17" front wheel revisited

So it's about time to change my front tire. In poking around on the interwebs for tires, I'm getting disgruntled again with the lack of matching tires available for the ST's. Don't get me wrong, I don't 'mind' putting on a not matching front tire, but I 'prefer' to have them match. After all they make tires in sets so that they compliment each other.
Anywho...

I've read all I could find/is available on this subject. It doesn't sound too difficult, I can rarely leave stuff alone as it is. The thing I'm not sure about, is spacing out the discs on the F2 wheel. I can't really tell if there are ledges on the wheel that center the disc at the bolt location or not. I could see that being an issue. I've seen Harley wheels sheer off the disc bolts, because the aftermarket disc had too big of a hub hole, no longer making it hub-centric, and the force of hard braking made little work of the disc bolts.
By spacing the discs out (couldn't figure out how far either), I would think that it wouldn't catch the ledges, if it has any, which would make it no longer wheel(?)-centric...

What I'm after, I guess, is some info on all that. Is any one of the guys that have done it around here anymore? Any help would be appreciated!

Frank

Have you considered the effect on handling that a seventeen inch front wheel might have; the rake and trail will change the same as raising the tubes a half inch in the triple clamps. Given the headshake propensity of the 1100s, you probably ought to go to tapered roller bearings in the steering head at the least. Bridgestone makes their T-30s (not sure about the Evo version) in the appropriate size for the ST11. A friend of mine swears by them, and we fitted a set to Desmo Steve's son's bike recently.

If you swap to a ABSII front wheel(120 vs 110 width), you can use all the ST1300 tire selection. You just have to go 170/60 on the back instead of 160/70 which makes minimal difference, but the fronts are the same size. The ABSII front rim fits fine, you just have to swap the rotors (which have the same bolt pattern). And the 120 tire works fine without any clearance problems. I've run this setup on my 97 STD for quite a while.

Yes, I've considered it. I haven't encountered ANY headshake with the ball bearings, although I do set my front end up a little tighter than what the Bible's usually say. Not my first rodeo, and not scared.

I thought about trying the battle axes. The reviews were mixed that were available. I'm on the fence on them. Problem is, I'm a big fan of Shinko's because of the price and mileage I get out of em. Not just one set, but many sets spread out over 3 motorcycles. Of course Shinko don't make a 18" in our size. Sulla mucka's! And tapered bearings are on my list already, along with some 'more appropriate' weight front springs.

The original guinea pigs, looked to of put plenty of miles on the conversion (70-80K IIRC), to be able to point out any handling issues. But that's the point of this thread...info from the horse's mouth ....Keep the input coming though!

Frank

I'm using a Pirelli Angel GT 110/80-18 with a Bridgestone BT020R 160/70-17. I lean on these hard (no chicken strips) and they are fabulous and suit the ST very well.


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VFR800s have the same physical disc spacing as the ST (142mm) but are 296mm diameter rather than 310 on the ST.


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You can check this link out. I didn't read it so it may not help you.

http://www.st-riders.net/index.php?topic=1855.0

Uncle Phil said:

If you swap to a ABSII front wheel(120 vs 110 width), you can use all the ST1300 tire selection. You just have to go 170/60 on the back instead of 160/70 which makes minimal difference, but the fronts are the same size. The ABSII front rim fits fine, you just have to swap the rotors (which have the same bolt pattern). And the 120 tire works fine without any clearance problems. I've run this setup on my 97 STD for quite a while.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I've seen ya mention that quite a few times on here, and is probably the way I'll go if I don't find the answers. If I can find ABS2 wheel for el cheapo, I'll prolly go that route. What is it..97 and up?

Frank

Frank - 96 and up. IIRC, they should be marked 3.5 on the rim not 3.0. You really have to watch the EBay sellers as most of them don't have a clue. I got an ABSI rim when the seller swore it was an ABSII and then hassled me about the return. And some will 'fail' to tell you about little 'wrinkles' in the rim. ;-) You could probably run a 120 on a 110 rim, but I've never tried it though others have. I usually park my ST1100s on the centerstand, and I've had no trouble when a 170/60 is on the rear and no trouble with usage of the sidestand. The ABSII front rims seem to be pretty rare unless you just happen upon on. They are more frequent on the Europe/UK Ebay, but the shipping would probably kill you. A friend of mind put a 17" on the front of his ST1100 standard, but it was quite a bit of fabbing and he had to shorten the centerstand. I would think it would be easier to swap the forks and all since the brake calipers would be different. If you could find forks that are 41mm (STD) or 43mm(ABSII) then you might could use a ST1100 yoke with the new forks.

I have a 97 ST and ran lots of different sizes with no problems. Bt023 110/80 18 and 160/70-17 on the rear handled well good wet grip but cupped and lasted 6k. went to a 130/70 zr18 Exedra max, great wear, good wet but it doesn't like tar snakes. Used a T30 std size on rear, 8k on front tire, 6k on rear T30. Currently using A 120/70zr18 Shinko Verge and a Exedra 850 which is a 190/60 ZR17. Love that combo have about 4k on the front, looks real good, good wet grip and & 8k on the rear which may get 10k. All my tires saw long trips, lots of rain, I don't scrap the pegs but my toes hit the ground. No problems running any of those tires or combinations.

Is yours a standard? Just wondering if the 120 fits alright. I received a 190 shinko by accident and decided to try it anyways. Wouldn't even go in the swingarm without taking all the air out of it. Once aired up and tightened down, it was crammed into the swingarm hardcore....

Frank

I wondered if anyone has considered using a 17" front wheel from the SC24 CBR1000F Hurricane? From 1989 the wheel width is 3.5", and the discs are interchangeable with the ST1100 discs according to the EBC catalogue. If the disc spacing is the same, then this would be a bolt-in modification.

I'm sure there's something out there that almost fits perfect. It's just getting one's hands on it, to do some measuring. For now, since I've found no concrete answers, I just bought a abs2 wheel that's in our classified section. The 17" quest isn't over yet for me though. I've got some feelers out for getting some different wheel dimensions...

Frank

Uncle Phil, I can see why you are the Man of the Moment. I read your post but did not quite understand what you were saying about the difference between the ABSII and other ST1100's. Now I get it.

The older bikes with the 3" rim also have bigger diameter discs at 316mm. The ABSII has the 3.5" rim and the discs are 296mm diameter. That also means that the ABSII forks would have different brake mounting points to keep the calipers in the right place for the smaller discs. Interesting to know that the discs can be moved from one wheel to the next. I also understand that the older models get a 41mm diameter fork, and the ABSII moved to 43mm.

By using a Venn diagram approach, any bike with a 17" rim that takes the same disc as the ABSII should be able to be used in either ST1100 fork with the brake discs specific to that fork. The most likely candidate would then be the CBR1000FH-FX models. The 89-onwards CBR's had 3.5" rims. E.g like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Honda-CBR1000F-CBR-1000-F-SC24-Vorderrad-Felge-front-wheel-rim-velg-wiel-voor-/172329414617?hash=item281fa22fd9:g:ep8AAOSwFdtXy5M8&vxp=mtr

Following on from that is the consideration of the effect of using a 17" rim in place of an 18". Assuming the use of a 120/70 tyre on that 17" rim, the radius drops by 16.5mm which lowers the front of the bike by that amount. The wisdom then of using a 170/60 back tyre makes sense because compared to a 160/70, that lowers the back of the bike by 10mm so the effect on geometry is not massive, just a loss of ground clearance. Some of that can be won back by using more preload on the springs to raise the bike up.

Not sure about anybody else, but I found all that pretty interesting. I still think my 110/80x18, 3" front end is very good and so long as good tyres are available, I would not change the size.

As it turns out, all three 'versions' of the ST1100 front wheels are 'physically' interchangeable (I've actually had all three in my possession and tried it on my standard). I was a bit surprised when I found that the ABSII discs were smaller than the standard/ABSI since the ABSII pads have more contact surface area. But the critical dimension (bolt pattern for the discs, width at the axle, etc.) are all the same. If the bolt pattern was the same for the discs on a 17 inch wheel, then the only other issue I can think of would be the dimension from one disc to the other being the same so they would slide into the ST1100 calipers. I wonder if a 160/60 rear would 'lower' the rear end even more. I'm very happy with the ST1300 tire choices other than the 'mileage'! ;-)

Bueller said:

Is yours a standard? Just wondering if the 120 fits alright. I received a 190 shinko by accident and decided to try it anyways. Wouldn't even go in the swingarm without taking all the air out of it. Once aired up and tightened down, it was crammed into the swingarm hardcore....

Frank

Click to expand...

I think the swing arms are different, maybe different years or something. Some one tried a 160/60-17 and it rubbed. I had to use a thin washer between the hub and the wheel to get clearance.. deflated the tire to get it in but it's tight,,Al

Hmm...I've got a 160/60-17 raven on mine now and it has about 1/4" clearance to the swingarm...

Frank