1977 GS550 Suzuki Spoked Rim Conversion to "Mags" - who has done it?

pacomotorstuff

Coast to Coast
Hi All,
Have been tinkering with my '77 GS550 again and one of the upgrades I'm pondering is to go to a mag-type wheel set.
Have done a bunch of other mods to the bike and thought wider / more modern rims would be neat - I love the look of the old '70's superbikes with Dymags, but those are completely out of my price break LOL.
I'm using the stock front forks, rebuilt and with a Micron fork brace, dual discs as I got the correct fork lower with lugs so I can do it, may put on the alloy GS1100 swingarm I have in the store room if I get the time and motivation.
Not interested in doing any fork conversions - trying to keep the classic '70's look
Don't have strong feelings regarding rim size, widths, etc, just wondering what the other folks have done, how hard it was, etc,etc, etc.
Thanks,
Pat
 
Bookmarked, just because I've never heard of anyone going in this direction, always cast (or Comstar) to spoke.
 
Ya,
I've already laced up a WM3X18 front and a 2.50X17 rear (stock was WM2X19, 3.25 front tire and WM2X18 3.75 back tire), even shod them with some decent rubber, but as I say, trying to get that '70's Superbike look - something like the Pops Yoshimura GS750.
The potential downside is, most if not all "mags" of the era are pretty heavy, so might be a step backwards, performance-wise.
If nothing reasonable shows up, I'll just stick with what I've got.
Pat
 
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That's a Dunstall GT750 wearing a set of GS wheels. Dunstall fitted Kimtabs to his show bike/Catalog model but they are not so readily available either. GS wheels are really cheap on that auction site that we all love to hate.

I built a GT750 with what I think were later model GS550 wheels with rear drum brake that looked good. There's not as much difference in weight as you might imagine. Not like RD400 wheels. And the later designs are tubeless - not early mags though.

You could also upgrade to a set of GS1100 37mm fork legs or 38mm Katana legs after boring the triple clamps. GS1100 fork legs are really heavy though. GSX600 are marginally lighter than old GT/GS forks and would work with cast wheels and modern brake calipers. Check out some FZR400 forks and wheels 17 front and 18 rear. Closer to the classic Dymag 3 spoke look but right way up forks.

GS steel disks are lighter than GT750 disks but still really heavy. I fitted CBR600F3/4 (don't recall which) disks on mine and saved a huge amount of weight. They had the same PCD but needed a thin spacer. http://pinkpossum.com/GT750/phattrakka2/p5brakes.htm

So many options, so little time.
 
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