I am about to embark on changing out the front end of my 89 Softail to a set of forks off an 09 Ultra. I actually got the Ultra triple trees as well, but I plan to reuse my existing trees. The 09 Touring's had 1" axle shafts, and I want to use wheels with 3/4" bearings. So, here's the Q's, there must be more than one way to skin this cat.

Option 1 - Find 1" bearings with the same OD as the 3/4" bearings (will be measuring that later today). Install the front wheel onto a 1" axle shaft

Option 2 - Are the fork leg lowers different between bikes with 1" axles and 3/4" axles? Can I just look for a 3/4" axle to fit? I have a 1" axle coming from an ebay source that should be right for my forks, but I was wondering if there is a 3/4" shaft that fits the 09 Fork lowers..

Whittling proper spacers for either shaft is a short trip to my lathe to make if needed.

 

Recently saw this done in reverse of what you're trying to achieve. A rim designed for 1 inch axles was mounted onto a 3/4 inch axle. Custom bearings with required OD and ID were used. Appropriate wheel spacers were also fabricated.

Your goal should be doable but I see 4 points of concern:

1. Locating proper bearings with a 3/4 inch ID that properly fit within the wheel.

2. The axle cap on the bottom of the right fork as well as the axle hole on the bottom of the left fork will have a 1/4 inch play (3/4 inch axle into a 1 inch hole). Spacers could be manufactured.

3. Appropriate spacers to align the wheel down the center line of the bike.

4. Alignment of the brake rotor to the caliper.


This is an interesting modification. Keep us posted.

 

I think it's quite easy actually. On the 25mm axle the part that goes through the forks is 1 1/8" for the right side and 3/4" for the left side (rotor). So measure your axle and compare to the 1" axle to see if they are the same. Axle length will need to be figured into this as well but you have a lathe that you could make it work.

Alternatively in my research for bearings on my DNA wheels I found that 3/4", 1", and 25mm all use the same OD with different sized ID's and thicknesses; not sure of thickness of 3/4" but 25mm bearings are thinner than 1" bearings. DNA sells bearings that I assume they have made for them that are 25mm but as thick as 1" bearings.

So, swapping the bearings is a possibility and probably the best option. You will likely need to get a new inner spacer, again with your lathe will be simple to make and likely new spacers to match. You could potentially run into issues lining up the rotor to the caliper though but once wheel is centered and aligned with the rear you can space accordingly.

Best of luck and keep us posted.

 

you might want to try these folks. if you have the correct ID and OD specs along with width and bearing type, roller, ball, single double etc.. they should be able to hook you up. they have helped me multiple times on stuff when bearings supposedly weren't availible by the manufacture.. ie not serviced seperately..

Applied Technologies. i gave ya a store locator link..

http://www.applied.com/apps/directory/storelocator

 

Actually, all HD models from 2008 up have 25mm axles except the springer models which still had 3/4" front axles.
All of the 3/4", 1" and 25mm bearings used by the MOCO have the same O.D. measurement. The width of the 3/4" and 1" are also the same. The 25mm is a thinner profile bearing.

 

Yep, wasnt sure on the thicknesses thanks for confirming 3/4" and 1" were sane thickness ghost rider. I don't see why it would be a huge issue to just swap in some 1" bearings and ride? Probably need some new spacers but that's about it

 

I'll go see if I can see some bearing PN's on the 40 spokes I plan to use. If the OD's are all the same, I'll be making a trip down to Motion Industries or Grainger over my upcoming vacation. My axle shaft should be here today, and the bike is already up on the storage stand.. if this all goes together, I might need to shop for tires sooner than I expected.

Thanks, and it looks like we are neighbors, I live down in Farmington Hills, work in Pontiac..

 

Didnt see that, my warehouse is in Pontiac but I go all over the Oakland county area. You should stop by Boomers on Dixie hwy in clarkston/waterford not to far from Pontiac and he can usually beat online prices for parts. Great people in there.

 

I prefer All ***** bearings. It's hard to beat the price and quality.

 

Bumping a thread from a little over 2 years ago. I received a PM on the topic and decided to update the thread with my results. I bought a 99 Ultra and the upgrades to the 89 took a bit of a backburner for a while.

Thanks for the PM, I forgot about that post, I didn't get around to this changeover until June of last year. I should post an update.*

The change over was pretty straightforward on the front end. There were a few surprises, but it's*part*of*the*learning*curve.*
I found a good 1" axle on ebay and that solved the fitment issue with the forks. I reused the softail triple clamps and slid the FLH forks right in. The axle came with a few spacers but I had to make one of my own to get the wheel centered.*
I installed the 40 spoke wire wheels from a 2001 (ish) vintage Softail in the process. It is set up with sealed bearings compared to the non-sealed *Fatboy*wheels I had before. The 1"OD sealed wheel bearings are the same OD, so it was simply a matter of replacing the bearings.*

Here's where it got tricky. You also need to change out the bearing spacer inside the wheel to a 1" ID. I initially tried to bore the 3/4" one out but it's a hardened steel piece, or at least it is made of something tougher than what my HSS bits on my lathe could cut. I sourced the right 1"ID spacer, but the ID of the*wheel*hub*needed to be bored out to fit the larger OD. . I was able to jig up the wheel and do it on my mill. There is lots of meat on the hub to open the bore up, it was basically cleaning out casting flash that the boring operation for the smaller axle spacer didn't clean up.*

Other snag, the rotors for a non-sealed nearing wheel have a smaller ID, so I had to get newer vintage rotors, Craigslist came through with a pair of nearly new FLH rotors to fix that. With all that taken care of, I had the wheel hanging on the FLH forks. I had to make spacers to fit the Fatboy fender fit the FLH forks as well as slot the mounting holes on the fender a bit. I also needed to fit the newer FLH front*caliper*and make spacers between the caliper and fork to get the rotor and caliper lined up. I could have found a rotor spacer to do the same thing, but I was trying to get the*bike*running for a road trip and making simple spacers out of 3/4" aluminum round stock goes a lot faster than making a rotor spacer or waiting for the spacer to show up in my*mailbox. A lot cheaper too.*
Last caveat. My 89 still had a mechanical speedo, and I don't think a mechanical speedo drive exists for a 1" axle. I*rode*the summer without a speedo, and I plan to remedy that eventually with an electronic one.*

Fitting the rear wheel had a few snags but nothing a little machining couldn't fix. I had to make a rotor spacer, use a later model rotor (same ID issue) and have the ID on my chain sprocket (no belt drive for me) opened up by a friend of a friend that had a lathe that could chuck my sprocket by the OD.

The end result..