spoke vs mag

[5twins]

The mags on an XS500 I recently acquired for parts seem to have come from the factory with a natural finish. I think after bead blasting the textured areas and polishing the outer edges, they will look sharp .....

The rear is interesting. It's an 18" disc, something the 650 never came with. I may look into adapting it .......

 

[fredintoon]

] - - - The rear is interesting. It's an 18" disc, something the 650 never came with. I may look into adapting it .......

Hi 5T,
if they could compromise their need for the wire wheel's aesthetic in favor of being able to run tubeless tires an 18" disk rear mag would be a great thing for someone's café racer build.
Riding with wire wheels looks cool.
Repairing a flat by the side of the road in the rain, not so much.
You say "adapting"; what needs to be done to install an XS500 rear wheel into an XS650?
And does that XS500 rear have the all important "Suitable for tubeless" legend stamped into it?

 

[5twins]

I don't think it's tubeless rated, it's from a '77. The axle is only 17mm so either the bearings need to be changed or a 17mm axle adapted to a 650 swingarm. Or maybe the whole package, XS500 swingarm and wheel, could be swapped in. I'm still investigating the options. This has been done in the past, I found a small mention in an old thread (but not nearly as much info as I'd hoped for). At least they found an easy sprocket solution.

http://www.xs650.com/forum/showthread.php?t=30089

 

[53xs650]

I am putting a xs500 rear mag on my xs650, I have two wheels and they are painted just like the stock xs650 wheels? I found You also need to move sprocket out by about 3/8'' to line up, that was the hard part. 20mm axle was no problem with a bearing change. The xs650 rear disc was the same as the xs500.

 

[5twins]

What did you do for a spacer in the hub between the new bearings? That needed a bigger I.D. to fit a 20mm axle too, right?

 

[53xs650]

I used the two inner spacers from the 16'' mag wheel, I turned down the tube spacer.

 

[roadstar06]

ok, i have questions (newb) i have a nos 16" rear mag rim ,I ordered bearings for 20mm axle. I need to find spacers (inner-outter)? I cant find any info on the mag rim every page is spoke rim, ??? where do i look? and or what exactly do i need?

 

[jetmechmarty]

ok, i have questions (newb) i have a nos 16" rear mag rim ,I ordered bearings for 20mm axle. I need to find spacers (inner-outter)? I cant find any info on the mag rim every page is spoke rim, ??? where do i look? and or what exactly do i need?

Are you switching from spokes to mags? Both XS650 wheels? If so, the spacers are all the same.

BTW, I have a Heritage Special with 64/48 spoke chrome wheels. They got out of true and rusted on the inside, so many of the nipples are stuck. I'll deal with them later. I switched to mags off an '81, a direct swap. The wheels are heavy, but the ride is nice and true. Those old Yamaha wheels are heavy duty to be sure.

What year is your bike? Here is the '81 rear wheel breakdown:
http://www.partzilla.com/parts/search/Yamaha/Motorcycle/1981/XS650SH/REAR+WHEEL/parts.html

 

[barncat]

i currently have '73 and '72 modified TXs on the road. the bobber style got the mags, which are way overbuilt IMO. the "spokes" are beefy I-beams. you could fearlessly drill away on them, given some familiarity with geometric stress concentrations. if i still had my mill i'd get even more creative with reducing the beam width. you get to run tubeless and true, but they are a bit dead feeling... aesthetically suited to the bobber/hardtail genre.

someone can hop in here and ID the stock chrome shouldered rim spoked wheelset i used on the '72... love those for the cafe look, they just happened to have great vintage style rubber installed as purchased, and i find them at least subjectively more compliant and stickier in the corners.

 

[docraceraz]

Just bought a '78 XS650 Special, my first bike, as a restoration project. The "mag" wheels have cast in the spoke "ductile iron" but they look and feel aluminum and a magnet doesn't stick. What the heck are they made of??


Figured it out....it really says "Asahi Malleable Iron". That is the name of the company that produced the wheels. Founded in 1938. Yes they are aluminum!

 

[fredintoon]

Hi doc,
there's all manner of stuff written on those 7-spoke cast wheels, "ductile iron" amongst them but relax, it ain't the material
(like most "mag" wheels, they are an aluminum alloy) it's the manufacturer.
The most IMPORTANT thing to look for on the spoke webs is the letter-stamped legend saying the wheel can run tubeless tires.
Early XS-series cast wheels do not have that particular stamping.
I've run tubeless on unstamped rims but others reckon it ain't safe.

 

[5twins]

I think some of the early castings were porous and wouldn't hold air.

 

[fredintoon]

I think some of the early castings were porous and wouldn't hold air.

Hi 5twins,
that, and some very early cast wheels also had a shallower rim profile.
The only unstamped wheel I ever owned had the exact same rim profile as my stamped wheels and I ran a tubeless tire from new to bald on it with no problem.
I do not recommend this to others and of course YRMD.