FZR Front Wheel question

[fj11.5]

Once, a long long time ago I was riding an XS750 that I bought new (It was once on the back cover of Cycle!) and one front wheel bearing went away. I was in south central Missouri just outside of Big Spring. The local auto parts store had the correct bearing, and I changed the bearing in the parking lot. If that bearing needed a bushing to make it work, I would have been out of luck. Will a bushing work? Yes it will. Do I want to be 400 miles from my lathe and need a bushing or 2 to be able to ride home?  No, not so much.

So: 1. I try to keep some things, like bearings, simple.   2. I no longer loan my motorcycles to roommates who will ride them through semi deep river crossings, and or wash them with a high pressure spray. He didn't tell me about either until after my parking lot repair.

There is a little more to this story, but I will save it for another day.

all good points mate, definaty something to keep in mind

[CarterJamie]

Dont know how i tag or quote someone but Pat says in this topic that

I thought we are talking about fitting a '89+ FZR rim which uses a 42mm OD bearing (42x17x13).
The stock bearing for the 15mm axle is 40mm OD. (40x15x13)

I have just bought a 92 FZR front to go in my FJ and so have become interested in the options for fitting, for me its allll about the easy route. And i just found this bearing

Bearing Number   Boundary dimensions(mm)
TBBS     a   B   C
6302     15   42   13   

As you can see it is a 42x15x13.   
So my question before i spend like, all of £7 on the bearings is. Are those bearing dimensions stated for the FJ and FZR 100% correct

Also im new on here, how do

[GS Jockey]

Dont know how i tag or quote someone but Pat says in this topic that

I thought we are talking about fitting a '89+ FZR rim which uses a 42mm OD bearing (42x17x13).
The stock bearing for the 15mm axle is 40mm OD. (40x15x13)

I have just bought a 92 FZR front to go in my FJ and so have become interested in the options for fitting, for me its allll about the easy route. And i just found this bearing

Bearing Number   Boundary dimensions(mm)
TBBS     a   B   C
6302     15   42   13   

As you can see it is a 42x15x13.   
So my question before i spend like, all of £7 on the bearings is. Are those bearing dimensions stated for the FJ and FZR 100% correct

Also im new on here, how do

Hi there. I don't know how relevant this will be some 4 months after your post, but here goes...

Having just read through this thread, I'm with Hein as far as the bushing goes. This is the exact mod I did last year when I had to use an Exup (FZR '89 on for our US friends...) wheel because Genesis (87-88) front wheels are as plentiful as Hens' teeth.

I took the 42x17x13 bearings to a local (precision) engineering company, told them the problem, and they made me up a couple of bushes out of 'Silver Steel'.
I fitted them with the wheel about a year ago now, with no problems in the ~ 10k miles I've covered since. That's on not only British roads, but involved a 3k mile round trip over two weeks to Norway, and a ~ 1500 mile trip over a week to France.

I do check the bearings every couple of months, and they're absolutely fine.

I might add that, fitting the Exup front and Genesis rear wheels, coupled with a pair of Continental Road Attack2 tyres, has totally transformed the handling of the bike. On twisty 'B' roads, it would now be close to matching the handling of my BMW R1100 GS. And I've scraped the footpegs of the GS on more than a few occasions.

Having just read your post again, could you divulge where you got that bearing, and any bearing number on it?

Dave.

[DaveyG]

Hi all, sorry for the thread revival but I had some questions very closely related, but just ever so slightly tangent. I'm trying to use a set of FJ11 forks to (slightly) upgrade my '80 XS11, trying to turn the old beast into a slightly better handling and stopping version of a muscle bike haha and the FJ forks fit the visual aesthetic I was hoping for without breaking the bank (and I got lucky and the tree stem is even a very easy swap too!) but I want to keep my XS11 wheels, which use a 17mm axle, so I was wondering if these bikes had any weak points at the axle on the fork slider? I was thinking it would likely behoove me to bore out the sliders and machine a 17mm axle, as the larger axle (in my mind) should be more rigid. (I'm a tool and die maker by trade so the work itself won't cost me much, just stay late at work a couple evenings haha) am I wrong or is there any danger in boring out the aluminum?

[Pat Conlon]

Yes, you can bore out the FJ lower sliders to fit the 17mm axle, there is plenty of material down there. You are only shaving 1mm off the circumference. While the 3.5" wide front rims off the '87/88 FZR1000/750 use a 15mm axle (same size as the FJ thus straight plug and play) those rims are getting hard to come by, however, the later '89+ FZR rims use the bigger 17mm axle and are more plentiful...so several FJ folks have modified the FJ lowers for the 17mm axle to be able to use the '89+ FZR front rims. 

[DaveyG]

Yes, you can bore out the FJ lower sliders to fit the 17mm axle, there is plenty of material down there. You are only shaving 1mm off the circumference. While the 3.5" wide front rims off the '87/88 FZR1000/750 use a 15mm axle (same size as the FJ thus straight plug and play) those rims are getting hard to come by, however, the later '89+ FZR rims use the bigger 17mm axle and are more plentiful...so several FJ folks have modified the FJ lowers for the 17mm axle to be able to use the '89+ FZR front rims. 

The wheel I'm going with is a '80 XS11, it's a 19x2" haha definitely not a meaty front width, but I like em.

[giantkiller]

 
Would be good if you want to use for 1/4 mile runs.