16" rim up front???

There's no 16" front ends that are spoked (apart from HD and some Jap cruisers). Your best option would be to use a 16" rear rim and lace it to a suitable front hub. You need a wide enough rim to suit the wide tyre.

The fat tyre on the skinny rim is probably the biggest safety / handling issue as the tyre can flex and roll around enough to potentially roll itself off the rim.

I can see people like to chim in and make assumptions without asking questions! The tires used on this project are Shinko 240 Classic MOTORCYCLE tires. They run on Harley 5"X16" dropped center rims laced with Buchana's stainless spokes to the stock hubs. Due to the parameters of the bike it is built as a cruiser not a canyon racer! We like the style of the '30's and '40's Harley's and Indians of the period so this is the more or less a tribute bike of that era. Has any one of you ridden one of these bikes! I'm asking the question. If you had how did it ride? There's not much lean angle so the tire do work very well considering the ground clearance limitation. Would I put these tires on my Aprilia Tuono? NO? Would I put these tires on a cruzer with limited ground clearance? Yes!

Onion Man is asking for advice if this can be done safely given some some parameters. I say yes and can be done in many ways. I put up pictures of one way. Is it the right way? For me yes! For him and others? Maybe not! But instead of asking question poeple make uninformed comments about braces, shinny tire marks....

Now I'm asking ANY of you who have posted> Have you YOU built anything like this? What have you used? Why? What where your parameters? What problems did you run into? How did you overcome them?

I have plenty of happy 1st Gen XV and XJ customers who've done my 16" rear-to-front conversion - cafe and bobbers. Can't recall any that have reported of handling/ride issues when properly installed.

Toughest part initially was getting the rotor adapter hub spacing spacing right for the caliper location. Every bike is a little different so the kit instructions detail how to dial it in by tweaking spacers and the axle.

Onion Man said:

@teazer I definitely understand why classic car or high walled trailer tires wouldn't handle well or corner well.. If you look at my original inspiration picture I am wondering about running rear avon safety milage mk2 am7 5.00-16 TT.. Although its vintage design its a motorcycle tire made from motorcycle tire compounds and designed for leaning into corners and if the overall rolling diameter doesn't change much then the geometry shouldn't Right?? My thoughts are compensating the smaller rim with a larger sidewall is this right??
heres a link to the tire i'm thinking of. Its a rear tire, does that make a difference?

http://www.avontyres.com/node/3314

i have also heard the suggestion of using a continental conti twin k112 because if the more modern design.. thoughts???
thanks for the info

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The logic is fine. Taller sidewalls will tend to increase rolling diameter and that's probably good for geometry but then again you have more of that sidewall to flex.

That tire needs a 3.00 to 3.5" wide rim which is pretty large for the front of an old bike and will tend to make steering heavier than stock. It's a rear tire and while it is manufactured by AVON, whose products we race on, they recommend using a matching narrower Speedmaster11 front tire.

It's quoted as 669mm diameter which is 2mm larger than a 100/90-19 Roadrider AM26. Of those two, I'd take the Roadrider for riding, but that may just be me.

What is the stock size wheel on that bike? You can look it up in different tire manufacturers' sites and see what they say about diameter to compare sizes.

I have personal experience with Contis but they seem to have a great reputation on long distance bikes.

Redline said:

The tires used on this project are Shinko 240 Classic MOTORCYCLE tires. .............

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and the point is what exactly? Shinko make a range of tires because they see a market for them. They work on the basis that they are not intrinsically dangerous and its up to the builder and rider to understand the implications of modifying a motorcycle to use them.

Most newbies that come here do not have the experience or background to make that determination or judgement call, hence the outcry by some posters when they see what are frequently called "clown shoes".

[qote]
Now I'm asking ANY of you who have posted> Have you YOU built anything like this? What have you used? Why? What where your parameters? What problems did you run into? How did you overcome them?
[/quote]

Most of the guys here are into Cafe racers where the design intent is to make something lighter and better handling than stock. The sort of tire under discussion has no place in that area. People who fit that style of tire on the front end of a bike typically think that it's OK to fit them. Unfortunately neither adds much to the discussion, but neither does it confirm it as a good idea - you follow my line of logic.

teazer said:

and the point is what exactly? Shinko make a range of tires because they see a market for them. They work on the basis that they are not intrinsically dangerous and its up to the builder and rider to understand the implications of modifying a motorcycle to use them.

Most newbies that come here do not have the experience or background to make that determination or judgement call, hence the outcry by some posters when they see what are frequently called "clown shoes".

[qote]
Now I'm asking ANY of you who have posted> Have you YOU built anything like this? What have you used? Why? What where your parameters? What problems did you run into? How did you overcome them?


Most of the guys here are into Cafe racers where the design intent is to make something lighter and better handling than stock. The sort of tire under discussion has no place in that area. People who fit that style of tire on the front end of a bike typically think that it's OK to fit them. Unfortunately neither adds much to the discussion, but neither does it confirm it as a good idea - you follow my line of logic.

Click to expand...

You're right that most guys on this site are into Cafes but Onion Man is looking to BUILD a " 1984 GR650 brat/cafe/bobber" that might use 16" tires. Why does it not make it relevent? It's under the Wheels and Tire section not the Cafe Racer section! Again why does it not make it relevent?

Dude it's all about 16" tires! Read the title of the post!

My point about the tire is that it may look like a "stupid antique car tire" but it's not it's a MOTORCYCLE TIRE and I think, in my opinion, that when someone asks about 16" tires that does make it relevent!

Your one of the few people who have posted something positive and relevent talking about tire sizes and rim size BUT "clown shoes" are the center of the disscussion don't you think???

I've ridden plenty of bikes with 16" front wheels, some were OK, some were good, some were downright dangerous.
AVON SM is a good tyre, but, I have follower people where there is only 1/4" of tyre in contact with the road when cornering and you can see daylight under the main part of tread (you can also see this on a lot of Gold Wings when car tyres are fitted, plenty of vide's on You tube if you want to check)
I really don't like the extra square edges on the Firestone's
There isn't anything intrinsically wrong with a 16" front wheel, but, the handling is affected.
Sounds like OP has all the equipment needed to build just about anything, usually the hard part is finding rim wide enough.
The 'reversed' CB350 just doesn't look right, front tyre is too big no matter which way you look at it (don't know why it was posted backwards?)
With a GR, 41mm Katana forks would probably fit and easier to find than 1980's GSX750E/ES 37mm forks
BTW, I haven't done any work on my XS for a long time but the plan is to fit 16" rims and spokes, original cast wheels are there so I can roll it around (pics in sig)