GL1000 18” Front Wheel Lester Setup

[stingits]

I have a 1979 GL1000 that I am customizing. Changing the front forks, brakes, and axel (with nut and spacer) to 1976 for the 6 bolt disc and caliper bolt spacing for the 6 bolt 18’’ Lester front wheel (rarer than the 19’’) and same diameter as my 18’’ Lester rear wheel (also rarer from what I understand). I understand the seals and bearings are supposed to be interchangeable with the 1976 and Comstars. I also understand that the speedometer gearbox is on the opposite side on the 1976. However, the 18” Lester front wheel does not have the same internal hub shape such that there is no ledge for the seals and bearings on one side and no notches for the speedometer gearbox on that same side. Does anyone know how the 18” Lester setup differs from the 19” Comstars for 1976?

[Whiskerfish]

I have no clue to answer your question except to throw another variable in. Those comstars were never stock on the 76. So it sounds like you are modifying a existing modification?
When I did front wheel changes on my 78 and 75 I swapped the whole front end from the neck on down. Made life much easier.

[stingits]

Thanks for the reply. Note the Comstars came with the 1979 main bike. I am swapping out the front end to 1976 to accommodate the 18” Lesters because they are 6 bolt, and the discs, disc bolts, calipers, caliper brackets, and forks are all different on 1975 to 1977 when 6 bolts were used. Or at least that is what I have been able to gather.

I did some additional research and picture review of Lester’s and spoke wheels from what I believe are 1975 to 1977 GL1000s, and it appears the 6 bolt spoke wheels seem to have the “extra” hardware that is missing from my Lester, including the middle sleeve with some end caps rather than a simple middle spacer on the Comstars as well as a plate with notch like indentations mounted next to the dics/wheel where the speedometer gearbox appears to sit rather than the notches built into the 1979 Comstars.

So, I am wondering whether the 1975-77 spoke and Lester’s are a straight swap out and the spoke extra hardware can be used in the Lester, and thus I just need to get my hands on a 1975 to 1976 spoke wheel with the discs still mounted and use all the “extra” hardware from that spoke wheel for my Lester. Any thoughts or insights?

[Whiskerfish]

Hmmmmmm.... I can not answer that. It has been probably a decade since I swapped mine around but I do not recall having to scrounge for any hardware.

Hopefully someone else will chime in

[low-side]

A '75 or '76 donor wheel would have everything you need. Separately, it would be: bearings, bearing spacer, bearing retainer and seal, speedo drive, both rotors, both bezels, and the 6 bolts and nuts. BTW - that 18" front is highly desired by the cafe racer and vintage racing crowds. If you're not married to it, you could probably sell it for twice or better what a 19" Lester would run.

[redglbx]

When I converted my 76 over to Lester’s (19 &16”) waaay back in 77 I believe it was a straight swap. Add the 76 rotors and speedo drive is all I remember having to move from the spoked wheels to the Lester’s. One of the single best upgrades I ever did to my 76.

I converted to update to tubless Goodyear HST tires and to help with the wobbling like a drunk sailor in the corners, it was much, much better. Back then they blamed the shocks for the poor handling but on my 76 it was absolutely the oe wheels. Keep in mind that the Lester’s are much heavier than the factory spoked wheels. The 18” front wheel is indeed very rare and should make your bike steer much quicker,, but imho with the low Cg of the early wings they tend to bend into corners pretty easily and quickly but it’s your bike.

It’s interesting that my 76 LTD that is all stock handles like it’s on rails vs the wobblefest that was my oe red bike. On the forks & triple clamps I don’t believe there is any differences in the 75-77 years but something tells me that they went with tapered bearings in 77 but that’s been many years ago so I’m not sure,,, either way it is a good upgrade on any year.

As a side note let me just say that I really hate autocorrect, it is a constant battle to write something, my .02

[Whiskerfish]

SNIP
As a side note let me just say that I really hate autocorrect, it is a constant battle to write something, my .02

Must be on your device. I would never have it enabled on here as it would drive me crazy. I have enough trouble trying to express my thoughts without some machine attempting to tell me what I am trying to say!!

[Shadowjack]

I remember reading an article in a period magazine where they re-tested the same new bike after cast wheels were put on and they explicitly noticed that the weave they were complaining about in the first test was gone.

[redglbx]

Steve, totally agree ! I hate it and I believe it is my iPad but haven’t been able to shut it off. Just frustrating !

Jack, my personal experience was that as well, my 76 when new was just terrible wobbling and weaving, I was very disappointed as I came from a very solid handling 75 750 Supersport that was just rock solid in the corners.

Once I went with the Lester’s and the tubeless HST’s on my standard 76 it was transformed to a pretty good handler, so much so that I wore a hole through the original case guards I had, I was concerned that way when I got my 76 LTD but as I stated above it handled very well. I don’t know if that was a result of the special attention that the LTD got or not but it definitely handled much better than my standard ever did.

[stingits]

low-side: thanks for the reply and confirmation of the direct swap out of the spoke with the Lester. I just picked up a complete 1975 spoke wheel including with speedometer gear. So I think I am good now and will let you know when I assemble it all up in the next couple weeks.

low-side and redglbx: I am also one of those cafe racer guys and wanted to balance the wheels between front and back. A combination of the attached pictures are what I am trying to Frankenstein my bike to be. This requires replacing the dual backbone and fake tank with a single backbone and real tank and replacing the dual tail structure and shocks with a monoshock. I have the build pictures from the yellow bike so hope I don’t screw it up—although I am going with a bit rougher look like the other bike picture with a weathered tank and skateboard with Persian rug for a seat.

redglbx, I was a navy Hornet pilot back in the day, so perhaps I should stick with the spokes and tubes to continue to live in the past and reminisce my drunken sailor days!

In any event, I very much appreciate everyone weighing in to help me out. I am sure I will have more questions as I continue to modify and rebuild the entire bike.

Ed

[Fred Camper]

Sounds like a great project, please keep posting pics as it is most interesting to many of us.

[Rat]

What Fred said … great fun

Gord