CatiePotatie Posted May 9, 2012 Share Posted May 9, 2012 I'd have to agree. Why would you want more weight and a wider base of contact for the rear tire? That makes the tire flatter which would make it more difficult to turn in. I'm not slamming your idea, I'm just not sure I see any advantage to this. Is it just to have a different wheel on the back? Mercy... what in hell is an over weight car wheel doing on a VFR??? I'm going to have to report you to Honda for adding what amounts to a brick to their bike... As mentioned earlier the bike is still able to corner at ridiculous speeds so the effect isn't detrimental. Turn in would probably be more difficult, I'll agree there but also as a street bike used for commuting it would probably make slow speed stability just that little bit easier. Can you comment on that at all Helweg? I had some pretty bad offset on my old bike, like 20-30mm since the frame was bent (should not have been registerable..) and I didn't notice any adverse affects to the steering as long as the back wheel was lined up to the front wheel and not to the markings. I imagine 10mm doesn't do much on a VFR either? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Phantom Posted May 9, 2012 Share Posted May 9, 2012 Towards the end of its racing career, RC45s were running 6.5" rims with visibly noticable offset, and they seemed to go round the corners ok. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer vanion2 Posted May 9, 2012 Member Contributer Share Posted May 9, 2012 I put wider rims on all my vehicles...except for the bikes. I love railing in the twisties too much to take away from that. That said I see no problem with people making the bike more suited to their riding styles. Keep thinking out side the box and take plenty of pics along the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatiePotatie Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 (edited) This looks like such a brilliant idea that I wanna give it a crack too.. As my overall colour is still blue I was thinking a white WRC style rim (think Subaru Impreza) would suit nice. Somethin like this: Also I was a bit concerned about the bead profile as most car rims are asymmetrical but it seems that any standard JJ style rim (has a safety bead on both sides instead of just one) would be safe enough. Now just the problem of finding a wheel like this that doesn't involve buying 4 of them So it seems OZ Supertourismos are not only rare in Australia, but really freaking expensive.. After a lot of searching and refreshing different forums and eBay searches once a day, I came across these.. As you can see near identical in design to the supertourismo, just a different brand and a bit dirty, 3 of them for $100. Considering how cheap they are, and the fact he's a 2 hour round trip away, I offered $200 if he dropped them off for me, which will be tomorrow Now I just need to order the spacers and get a tyre fitted. Edited June 5, 2012 by DragonCypher Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Switchblade Posted June 5, 2012 Member Contributer Share Posted June 5, 2012 Towards the end of its racing career, RC45s were running 6.5" rims with visibly noticable offset, and they seemed to go round the corners ok. +1 added weight in that area not a big deal but of course the off set is but again if looks is what your after and like me you just wanted to run the car wheel on the week days and put your bike wheel back on the weekend it was perfect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BigCarl Posted June 9, 2012 Share Posted June 9, 2012 (edited) The 5mm offset I am running can not be seen or felt. The bike handles like a dream and I am sure that riding ability is more important than tire size. I wear mine all the way to the edge. I am blown away by all the people who have done the swap.! I am glad others have tried it out. The truth is that if you get the 42mm offset wheel there is only a 3.5 to 5mm offset. I have gone 10k on my setup and love it. I will warn that you should never have an idiot put the tire on the wheel. I had a shop ruin a new tire and scratch the crap out of my wheel cause they could not get it to bead. The best thing to use is the beading grease lube on the whole bead. On a side note I love the wheels that Dragon is getting. I wanted one that had a covered center like that Ducati has. To each his own. Everyone on here has been very open minded and you dont see that much anymore. Ride Safe Edited June 9, 2012 by BigCarl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatiePotatie Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 Ok so I've run into a problem that nobody here has mentioned.. tyres just won't fit. The guys at Teammoto tried 3 different brands of 200 width tyres and none of them would seat onto the bead, not even with a bead blaster. Conclusion was that I needed something larger, which they didn't have in stock.. so I got a 240/45/17 Diablo Rosso II shipped over from America It is currently sitting on the rim, but again, beads won't seat.. Bike shop failed and a car tyre shop failed. So now it's at another place who has that bead blaster I mentioned earlier so they can give it another go with the wider tyre. Tis getting a little frustrating by this point and if I turn up tomorrow to see another failure then I'm out of options and will probably just sell off what I had and use the money elsewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veefer800Canuck Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 I take it they used lots of lube on the tire when trying to install it??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatiePotatie Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 They certainly did.. which made carrying it back to the car both difficult and messy. I didn't get a good look when they were attempting to fit the 200 tyre, but I watched them today on the 240 and the problem was getting it to sit over the bead at the front of the rim. About 90% of the circumference was sitting fine with a few spots folded in which let air out and prevented the rest from blowing into place from the compressor. It's the first time I've ever seen a tyre not seat on the front bead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V4 Rosso Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 Next time try some starting fluid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatiePotatie Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 haha yeah, I've done that before with car tyres on steelies a few times. Consider it a last resort to try at home since there's no way a legitimate business will try that for me in their workshop. Another problem being if that fails too I can no longer sell the tyre as brand new (or at least I wouldn't feel right about it). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer BCmcrider Posted August 7, 2012 Member Contributer Share Posted August 7, 2012 haha yeah, I've done that before with car tyres on steelies a few times. Consider it a last resort to try at home since there's no way a legitimate business will try that for me in their workshop. Another problem being if that fails too I can no longer sell the tyre as brand new (or at least I wouldn't feel right about it). Near new tire for sale. 1 heat cycle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tamworth Posted August 7, 2012 Share Posted August 7, 2012 They certainly did.. which made carrying it back to the car both difficult and messy. I didn't get a good look when they were attempting to fit the 200 tyre, but I watched them today on the 240 and the problem was getting it to sit over the bead at the front of the rim. About 90% of the circumference was sitting fine with a few spots folded in which let air out and prevented the rest from blowing into place from the compressor. It's the first time I've ever seen a tyre not seat on the front bead. Car and motorcycle bead sizing are not the same. Even though they may both be called 17 inch there is enough difference that it can not safely be done. If you did somehow get the bead to sit it would be stressed way beyond design. If you really want the wider tire you will have to widen the VFR wheel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reaper7767 Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 Ok so I've run into a problem that nobody here has mentioned.. tyres just won't fit. The guys at Teammoto tried 3 different brands of 200 width tyres and none of them would seat onto the bead, not even with a bead blaster. Conclusion was that I needed something larger, which they didn't have in stock.. so I got a 240/45/17 Diablo Rosso II shipped over from America It is currently sitting on the rim, but again, beads won't seat.. Bike shop failed and a car tyre shop failed. So now it's at another place who has that bead blaster I mentioned earlier so they can give it another go with the wider tyre. Tis getting a little frustrating by this point and if I turn up tomorrow to see another failure then I'm out of options and will probably just sell off what I had and use the money elsewhere. try a ***/55/17 tire, the 45 is way too small even for the stock rim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatiePotatie Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 (edited) try a ***/55/17 tire, the 45 is way too small even for the stock rim We tried 3 x 200/55/17 tyres before the current 240/45/17 The 45 in the middle is only the ratio of height to width, eg for a tyre 240mm wide, 45% of 240 (108mm) is how tall it is from sidewall to centre contact patch.. Since the rubber is molded in a complex shape and flexes easily these numbers are rarely exact, but rather a rough guide. Similarly the 200/55 would be 200mm wide and 110mm high, making only a 2mm difference between them, which is negligible. Just checked the ratio of a stock VFR tyre and it's only 99mm high being a 180/55, ever so slight difference in gearing going to a larger tyre it seems, giving lower rpm for any given speed. Anyways, back to the current situation.. I've left it with the guys at Tyrepower who generally work with trucks and 4wds, so they have a more powerful compressor to use. They have it seated on the rear bead fine, and on the front for about 95% of the circumference. It holds air fine, doesn't leak and has a good shape to it, but there is still a small section of sidewall that stayed folded under. I'll go back tomorrow when I'm not stuffing around at uni to see how its going, but with how close it is they seemed rather hopeful. @Tamworth: I'm aware of the reasons why it's hard to fit, just annoyed because nobody else had this issue before, only me. After comparing the bike rim to car rim and measuring the bead sizes I feel very confident in driving around on it for several years once it has seated properly. The only thing that was worrying me is getting it onto that bead in the first place, and if it isn't seated 100% perfectly I won't even consider using it. Edited August 10, 2012 by DragonCypher Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reaper7767 Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 (edited) one thing that ive been wondering is how do you balance it? would you balance it like a car tire or like a motorcycle tire, cause there two different methods and use different types of weights too. other thing that ive been wondering is will a 40 offset rim work too? im thinking thats going to be seriously close because with a 42 off it was 3-4.5mm away from the swigarm Edited August 13, 2012 by reaper7767 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatiePotatie Posted August 15, 2012 Share Posted August 15, 2012 Seems like this particular rim is a no-go.. still not sure why it's a different outcome to the other attempts in this thread though. I really didn't want to be the first one to fail and give up but I'm not sure what other options there are apart from widening a VFR rim (expensive and not the style I wanted) or just blind luck with another rim.. Option B - anyone in Australia want a cheap/new 240/45/17 or 4.25" bolt on spacer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helweg Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 Mine is ET-40 - fits fine didn't have any problems fitting tyre Been riding 3 months now and can't feel any bad steering or balance , but have had a lot of questions about fitment - and a lot of positiv feedback where i go took a pic from rear view - almost not visible the 5mm offset next project is to get my front wheel done and fork polished Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatiePotatie Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 Looks good Helweg, I just did a search through ASF - aus streetfighter forum and found about 8 different people who have successfully done this conversion with different width wheels and tyres up to 18x9 rims (though most threads are out of date and pics are dead) Have not found a single failure yet apart from mine. I've pm'd CBRRRT on that forum who was one of the first to do a write up on it and even made a .pdf how-to which shows removing the honda studs, pressing in longer studs and a home made spacer instead of the bolt-on option. How-to is located here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_FncGC_Bi0AMDZmNTRhZjQtYTg5MS00ZTE5LWIxNDItNmRiYjUxZjUxNjI3/edit?hl=en_GB&authkey=CMuLq4gO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericlw Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 one thing that ive been wondering is how do you balance it? would you balance it like a car tire or like a motorcycle tire, cause there two different methods and use different types of weights too. other thing that ive been wondering is will a 40 offset rim work too? im thinking thats going to be seriously close because with a 42 off it was 3-4.5mm away from the swigarm how is balancing a car tire and a motorcycle tire any different? I balance my car and motorcycle tires myself the same and they never vibrate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helweg Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 My front is static balanced - rear is dynamic like a car wheel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reaper7767 Posted August 18, 2012 Share Posted August 18, 2012 hey dragon your not the only one thats fail now, i tried mounting mine on a Konig lace (17x7) and it wont seat. im going to try a few more shops before i i give up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest emanonsc2 Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 I did have some trouble with mine, but i found this crazy ass kid at a used tire shop that put a crazy amount of psi in it at it finaly beaded up. Now doing this could go both ways 50/50, the tire could explode or it could bead just fine. I have been riding on mine for about 6 months now with no problems. The only thing i dont like with the 200 tire is it leave kind of a flat spot in the center of the tire, but it still all seams to wear the same so i guess thats all that counts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reaper7767 Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 how high would you go, cause my tanks can only go to 100 psi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Dutchy Posted August 20, 2012 Member Contributer Share Posted August 20, 2012 Can you operate your tanks via remote control? Do make a video............. Jesting over, good luck with this, that white rim looks very tasy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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