18" rear wheel with drum brakes

[angrybuddha]

Hiya fellow enthusiasts,

new to the site so wanted to say and ask a question at the same time.

Want to ditch the rear 16" mag for an 18" mag wheel, have seen one on ebay over here in the uk with a drum brake and they claim its off an xs400, but I haven't been able to verify if they made an 18" mag wheel with drum on the xs400?

Can anyone confirm this?

If it is from a xs400, will it be a straight swap with my 16" drum mag wheel?

Many thanks in advance.

Dan

 

[hardtailed77]

Welcome to the forum. I'm pretty sure this has been touched upon here in the past, but I'm not entirely sure though. Anywho, the 400's did in fact come with an 18" rear wheel (well, some of them). I believe it is a fairly easy swap, but I can't completely confirm that because I have never done it myself. Give it a little more time, and someone else that knows for sure will chime in....

On another note, let's see some pictures of what you're working with!!

 

[angrybuddha]

Hi Hardtailed,

thanks for your reply. I think it will be an easy straight swap too but I always expect a little trouble so thought I'd get some info and join the forum.

This is my xs400 project, its got a 250 tank, got some rs125 usd forks and yokes to put on it, using original cast wheels although hoping to swap rear to an 18 incher, then nice clip ons a brembo brake caliper upfront, new seat unit and some new shocks etc, etc

Will be all as minimal as possible with no centre stand, elec strat so kick start only.

I'm going for a retro look which will be a bit cafe and a lil bit streettracker which I just describe as retro lol

Hope you all like. The second pick is the xs650 I'm building for a mate, and I have a couple of xs750 triples that are under way too but no pics yet.

Cheers
Dan

 

[hardtailed77]

Nice intro man! The 400 sounds like it's going to be awesome, I can't wait to see it come along. The 650 looks sweet too. The seat rail looks like it came that way from the factory. Nice work!

Hope you decide to stick around and keep us updated!

 

[isigt]

Welcome to the forum man!

Always good to see new "faces" (frames that is)
Looking forward to see what you do with it.

cheers

 

[drewpy]

Hiya fellow enthusiasts,

new to the site so wanted to say and ask a question at the same time.

Want to ditch the rear 16" mag for an 18" mag wheel, have seen one on ebay over here in the uk with a drum brake and they claim its off an xs400, but I haven't been able to verify if they made an 18" mag wheel with drum on the xs400?

Can anyone confirm this?

If it is from a xs400, will it be a straight swap with my 16" drum mag wheel?

Many thanks in advance.

Dan

Hi dan,

there is an 18" rear with a drum, try searching for xs360C or the xs360D2 models

welcome to the forum mate

btw where do you reside?

 

[angrybuddha]

Thanks chaps,

I live in Cornwall, England. Its lovely down here by the sea but local used bike parts can be hard to find so I use ebay mostly.

I will check the parts fiche for the xs360 and see if the drum wheels spacer and swingarm are the same part numbers, then I'll know its a straight swap

 

[angrybuddha]

Thought I'd update you on my project progress!

Installed the new forks as a mock up as not got the headstock bearings through yet and was awaiting the wheel spindle (which has now arrived!) but I think its starting to look a little different!

I think it'll look better once I get the clips-ons sorted too.

keeping the original wheels but gonna use the brake caliper off the new forks!

What do you think?

 

[drewpy]

cool, will the aprillia forks bolt straight on?

 

[angrybuddha]

Its seems they will! The aprilia forks originally use a taper roller bearing at the bottom of the headstock and a deep groove ball bearing (looks like a wheel bearing) at the top but this shouldn't prove to be a problem as the stem is 30mm diameter at the top and bottom so you just have to use two 30x48x13 taper roller bearings. These are basically just two of the bottom size for the xs400 anyway, about £15 each though so not cheapy cheap but not bad!

The xs400 fork stops do not get in the way of the rs125 forks and to fab up a stop to work with the forks is as easy as welding a lump on the bottom of the headstock where it joins the frame, will take pics when I do it and show all.

Aprilia forks use a 20mm axle so need to use 6004 wheel bearings which are a standard size. I machined a spacer from an rf600 rear wheel to fit as the inner spacer between the bearings. Now all I need do is centre the wheel, measure and machine the outer spacers. Can't use the speedo drive tho as too wide, so will go with an electric pick up.

 

[CadXS]

Hey Dan, looking really good mate, those forks are going to look great

Not sure if you got an answer to your original question, but you can get 18" XS400 wheels with a drum brake. Mine originally had an 18" with disc and I've swapped to an 18" drum (using the drum swingarm and rear brake set-up as well). Did mine for purely cosmetic reasons, shameful really, lol

 

[drewpy]

there's an NOS swing arm for disk on ebay ATM, £40

 

[hardtailed77]

This is probably one of the coolest builds on here Angry! I'm definitely looking forward to seeing this thing come together man!!

 

[angrybuddha]

Thanks CADxs, yeah I think I got the answer I was looking for.

Am still undecided whether I go for drum or disc wheel but its definitely gotta be 18inch.
If I go for a disc wheel then I want to fit the smallest possible disc and smallest caliper so as not to be too in your face.

Thanks for the kind works Hardtailed, I'm glad you all like it, but its gonna be a slow process as my first baby is due in july and am between jobs so money is a bit tight!

Cheers chaps

 

[drewpy]

Thanks CADxs, yeah I think I got the answer I was looking for.

Am still undecided whether I go for drum or disc wheel but its definitely gotta be 18inch.
If I go for a disc wheel then I want to fit the smallest possible disc and smallest caliper so as not to be too in your face.

Thanks for the kind works Hardtailed, I'm glad you all like it, but its gonna be a slow process as my first baby is due in july and am between jobs so money is a bit tight!

Cheers chaps

if you wanna go 18" disk, I might have one spare in the shed.

just postal cost, but you must use it though

 

[angrybuddha]

Hi Drewpy,

thats a very kind offer! Thank you, I'd like to take you up on it and give you a generous payment for postage

I'll definitely use it and send you a pic of it on the bike practically as soon as I get it!

I'll PM you.

I love this ere forum!

 

[redratbike]

are the aprilia forks a lot shorter than standard???

 

[salisride]

hows it going man ?

 

[angrybuddha]

OMG! Its been nearly 3 years since I've posted on here!

I have only just got over moving house, renovating said house and having my son!

And finally I've cleared the garage and have started my XS400 build again!

Hi Salisride, its going great now, have begun to finish the seat unit, but still a long way to go!

Hi Redratbike, no sure on the length of the forks as have never measured them, not even sure if I still have the originals? But I could measure the rs125 forks for you?

And a big thank you to Drewpy for the rear wheel! I have used it and although its 3 years late, here's the picture of it on the bike!

Should have seat unit more sorted next week, spacer made and disc mounted on front wheel and exhaust tips welded on and wrap fitted!

Will keep this updated this time, promise!

 

[xschris]

Welcome back