Shafty rear wheels.

[Hacked850]

Did Suzuki make a 15" rear shaft drive wheel??.If so would it fit my 82 850??.

[Hacked850]

If they make a 15 than I can run a car tire ( sidecar rig ) ..

[Steve]

Sorry, but the GS shafties all have 17" or 16" wheels.

I don't know about the newer Boulevard series bikes, though, they might have a 15" wheel.

One thing to be careful of, though, is to make sure you get a wheel that is wide enough to properly support the car tire.
You will also have a hard time finding a car tire narrow enough to not hit the swingarm. Something like an old VW Beetle tire might work.

.

[Hacked850]

I found a 165/16 that says the tread width is 4".
What GS had the 16" wheel??.

[49er]

I found a 165/16 that says the tread width is 4".
What GS had the 16" wheel??.

'83 GS1100GKD had a 16" NT2.75 wheel.

[Steve]

I found a 165/16 that says the tread width is 4".
What GS had the 16" wheel??.

The 1100GK and all of the "L" shafties, except the '80 850GL.

The tread width is only 4", but the section width is still 165mm on that tire. Most of us are finding that there is not much more room for anything bigger than the 130 that we have in there now. If you happen to find a relatively "narrow" version of a 140, it might fit, but I really doubt that a 165 will fit.

.

[john82q]

I run a 15 inch 145/80 car tire on my GS1100 rig.

I fitted a 15 inch car rim by modifying a old wheel by cutting the spokes and welding them to a machined ring. the rim bolts to this ring.

Actually in america were you dont have pesky ADR rules to work around you can fit a very common 175/65 tire on a 5 inch rim, but you have to run it off centre. (im not allowed that)

Car tyre lowers the gearing some, this is a good thing to compensate for the extra wieght and drag. altough 15% was a little much, 9% is good.

I fitted longer shocks to compensate for the lost height, as I have to be a minimun of 100mm off the deck. (ADR again)

My original bike wheel was 130/90r17 with diameter of 665.8mm

you might find this info usefull;
Tire, Rim Width, Diam, Height change, Gearing Difference
145/65R15, 4 - 5, 569mm, -96mm, 15%
165/65R15, 4.5 - 6, 595mm, -70mm, 11%
175/65R15, 5 - 6.5, 609mm, -56mm, 9%

145/80R15, 4, 615mm, -50mm, 8%
*max rim width for GS is 5 inch



Rim mod detail


Caliper is a squeeze but fits, in practicality its now easier to unbolt disk when removing wheel.




This is 175/65 tire just rubs swing arm, it would be easy to offset by 10mm by bolting rim offcentre that much. I use 145/80 Nanking as had to keep tire on centreline of bike...

I bent the brake torque rod into a slight S to give more tire clearance.




And a mud flap...

[hjfisk]

I believe you will find that the Intruder has a 15" wheel but you would have to figure out your wheel spacers and convert to a drum brake.

[Grimly]

Been digging around in preparation to dark-siding...
The tempting candidate 15" rear wheels were on the GV series - especially the Cavalcade 1400, but what brought that lead to a halt was the sheer lack of Cav rear wheels on this side of the pond and the insane shipping costs from the US killed it stone dead. The wheel is often cheap enough. From what I can see, the drive splines have the right number of teeth and look to be the same size, but that's not certain. Cross-referencing drive plates on Partzilla was inconclusive. The rim is actually a J-series MT 3.5", so should be ok for the limited space in the GS850/1000G swingarm, I would think. Even so, the max width tyre I would fit to one of these would be the 135 mentioned below.
This is an avenue somebody else can wander up, as I've now gone differently and used what's available locally.

I've known for a while that modern rot-boxes use skinny space-saver rims on their spare wheels, and taking a stroll down to my local car dismantler today, saw me ride back with a narrow section spare wheel from a Fiesta (with a 125 R 15 tyre on it *) and a Ford rear hub complete with bearings, drum, etc. The wheel+tyre was €10 the hub was €20.
I'll gut the hub and install the relevant ball bearing races to fit hub/axle, make spacers and affix drive spline plate to the drum, using the drum as a repository for the cush rubbers (will investigate making own polyurethane bushes, using drum as receptacle). Wheel will bolt to the hub, and disc will bolt to the wheel. Removal and fitting will be pretty much as normal (ie, as one unit), once it's all sorted out, so no dramas or fiddling around with odd-sized bits and pieces for the routine tyre changes in the future.

* Note: this space-saver emergency-use-only tyre will only be used for setting up and will not be used for actual road mileage, so don't go wagging any fingers at me. It will be replaced with a Nankang 135R15 for normal use.

[Grimly]

An update to my post above...
I found a seller on ebay US that wasn't charging an arm and leg for shipping (one and only, by the look of it) so bought the GV1400 wheel and axle today. Still need to find a disc for it, as the only disc available was from an insane seller who wanted $175 shipping - honestly, do some of these sellers never wonder what is being charged on their listings? It's not like the usual case of simply padding the shipping to make extra money - apart from ebay being wise to that and not liking it - his domestic US shipping, while not the cheapest, wasn't too bad.
Anyway, it seems as though the GV1400 used an odd disc that is shared with no other model, so they're in short supply. However, it looks intriguingly close in design to the GS1100GL rear disc of 82 - 84, so I'll have to wait and see how feasible a swap or mod is, once the wheel is in my hands.
Then there's the possibility of adapting or simply making a rotor from scratch.

Also ordered a pair of Nankang CX668 135R15 - two of them for the free shipping and one can go on the Yamaha. If the GV1400 wheel can be successfully fitted to the GS850, the Yam XS will get its turn to wear a darkside tyre, too. It might be marginally easier to fit to the chain drive bike.