Wheel Bearing Question

[reyshaffer]

Has anyone used the earlier snowflake wheels on a newer R series fork? Specifically, I have an '82 R100RT front wheel and looking to mount on a '93 RT fork. The earlier model wheel looks a whole lot better than the one from '93, IMO. I cannot locate a bearing that will fit the smaller diameter opening of the wheel and allow for the wider front axel. TIA!

[ME 109]

I don't think that's been done. If you could swap the whole RT front end that would be good but different fork tube diametres.
I don't know if the RT triple tree can fit a mono steering head tube?

[Rob Frankham]

Has anyone used the earlier snowflake wheels on a newer R series fork? Specifically, I have an '82 R100RT front wheel and looking to mount on a '93 RT fork. The earlier model wheel looks a whole lot better than the one from '93, IMO. I cannot locate a bearing that will fit the smaller diameter opening of the wheel and allow for the wider front axel. TIA!

Anything is possible but I would class that as impractical... unless as has been suggested, the whole front end is swapped.

Issues:

The bearings and bearing types are completely different... actually this is probably the easiest thing to get around, simply track down a sutable set of bearings or put a radial spacer in the end of each fork leg to take the smaller diameter early axle.

Wheel size... most snowflake fronts are 19" diameter while the mono models are 18". This means that the mono mudguard wouldn't fit... although the R45/65 series did have a 18" snowflake front if you could source one...

Mismatched wheels... A front snowflake is at least possible but a snowflake rear probably isn't... there was never a single sided snowflake rear on any model.

The clincher is probably the front brakes. The rotors fitted to mono machines will not fit up to a snowflake wheel (the snowflake has 5 fixing bolts while the mono has four and even if you drilled extra holes (emphatically not a good idea!) they would still not seat on the hub properly... and then, even if you did manage to cross fit the rotors, they would not match up to the calipers. The three sets of components, wheel, rotor and caliper, simply aren't compatible.

As has been said, you could fit up the complete front end from a twinshock to a Mono and there's no reason why that won't work, the head stems and bearings are compatible, but it would look pretty weird and you would sacrifice a the advantages of the later forks... i.e. better suspension damping, better brakes and tubeless tyres on the front wheel... and.. you'd still have mismatched wheels.

Probably better to put up with the 'Y spoke' front wheel.

Rob