help me convert

Hey everyone reading this, I'm new here to the forum and am considering coming over to the darkside. I have a '79 Yamaha XS650 that I'm puting a hardtail on, giving the front end a bit more rake and turning it into a real ratty looking thing with a lot of style. I would like to change it over to the dark side if it is possable. The bike is still in the building stage and I was hoping that someone would share their experience and or knowledge with using a car tire in place of my MC back tire I'm not only interested in using the car tire but would like to convert the car rim to work on the bike aswell. If this can be done and someone can describe how to modify the rim it would be appreciated. Look forward to your responses.

Pack Rat...
I know a guy that just palmed a 650 off on another guy down in Texas who's building a bobber with it.
From what I remember it had cast rims and I don't know how you could convert a car rim to work.
Maybe Twin will be along to tell us what he knows...

Hey Pack Rat, hope it will work out for you, but you owe us a pic anyway !
Would love to see it when finished, EVEN with a MT.
Robert.

Thanks guys for replying and the welcome. Pictures will definitely be posted and documented along the way but first I need to commit by figuring this out. I'll explain why I'm leaning towards a car tire along with the car rim and that is only to make this bike the complete vision that I see it becoming. The bike will be a real rats nest of parts, very eclectic and meticulous to detail. I want it at first glance to be somewhat of a "WTF" is that reaction followed by an appreciation for the creativity and originality it will posses. I'm creating a bike that will consist of parts that are aged with plenty of character and rust, and patina several vintage parts some that belong on a bike and some not and this leads me to the tire. I know that I can easily find a stock size MC tire in a vintage style but I see this bike having a wide tail. I know that I can use a MC rim and wide tire although I don't know of any wide vintage MC tires and a new MC rim would just not fit in with the whole scheme. I could really use some direction whether it is a wide Vintage MC tire and rim, or how to modify a car rim to fit a custom Rat bike or a wide vintage MC rim that can take a car tire. Right now I have a clean slate to work with. Show me the way into the Darkside.

I can help show you the way to the darkside, but how to make a Car rim work on your bike will be a completely different animal!

You could be looking at a ridiculous amount of planning, engineering and fabricating (especially this part)...

Are you gonna go single sided swingarm or stay with double? I know you are going hardtail, but I gotta call the fixed swingarm a swingarm, I guess...

maybe you can find a car rim the same diameter or so as the mc rim and cut the middle out of the mc rim and weld it into a car rim? something along this approach will probly be the easiest option. But I dunno about strength and the wider you go the higher the loading you will be applying.

I dunno, just some ideas that passed through my head thinking about it...

Find you a car tire that fits your rim and go with it. What I remember from my hard tail days, if it fits the rim you can mount it. The only thing you need top watch is the finder, make sure that the tire does not hit the finder.

What size is your original tire that came of it? Let go here for starters.

Congrats and welcome to our site.


.................bobby

Congrats on the courage, but get ready for some minor headaches. Harley owners were converting to VW and other wheels by respoking to the Hog hubs, but I don't have any idea how they came up with 40 spoke rims with the same draw angle as the stock spokes- I suspect there were broken spokes on occasion, due to the larger hub diameters of the cars.
If you're going to paint, powder coat or even aluminum polish your wheel(s), then it's just machining and welding work. Still, you either are going to build a completely new hub to weld into a plate for the rim or modify the stock hub. Either way, it's not for beginners. You also have true and balance to keep perfect.
I can see why home builders just laced wheels - it's easy to re-die an overlength spoke.