Hitchcocks Forum

Season's greetings to one and all. Daft question possibly, but is it possible to fit 19" wheels to a 1960 350 Clipper which has 17" wheels? Is there enough clearance, particularly on the rear to prevent a 19" wheel rubbing on the mudguard when the suspension is at the bottom of its travel. I wouldn't have thought there would be great difficulty putting a 19" wheel on the front, apart, perhaps, from having to lengthen the mudguard stays; or would a mudguard to suit a 17" wheel look odd with a 19" wheel? Any advice would be greatly appreciated even if to say the idea is nonsensical.

With the short wheelbase and small bike, 19's may look a bit out of place. I think 18" would be a better solution. More tyre availability than 17", and they probably would fit under the present mudguards.

The pre-unit 1960 350 Clipper has the same frame as it did for 1958 when fitted with 19" wheels, also the same as fitted to the 500 Big Head Bullets which didn't swap to 17" wheels. If you look at the unrestored 59/60 350 Bullet in out hosts for sale section with the same 17" wheels as your Clipper you will see there is loads of clearance for the extra 1" radius you will need at the back of the bike. The front end is a different story, but if you replace the undamped Clipper forks with a new drum brake Indian Bullet set you can also use a complete 19" Indian Bullet front wheel with the twin leading shoe brake. You COULD even fit an Electra-X or Electra EFI disk front end if you're not worried about originality, though of course you will want to store the original parts carefully.



Once that is sorted you just need to check the extra 1" off the deck for the underside of the bike leaves you with a long enough centre stand, again this is something you can replace with a recent Indian Bullet item, and which is actually much easier to use. A larger back wheel will also upset the speedo calibration slightly if you're using the original instrument.



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It's a pet hate of mine but please fit mudguards of the correct radius. Nothing looks worse on a bike than non concentric mudguards IMO.

Been a couple of posts re 18 and 19 inch wheels. It's something the bear in mind that whilst the rim diameter may change the height of the tyre (ie rolling circumference) may not change that much due to the profile. 17's may well be a different situation but 5 x 16, 18 x 4.25/4.5 and 19 x 3.5 on the back end of a bike do not lead to massive changes in gearing and/or stand height. (one rotation still covers a similar amount of road).

Another thing to look out for is length and type of front forks - Like the Meteor Minors, I think 17" wheel models had longer forks, with less lead on the wheel spindle location [I am not claiming to be an expert in this field, but I have my suspicions]. Regards, Paul.

I skirted round that bit as I was not sure, but having seen the evidence in B.W.'s workshop it is another consideration, hence my suggestion for using Indian Bullet forks which have the damper assembly.



Avon's web site is helpful about tyre sizes. This is for the SM Mk 2 but other tyres are available, the mfr's web site should have the data.



http://www.avon-tyres.co.uk/motorcycle/ ... leage-mkii



The larger the tyre, the fewer revolutions per mile. Tyre circumference (Ï€ x d) for the SM Mk2 are as follows. 3.25"x17"=76.34", 4.00"x18"= 83.88", 3.50"x19" = 84.51". So for gearing and speedo drive considerations if you divide the number of inches in a mile, 63,360 by the circumference of the tyre you get 829.97 revolutions per mile for the 17", 791.13 for the 18" and 785.23 for the 19".



I agree with PeteF about mudguard fitting, though the worst looking thing on a motorcycle is probably the MZ Trophy front end from the early seventies (unless you count the fake HD rear cylinder thing used on some Indian Bullet customs)...



https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=htt ... 04.jpg&f=1



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Apologies to all, in my reply I was picturing a Crusader type bike, hence comment about small bike. Just another seniour moment! A happy new year from Seattle. Having Xmas with the grandkids, but looking forward to home and proper central heating!

@ Nettshubby,



not a total senior moment, as RE did go on to market the budget version of the unit 250 as the Clipper, have a look at our hosts' list of catalogue photos for 250 models for 1962 and 1964. You were only a couple of years out!



http://www.hitchcocksmotorcycles.com/ph ... category=2

@ Papasmurf,



thank you for doing the honours with the MZ photo, I was feeling too lazy to download the copy, uploading it to a photo hosting web site and posting the HTML code here. Your selfless example shames me into action for posting a photo of the only other thing that looks worse than a non-concentric front mudguard.





Hébergé par Imagesia, le meilleur hébergeur d'images du net !



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