Topic: 17" rear...

[babyfood1217]

Largest tire people are running with stock, non-offset sprockets?  I grabbed the rear wheel from a '77 750k which has a 17" wheel.  Tire I believe was a 130, most likely what I'm gonna put back on, but I'm curious if anyone has moved up to 140 with this rim/wheel?  I'm keeping notes of clearances on the brake bits and the swingarm, and if it gets too close, I'll stick with 130, but....


-Chris

[eurban]

130 rear works on the 77/78K bikes fine but these have a wider and longer swingarm than earlier models.

[eldar]

You may be able to stick a 140 on there but there will be little if any clearance between chain and tire. You may need offset sprockets.

[754]

You should be able to sneak a 150 in, I did in a narrower early K last year.. it worked...

[babyfood1217]

You should be able to sneak a 150 in, I did in a narrower early K last year.. it worked...

Any pics of the 150 on stock sprockets/gears?  I have thought about these offset bits, but doing that may be more of a project than I can undertake right now.  Doing that would make me want to upgrade swingarms, and god knows what that would lead to.   Baby steps for me right now, I need to get all my stuff together to graduate first (hooray!!!)

[754]

The chain is right up to the tire, I did a 2K test on it.

Yours has more clearance, and will have even more if you go to 530 chain..

[eldar]

The problem with the 150 is that rim is not really wide enough, the whole "pinched" tire thing. But then I have heard that about the 130 size and it fits great. Ultimately you should generally follow the tire manufacturer. Reason being is that tires are not all the exact same size, kinda like shoes.

I am pretty stuck on the 130, if a store only had a 140, I would probably try it. Many here seem to like the 130 size though. but again, get the actual size of the tire, not just its numbers.

[754]

I agree that 150 is a bit big for the rim, I think the 17 may be a bit wider..

 But the question asked was how big will fit on the bike, and the answer still is a 150..

[eldar]

I think someone actually went wider. But they may have had a custom arm. It was a year or more ago so it would be damn hard to search for it. I guess if the tire does what you need it to do, then it works.

[babyfood1217]

It's a good thing I'm ok with 130's.  Just curious though.  I think if I were to go wider (for nothing more than aesthetics really), I'd probably end up thowing in a wider swingarm, then I would want offset sprockets, etc...  130 is good for me.  Probably gonna go with Pirelli Sport Demons again.  Those tires have been great for me.  Another big reason I would like to try a larger tire (140/150) is that it opens up so many tire choices.  Choices are goooood.

Thanks all!

-Chris