Rim width

[trikebldr]

OK, I can't get any response over on the XII Tech section, so I'll try here. Out of all of you Voyager XII owners, can somebody look in their manual and tell me what the rim width is?

I'm planning on going to the darkside on my Voyager 1300 with the sidecar added, but the rim width on a 1300 is just 3.5", and most CT's call for at least a 4.5" rim width, if not a 5". Are you darksiders going ahead and ignoring this difference?

Just a rim width is all I ask.

[vxiirider]

The only spec that I can find in the Manual is for rear tire size :

150/90 - 15 74H

[trikebldr]

Thanks, John. In my manual for the 1300 Voyager, it's under chapter 4 "Non-scheduled Maintenance". "Tires and Wheels".

[vxiirider]

Sorry but the base manual and the supplement only list tire sizes and do not have a non scheduled maintenance section. Hopefully someone will have a rim without a tire mounted that will send you a dimension by measuring the rim.

Carl Leo probably would know off the top of his head.You can contact him at :

voyagerparts@bellsouth.net

[Me Again]

It seems strange that as many people having gone to the dark side ,not one of them measured the rim width. I know it's considerably wider than on a 1300.
I have checked numerous site for a CT that fits a 1300 and have had 0 luck .That rim is just to narrow for a CT.
If you find one ,let me know.

[trikebldr]

It seems strange that as many people having gone to the dark side ,not one of them measured the rim width. I know it's considerably wider than on a 1300.
I have checked numerous site for a CT that fits a 1300 and have had 0 luck .That rim is just to narrow for a CT.
If you find one ,let me know.

Part of my concern and confusion is that the late '80's-early '90's 1200 and 1500 Gold Wings use a 3.5" wide rim just like the Voyager 1300, and I do know that some of them have gone to a CT, but nobody talks about rim widths. I have a '89 Wing rear wheel and a '94 Wing wheel, one is 15" and the other is a 16", but both are 3.5" wide.

When I look at recommended tire sizes for the '94 Wing with the 16" wheel, it's the same as for the Voyager 1300's.

A lot of bigger bikes seem to have the 3.5" wide rims, and a lot of them go with the CT. I know a lot of guys on here are running them on their XII's, but not one has mentioned running them on the 1300.

Thanks for the Carl Leo contact! I will try him!

[Furchin]

The rear rim size is 15 X 3.50. It is stamped on the right side of the wheel for those who would like to know.

[trikebldr]

The rear rim size is 15 X 3.50. It is stamped on the right side of the wheel for those who would like to know.

Thank you, thank you! That adds the last piece to my puzzle of what's going on.

A little update here. Last night I read on another forum about a couple of darksiders who are running the same tire I was considering. They are running it on the same size wheel that is on my Voyager 1300 and have no problems doing this. Also, both are pulling a sidecar. So, it would seem that a lot of guys are running the car tires on the stock 3.5" wide rims found on most larger touring bikes. This makes me feel more comfortable in doing this!

I did order two of the Dunlop Graspic DS-3 since they were on a closeout sale at $61/each, plus about $15/ea for shipping. They are a stud-less snow tire with an extremely flat, wide tread relative to the overall width of the tire.The snow tread part of the tire is a softer compound that will wear faster than normal, but it has wear indicators to tell you when the snow part is gone and you are down to the harder compound normal all-weather section. The snow tire part of the tread is about 1/3 of the depth of the tread. The two other guys did report much better than normal wet traction, especially for braking, even after the snow part had worn away.

FWIW, Tire Rack sells these tires, but they warn you that they usually sell them in fours since they do handle much different than other radials and shouldn't be mixed. They tell you that they may call you to talk about that before releasing your order, and they DID email me asking me to verify that these are mounting on a car wheel and not on a motorcycle wheel! THEY WILL NOT SELL THEM TO BE MOUNTED ON A MC WHEEL! A lot of sidecars run car wheels and tires, so I verified that they would be "...run on a sidecar rig.". Nuff said! Since when have we become so litigious as to not sell something to somebody even after being advised of safety factors? Tire Rack actually has no way to control what they are used on no matter what I promise them! Also, this issue would also apply to ANY tire they sell, not just these stud-less snow tires since they don't want any car tire being mounted on a MC wheel.

So, bottom line is, when you do buy a car tire to go to the darkside, just tell them is is to be mounted on a car wheel for a sidecar. Lots of larger sidecars do have car wheels!

Anyway, that's my saga of going to the darkside with my Voyager 1300. So, Me Again, that's what you are facing if you decide to go dark! BTW, the size of this tire is a 175/60R-16. Those two other guys are running them on GL1500 Gold Wings with 16" X 3.5" rear wheels. Also, Me Again, I wouldn't recommend THIS particular tire for your solo 1300!!! The tread is just to wide and flat and would make leaning a solo bike very strange, indeed! There are many other tires out there that will fit our 1300's that have a better tread pattern for solo (non-sidecar) bikes. Once I receive these tires and get one fit on the bike, I will take pics and post more. I will also post my list of other possible tires that I found that will fit our rims.

[trikebldr]

I heard back from Carl Leo and he did measure a rim from a XII and it is a 3.5" wide rim. BUT, then he said he thinks that most of the big shaft drive bikes from the '80's used the same spline coupling to the final drive, in particular the wider-rimmed 900/1000 Eliminators. So, I looked up the 900/1000 Eliminator on ebay and sure enough, just going by pictures, they do use the same splines as the Voyager 1300's, but they are a 15" X 4.0" wide wheel! Not a whole lot wider, but that extra 1/2" will change the fit of a car tire. A lot of you are using the Nexen 165/80-15 tire, and it calls for at least a 4.5" rim, so to me that would be an acceptable fudge-factor.

To verify the fit of the Eliminator wheel, at least on the Voyager 1300's, I ordered a good used one from ebay and will report back to you. There are a lot more 15" tires available than the 16"s, so the smaller diameter would also be a good move for the 1300 anyway. Another good point of using a good used Eliminator wheel on the 1300 is that the Eliminator final drive is on the left side of the bike, like the XII's final drive. This means that most of the wear (if ANY!) on the splines is in the opposite direction of what it would be on the 1300! This means that it will be like running a new wheel on the 1300!

Any of you XII riders willing to come visit me and spend the day seeing if the Eliminator wheel will also fit on the XII? Same diameter as what you have, but 1/2 wider rim.

Stay tuned! This ain't over, yet!