What wheel fits?

[JohnB53]

My son-in-law is building a bobber with a 1981 XS650. Right now, it has the stock 19" rim with a disk setup, but he saw one with a drum brake and said he would like to build it that way and I am wondering what rims/make/ model would work? Thanks John

 

[RustiePyles]

My son-in-law is building a bobber with a 1981 XS650. Right now, it has the stock 19" rim with a disk setup, but he saw one with a drum brake and said he would like to build it that way and I am wondering what rims/make/ model would work? Thanks John

I assume your talking about a drum setup for the front? If you want a front drum your gonna have to swap the entire front end out for one that acctecpts a drum wheel. The disk front end doesn't have the necessary brake stays. 1970 & 71 were the only years that XS's had front drum brakes, so any 70-1 front end/wheel will mount up to your frame with minimal work. The bad news is those front ends and wheels are very hard to find and can get quite pricey. If your building a bobber you can mount up just about any front end you want with the right neck bearings. I ran a 21" Kawasaki drum wheel and forks on a Triumph bobber years ago.

 

[JohnB53]

Ok thanks sounds like more work than we are willing to do.

 

[650Skull]

If you can find an XS1or XS1B front end, (XS650 drum brake), they will swap in. Will need to change your tripple tree to a 74-76 Standard to take the 34mm forks. If you use the XS1/1B or 72XS2.73TX triple tree you will need to swap your 81 triple stem onto the 70-73 Triple tree.................will need to ad a stop to the forks for the drum

The cost of the early XS drum front ends are getting pricey though.

Might look for early SR500/Sr400 front ends. I think they also had a drum front and wont take much to swap them in