got a call from Daughter. they need to replace tires on my old 72 XLCH. I told her she shouldn't have any problems. said they can't find any! she is right! the rims are original taper bead rims. no body lists them. what do you guys do? replace rims with diff. ones? any suggestions would be great help. thanx Brian

 

Check out this thread for some helpful information ...

old wheels with different bead area?

 

thanx, the discussion was about aluminum rims. these are chrome steel rims. I know I used to run goodyear eagles in the old days. but they are no more. the last rear tire I ran was not taper bead tire and it seemed O.K. not much choices for the old 18" rear tires

 

Ths rim is really only a problem on the rear wheel. I still have the 19" CM rim on the front. I am on the 4th tire since I owned the machine. None of them have been "safety bead" tires. I replaced the first three from wear. I have always had a chrome rim on the rear with standard beading so no experience there.

 

FWIW, I run Avon RoadRiders on my '71 xlch with the stock, taper base steel rims..... 19" front & 18" rear. RoadRiders work ok for me. They do not have that vintage look (if that's important to you).

Be aware of the sizing though, it's easy to get them too wide, and have them rub on your stock fenders (if your daughter is running stock fenders). Measure the width VERY carefully is all I can say..... otherwise you'll lay out about $300 (that's CDN $$) and find that they rub. Don't ask me how I know.

Here's a link to the Roadriders --> http://www.avon-tyres.co.uk/motorcycle/roadrider

Hope that helps.

 

Heehee..... well someone asked me privately how I managed to make that mistake..... so in the interest of helping others here's what I did / did not do:

• 1971 stock tires were Goodyear's Sport Rib MM90-19 front & Goodyear's All Traction 4.25-18T rear
• if you look up (i.e. google) the typical conversion chart, it shows MM90-19 equates to about 100/90-19 and a 4.25-18 equates to about 110/90-18.
• 100/90-19 & 110/90-18 were what I bought
• both new front & rear tires installed on the rims ok, but then I found:
  • the tolerances around the front fender were extermely close to the point were the fender was rubbing on the front tire. Nothing short of a hacksaw was going to fix it..... so for the time being I'm running without a front fender.
  • the rear tire fitted fine and seemed to have lots of clearance all round, but under 2 up riding conditions, I discovered the right side rear fender mounting bolts would rub. They only rubbed when 2 up and going over bumps.... shock compresses enough & the bolts tear into the sidewall of the tire. Simple. I swapped the mounting bolts out on the right side for some shorter ones & ground down some nuts to make them thinner..... & that cured that problem.
• after the fact, I pulled out some calipers & started taking measurements:
  • MM90-19 was about 3 7/8" wide. Avon Roadrider 100/90-19 about 4 3/16". About 5/16" wider than the stock front tire.
  • 4.25-18T was about 4 5/16" wide. Avon Roadrider 110/90-18 about 4 9/16". About 1/4" wider than the stock rear tire.

If there's any lesson learned here...... I should have pulled out the calipers & taken width measurements of my old tires & then compared those widths against the mfg's specs on the new tires BEFORE buying.

If you're running non-stock fenders.... not much of this will apply.

Anyway, I hope this helps someone else out.

 

I'll add my experience into this. All 120 tires are not the same width and you cannot go by any info on web sites, brochures, etc. You have to actually measure the tire.

In particular, Bridgestone 120s are almost 1/2" wider than any other brand of 120-size rear tire. It looks like they are designed for sport bikes that spend a lot of time on lean angles. They rub the right side fender bolts.

To solve this i centered the wheel by installing a 3/16" spacer between the brake drum and the wheel, trimming 3/16" from the left side spacer, and installing an 3/16" shim internally with the bearing spacer.

Some guys will say that the bike is now out of alignment but after 10,000+ miles i have noticed no difference at all.

 

Avon Tires still make the Am-6 & am-7 Safety Mileage MK ll tire's for the older Bike's. I have them on my 1977 XLH Sportster and there great tires. Has the old Skool look and handles well on the road. I hope this helps you.
Tom

 

Replace rims and tires.

 

hey doc you are right I ran into that problem when I put a new avon on my bobber The avon are wider than the dunlop for the custom fender I installed so I had to go into another direction