Can I put a 130/90/16 tire on a rim that originally held a 120/90/16?

I recently bought a 1980 xs400 special ll and it has a 16" spoke rear wheel and 18" spoke front wheel. The original tires are shot on them and i am looking into getting a white wall rear and a black wall front. I am on a budget so i found a Shinko 130/90/16 white wall rear for around $80, but my original rear is a 120/90. I like the idea of going a little bit wider in the rear but I am wondering if it will fit on my original spoke rim? I am also wondering if the tire does fit properly, if the extra width will be an issue with rubbing the chain or swing arm or anywhere else on the rear? I am assuming that won't be an issue because the 1980 xs400s that came stock with cast wheels also came equipped with 130/90/16 tires. Another thing I am unsure of is if i will be able to put a tube inside of the Shinko tubeless tire and will it function as if it were a tubed tire? I like my spoked wheels so I am trying to avoid switching to a cast wheels and keeping costs low by going this route. If anyone has any experience with these issues and can provide some insight it would be greatly appreciated. This is my first bike and i am excited to start the project and learn everything i can in the process. Thanks.

I was under the impression that the stock spoked wheels were 18" front and rear. The alloys should be 16" in the rear. I might be wrong though!

Tubes in a tubeless tire is fine; this is what I run.

130/90/16 is only 10mm more rubber (not necessarily 10mm wider) than a 120/90/16. How close is the existing tire to the nearest obstruction (usually the chain guard)? How wide is your 16" rear spoked wheel? Unless it is very skinny it should work just fine if you know for certain that the stock alloys use 130/90/16 in the rear.

Someone else will be able to tell you if that 16" spoked wheel is stock or not; I just don't recall ever seeing one.

Thanks bcware, this helps a lot. I did some google'ing and it seems that the stock cast rear wheels are 18" and the stock wire rears are 16". Same goes for the xs650. If I were to switch to an 18" rear wire wheel, do you know what else i would need to do to the rear to make that jump? would i need to get new brakes that fit an 18" or does that not correlate with the wheel size at all? Again, I'm completely new to motorcycles so i realize that may be a dumb question to anyone with even the most basic knowledge of motorcycle construction.
Thanks.

Depends on the year. Before 1980, wheels were 18 front, 18 rear, spoked or alloy. In 1980 and after, (I think that's the year), it is 18 front, 16 rear, spoked or alloy....in the U.S., at least.

[edit]...and this applies to SOHC XS400s only...I don't know much of anything about the later DOHC models.

From 1980 to 1981, the rear wheel on our U.S. XS400s was 16", no matter mag or wire. Yes, a 130 will fit. My son's 1981 came with a 130 on the rear. He liked the look. It is not recommended by the fitment guides.

I have an '81 swing-arm in my garage. I compared it to my '78 and they are definitely different.

I was amazed to see some of the fatter rear tires on some bikes, but it looks like they simply have more clearance in the rear.

i run a 130-90-18r on my bike and it is tight very tight but fits less than an eighth of an inch on each side (or a mm for the guys on the other side of the pond) i run no chain guard not sure if that would affect it.

78 rear swing arm on an 81 frame

Yep, older swing arms are narrower and even a 120 might have clearance problems on some bikes. 1979-1981 should be ok, even with chain guard.

Let me ask you this. Does the tire maker know what your wheels are? No he don't. He knows that his tires may go on spoked or mag wheels, so he makes them to be run both ways.
To further explain this. In the begining all tires needed tubes because tire were not designed to hold air, they just gave the tubes support and had tread to grip the road.
When mag wheels came out they changed to way tires were made so they would hold air without tubes. They put "tubeless" on the tire to let people knew they could run tubeless.
There were so many spoked wheels out there that tires still had to be able to run tubes.
All m/c tires can run tubes or tubeless.
On clearance I have a Honda CM400 that came stock with a 120/90-16 on the rear, it was replaced with a 130/90-16 tire. The chain gaurd was bent to give clearance. When I put on a new chain, I used an o-ring chain, with this tire the chain rubs a bit mostly when turning.
All I can say is that maybe some 130's may fit, some may not. Not many rear 120/90-16's out there, so mods to get the 130's to fit might be a good thing.
Leo

OK, I have the same year, same rim, etc etc.

I run a 120/90-16, Kenda Challenger on the rear.

I have:

• 1/4" to 3/8" on either side to the swingarm
• about 1/4" to the chain
• 1/8" to the brake stay/tension bar.
• I DON'T HAVE A CHAIN GUARD ON CURRENTLY, SO IT MIGHT BE TIGHT THERE.

I would say that the 130/90-16 version of my tire would rub on the brake stay, but have plenty of room otherwise. I think the brake stay would also be easy to bend to make room for a wider tire. The chain guard could be easily modded also.

I have a number of Honda CM400s and I have had no problems with 130 tires. They were originally 120... Also I have discovered that stock Harely sportsters come with 130-16 tires.... A trip to the local Harley shop got me 3 tires for 25 bucks each. Dunlops... With less than 1000 klicks on them.

I also have 5 Yamaha XS400s all 1980 and 81 3 of them spokers and 2 with mags. I hope to fit more 130s on them.

My 80 came with a 130 on it when I got it and it is a tight fit. It should work I hope as I see others have used them. I would go back to the 120 but the tire is brand new, dam it

My son's '81 had already been fitted with a 130 rear when he got the bike. Looked good and did not have clearance probs. I believe '79 and back may have been a little tighter.

If it rubs a bit you can grind off a bit of the chicken strip to get clearance.
If you look at your tire the tread comes around to the sidewall. At this junction of tread to side wall you will see a ridge of rubber. This ridge sticks out of the side of the tire by a good 1/4 inch or more. I had a 140 wide tire on my XS650, it rubbed a bit on both sides, just enough to see a black strip on the point of the ridge.
I put the bike on the center stand, statred the engine, put it in fisrt gear so the tire spun. I used my angle grinder to grind the point of the ridge back so the tire had a bit of clearance. I took off maybe a 1/16 to an 1/8 inch off the point of the ridge. Worked great.
The loss of that bit of chicken strip was not a problem. Hard parts will hit before you are using that last bit of chicken strip.
Leo