getting spacers on the opposite side of the wheel but it would still be offset. Is the wheel being 1/4" offset a definite "no-no." Is riding like that going to mess up my swing-arm or wear the tire weird? Jim m

[1948man]

17" 1980 GS850GL on the left.

[Nessism]

I wouldn't run a wheel that was offset from the centerline of the bike. Suzuki must have changed around the spacers and swingarm if the wheels have a different offset.

You might want to check the parts fishe and compare part numbers between the different parts so you can figure out what interchanges between years and models.

[TheCafeKid]

Guys. It's not rocket science. I did it both ways on my Gs. The 82 and on rim has a rotor that is more or less sort of a floating design. The hub is different. The offset is made up between the mushroom bearing spacer and caliper hanger and outboard of the caliper hanger. IIRC on THIS particular application you will need to either make the necessary spacers to match the 82 wheel or use a series of washers to make up the difference. I swapped to snowflake style wheels on my 82 1100G and my wheels went on an 80 850. Yes you need to change spacers but it is far less complicated than centering an off make wheel on a GS or even the 1150 wheel I screwed up on the first time around on my 1100e. Mount the wheel in the pumpkin. The swinger is the same. Make sure the caliper is centered over the rotor and get the slop out with spacers or washers.

[1948man]

Mount the wheel in the pumpkin. The swinger is the same. Make sure the caliper is centered over the rotor and get the slop out with spacers or washers.[/QUOTE]

That is the approach I was planning to take. I have some 1/4" washers to shim the rotor to the right place I think it will actually need to go about 5/16" so it will take several washers to get it over. I could then get the slop spaced out but all that would come on the side of the hub away from the pumpkin, right? Wouldn't this still leave the wheel 1/4" off center? Josh, do you feel your wheel was off-center and that worked? Sorry I am having so much trouble latching on to this. Am I right that there is no spacing to be done on the pumpkin side of the hub? Jim M

[TheCafeKid]

No brother my wheel was never off center. The constant here is the swingarm. Whether from your bike, or an earlier 850, aside from ratio in pumpkin they are the same. I wish I had taken some pics and all that when Steve and I did it the first time. It started as a necessity because I blew my hub spline right before a trip to WV with him and there was no way a replacement would arrive in time. So we scanned the rear off of his sons not running at the time 81 850. Like I said the biggest difference is simply the rotor and hub design. I'm trying to remember what all was necessary but it seems to me that we shimmed inboard of the caliper hanger AND outboard of it as well. You will obviously have to use the rotor that compliments the wheel as one will not work with the other. If you look you will see on te later model rim the rotors carrier is actually the hub itself whereas the older wheel the rotor webbing is attached to the rotor. I think because we used the older wheel on the newer bike we actually ended up using the older wheels spacers and still had to shim it out to take up the slop. The hub is only narrower on the one side, in simple terms. The pumpkin will still center the wheel in the swingarm. You just need to shim the slop out so you can pinch the swingarm down with the axle nut and not run out of thread and have the caliper centered on the rotor. Shimming inboard and outboard of the caliper will likely be necessary.

[TheCafeKid]

Just to be clear, youre not shimming the rotor out. Youre shimming the caliper hanger out to center over the rotor. You're looking at the hub on your stock wheel and forgetting that the older wheel has an entirely different rotor. The "beef" on the hub of your wheel is acting in place of the webbing on the rotor of the older wheel. The distance is very nearly the same. Dont look at all the trees in the forest there. Just to prove to you I did it, and know its easy peasy, here is a pic of my 82 1100G with an 80-81 850 wheel on it...



BTW, Make sure you USE that black hub spline in ANY wheel you use from now on... (the one in your "new" wheel) They are much harder and will last forever, while the one in your stock wheel.. Well, lets just say they dont like working for long. I went through TWO of them in less than 7500 miles. Then I installed an older harder black one, never had a problem again..

[1948man]

Thanks Josh. I'm heading out the door now and will digest this and look at the wheel when I get back in a couple of hours. I did replace the splines on the GL wheel. I had some brand new ones and coated them well with Honda Moly. The old ones weren't terrible but you could definitely see wear and the wheel only has 8000 miles if you can believe the previous owner.