16 inch wheels on a cb450

OneArmWillie

OneArmWillie

Active Member
I have the ability to get some 80 spoke wheels for this cb450 build cheap. Whats your opinion? I have not been able to find anything on this in photos to see the look. Whats your opinion positives and negatives...
 
I feel bad for the poor bastard that has to lace / true them........

Like the good doctor said - not a cafe kind of wheel. They would add a lot of unnecessary weight to the rotational mass, but would make them fairly rigid. Wouldn't the nipples be extremely close together on the rim?
 
I've seen something similar on freestyle bikes and thought it looked cool. Though not really part of the cafe ethos of lightweight as already mentioned.
 
I can get my hands on some 40 spoke 16s as well. But I am more concerned with the size rather than the laces. I have looked for cafes with both 16s front and rear but cant find anything.
 
Okay I'll turn the tables. Why would you want 16" wheels front and rear on a cafe? Nowhere in the history of cafe racers has someone thought it was a good idea, functionally or aesthetically, to use 16s. I can understand how people may want 17s for access to modern high performance tires but not 16s.
 
And what exactly did Drivel have to say about it?

The problem with a pm is that it's private. If in a year from now, somebody would like to do the same thing and they search for it. What comes up? Nada.

Let me guess: a 16" tire of the same diameter as the stock wheel won't fit between the forks?
 
sidenote... look at that post count! MAKE A WISH!

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« Sent to: OneArmWillie on: Today at 00:15:57 »

It will look good parked and just be unstable over 45mph.At 90mph it would probably throw you off and kill you.It is basically a dumb engineering idea that looks good in pictures.The"cafe" bikes don't have the rake to keep them pointed straight like choppers.A CB450 with 16's will have very little steering rake.You won't be able to fit fat 16's between the fork and the by the chain.Fat 16's and clipons?:like dumb suicide fella.
 
The one thing that professor Drivel forgot to mention is that the rake wouldn't change that much. If you take the overall diameter of a 3.00-19" tire, it ends up being 25". Then look at say........I dunno.......a 120/90-16 tire (just guessing on what's available for front 16" tires) and the overall diameter is about 24.5". And since there is only a half inch difference, that means the ride height is about 1/4" lower with a 16" tire.

People have swapped out the stock 18" rear wheel for a 16" wheel for a long time - so it fits the chain just fine. He is correct about it not fitting between the forks though! I'm guessing he left out the part about Suzuki putting 16" wheels up front on their early sport bikes to quicken up the steering? Thought so...........

See Drivel? You're still wrong even though it's just privately! Jagoff..........
 
Is this to settle some childish squabbling? A superiority complex between people trying to measure dicks?

If its a bad idea, its a bad idea. Why do we need all this belittling fluff.

I thought this was a community used to uplift each other and spur on one another to create incredible bikes and rejoice in each others accomplishments. Yet I have been belittled twice in a 2 page thread asking for advice and this guy calling someone Drivel and trying to use something that someone was doing to help another member and goaded me into contributing to this. Shame on you. But thanks for the insight.
 
Actually, I know that there is a lot of poor information handed out by him. That's why he sends pm's instead of posting publicly - one person is less likely to call BS.

What info did he give that was truly useful? They don't fit between the forks. The rest was all rubbish.

My apologies for trying to be helpful - won't happen again.........
 
Big Rich... Its really the pompous way you went about it.

I appreciate the help anyway I can get it.

I understand the rake and trail of manipulating wheel sizes and I am sure there is some validity to the control of front end as well as instability at higher speeds.

Thanks for the help but the negative discourse should be checked at the door we are all here for the same purpose: building rad bikes.
 
I forget you're still new-ish here. If you were to go thru all my previous posts, you would notice I'm "generally" a pompous ass to a very select few. I think of the 10,000+ members here, I've had a problem with maybe 5. And it just so happens, there is only one left..........I would say go ahead and dig thru some of his posts to see why, but a lot of his have been deleted (by himself I can only assume).

Moral of the story: a 16" front wheel isn't the best option even when it is possible. And don't accept candy from strangers in the dark corners of the internet...........
 
Getting this back on track, yes you can do it. A quick google search resulted in some 3.5-16 s that would probably fit. What you have to think about is will they fit with what you are trying to build.

Personally I think 16s on a 450 will look bad. I don't know enough to comment on how they will handle. I think the 18s look small. My 19 is good or even a 21 would look good.

Also how will you mount them? You can't lace them to the stock hubs. What about brakes? You will have added costs involved in making those work.

80classic.jpg
 
They were laying around. This old guy had some and said for 140 I could take the pair. I may just get some hubs and lace some up myself
 
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