[ApexVintage]

First let me say this site is great, loads of good info.



I have recently discovered the joys of Z50 ownership and am building a couple of 94s for pitbike duty at the track. I want to go with 10" rims but have trouble justifying wheels that cost more than I have in the bikes. The wheels here seem reasonable:Honda Mini Trails Honda mini bikes and Honda Z50 Honda 50 Honda Minitrail NOS Parts and services Kitaco and Takegawa performance parts. Part# Z204. Does anybody have any experience with them? I also want to put some reasonably sticky street tires on but am unsure of an appropriate size. 110/80/10 sound about right? Lastly, after searching for replacement plastic for the later bikes, I've found no rear fenders less than $100. Really? Even the ones I see on EBAY once in a blue moon are totaly destroyed.



Thanks in advance for any help.



Dave

 

[z50 chopper]

those rims you are talking about are 4" wide, 110 tire width should be wide enough.

But with the larger rim and tires you will need a longer than stock swing arm but you can measure to make sure measure from your axle centre point forward to the cross-member on your stock swing arm if it less than 10" you will need a longer swing arm so those tires will fit that way, then at a spot about 9" infront of your axle centre make sure your swing arm is over 5" wide inside measurement. The conversion from metric to inches is below, these are just approximated 22 mm = 1 inch. I am sure you already knew this but just in case you didn't I thought I'd include it.



110/80/10

5"/4"/10"

 

[ApexVintage]

Thanks for the info, I'll measure the swingarm when I get it back from powdercoat.

 

[mexicanyella]

1" = 25.4mm

 

[z50 chopper]

1" = 25.4mm

like I said approximated

 

[mexicanyella]

Taken out to the 20th decimal place, that would be



1" = 25.40000000000000000000mm



It's also instructive to consider that 1" = 2.54cm



and 1/10" = 2.54mm.

 

[z50 chopper]

so yella do you agree with the suggestion I gave apex, about measuring?

110 is the width of the tire and 80 is actually 80% of the width for the height of the tire from the rim, if that makes sense to you



so 110mm wide/88mm tall

 

[mexicanyella]

so yella do you agree with the suggestion I gave apex, about measuring?

110 is the width of the tire and 80 is actually 80% of the width for the height of the tire from the rim, if that makes sense to you



so 110mm wide/88mm tall

I agree with the last part, about the section width in mm and aspect ratio being a percentage of the section width, etc.



I don't really know about the aftermarket wheels question; my sense is that a 100-110mm width tire on a 4" rim might be spread out kind of far and make for a weird profile, but take that with a grain of salt because all my Honda mini experience is with stock 8" wheels, which I think are 2.5" wide and are usually seen shod in 3.50 x 8 rubber.



That said, unless you're really hung up on the look of some aftermarket 10" wheels, what's wrong with the stock 8" ones? If you're just zipping around the pits at the track or whatever, swapping wheels and putting on super-sticky tires is just for bragging rights and bling. You could just as well run the stock bridgestone TWs for that use.



Dirtbkr188 was just telling me about a buddy of his that can drag the pegs on a Z50R on a paved parking lot with Michelin S83 tires on stock 8" Z wheels. Those tires can be had for about $30 apiece online; maybe that would be a better budget solution? I like the S83 on the front of my hardtail very much, but it's useless in mud and my bike only goes about 30 mph.



I was just amusing myself with the metric/decimal stuff. Sorry. Been a long day.

 

[z50 chopper]

I doubt 10 x 4 rims with 110/80/10 tires will fit a stock swing arm and if they do it will be very tight. I that is why people go with a longer swing arm when they run 10" rims

 

[ApexVintage]

I actually don't really want 4" wide rims but everything else is not just a little, but a lot more expensive. I actually don't mind the 8" wheels, but I like the numerous tire options in the larger diameter. Besides, is there a place more appropriate than the racetrack where EVERYBODY has a cool pitbike to have a little bling? It is starting to sound like maybe these are not the wheels for me. What would it take to adapt ct70 wheels? I have a machine shop and can weld anything so modification is not a problem. Thanks again for the info.



Dave

 

[mexicanyella]

CT wheels are a cinch if you run a set of 1" longer aftermarket fork lowers in the Z front forks, and a 4" longer swingarm from a XR75 or XR80. The CT wheels go right in. The swingarm needs to be modded slightly at the frame's swingarm pivot; the pivot tube on the Z frame is a little too wide to go between the bushing holder things on the XR swingarm. You can cut a little off each side of the XR swingarm's inner pivot area, and there's a thread by ShapeShifter with great photo documentation of how to do this. The thread's called something like "Can of Worms to Can of Whoopass" and was last year sometime. You can find it with the search function.



Note that the CT rear brake uses a torque arm like the XR rear brake, so if you use CT wheels you won't need to weld on a brake anchor like ShapeShifter did.



I bet if you sent a member here called dirtbkr188 a PM he'd send you photos of a CT-wheeled Z50R he built, to give you an idea what the CT wheels look like on that sort of chassis setup.

 

[z50 chopper]

this it mexicanyella?

 

[mexicanyella]

Yep, that's the one I was thinking of. I dig that bike. I don't know that I've seen it flying the "Wawa" sponsor colors before, though.

 

[ApexVintage]

So I'm assuming I would need to run the CT70 hubs and brakes, but why do I need the longer swingarm and forks? As long as I don't go crazy on the tire width and diameter, would the wheels fit in the Z50 swingarm and stock forks?

 

[z50 chopper]

longer swing arm adds stability and I don't know if the stock z50 swing arm is long enough for ct70 rims w/tires.



+1 longer fork legs other than raising ride height a bit don't really do much as far as I am concerned.

 

[mexicanyella]

Longer swingarm gives room to adjust the wheel fore-and-aft for chain tensioning, for starters. I'll try taking a photo of a CT wheel with stock, worn 4.00 x 10 tire crammed in a Z50 swingarm and post it here later today.