I picked up a deuce 41 mm front end with a 1" axle for my ol shovel. I found a good deal on a fatboy front rim I like. Can I replace the 3/4 bearings with 1" or is the hub too narrow? thanks.

 

an by narrow I mean diameter. thanks again

 

the only way i know of to make a 3/4 wheel fit on a new lower leg, is to turn the center of the newer style axle down to 3/4, i did it, chad.

 

Yea I went a head an got the wheel, I figure I'll have the axle turned down. I was thinking the newer style sealed bearings my be better too.

 

You might be able to find bearings with the right width, inner and outer diameters, but you have to be careful with the roller diameters, if they are too small it will shorten bearing life.

 

Depends what year the FatBoy wheel is. If it has tapered roller bearings it is unlikely you can change to 1" bearings. I am not sure when they changed over, but if it has sealed bearings you should be able to swap to 1". By a strange coincidence I have a Deuce rear wheel I am planning to fit to my Glide.

My Deuce wheel has 3/4" INA bearings and the number 'H-D 9267' engraved on them, which may help. I know of FatBoy wheels that have been converted to 1" bearings and they need the hole through the hub to be drilled out, to take a larger diameter internal spacer.

The easiest way of getting one of those is with a 'Wheel Installation Kit' from your local friendly Harley dealer! They ain't cheap, but come complete with bearings, spacer and other bits. They are available for 3/4", 25mm and 1" bearings, for front and rear wheels of the different model ranges and there are ABS versions as well, so be sure to get the correct kit!

 

I don't know if it's relivent or not but it's an after market wire wheel that was removed from a 96 fatboy, i think he said a star hub.

GR i'm thinking of a deuce wheel for the rear of my shovel too. I want some thing to hold a 160 or 180 wheel. I'm going to have to convert to chain to fit some more meat an already picked up a 8" wide fender. I'm just not sure about the weight of the deuce rear wheel, I may look for a 4 or 4.5" rim to re lace to my current hub.

 

If it was built to fit a FatBoy then the hub will have the same type of bearings etc as a factory wheel, otherwise it wouldn't be interchangeable!

The Deuce wheel rim is 17" diameter and 4.5" wide and with a 160/70 tyre is a little larger in rolling diameter than stock. The largest tyre you can fit on a stock 3" wide rim is a 150/80B16 tyre, which is almost identical in rolling diameter to a stock MT or 130/90. That is the easiest way of getting a wider tyre.

Alternative sizes of tyre you can consider are 150/90B15 or 170/80B15, or 160/80B16 which all require a 3.5" or 4" rim. It will certainly be simpler to rebuild your current hub with a new rim than replace the entire wheel for a later spec one.

Looking over tyre sizes in this range it seems to me that as soon as tyres go from 80% profile to 70% they also go to much wider rims. The change from 150 to 160 involves a switch from 3" minimum to 4.5". Weird but true.