HD Forums Australia
Home
Online: speedzter
Topics

Hilly's 1999 XL1200S

6/7
  • speedzter
    speedzter
    2 months
    "I'm not seeing much available for 130/90-16 dual sport wise"

    I will add that it looks like there is nothing in that size .
    You may be able to source a Kenda K761 from O/S .

    It may sound odd, but I'd suggest trying to source a Fatbob front for the rear :
    Then do a little re-grooving .
  • Hilly
    Hilly
    2 months
    NZ has these....

    Mt60rs 130-90~B-16 67H Tl Ff 16 - Moto | Hyper Ride https://share.google/3f5x3ULc5yZAMjgBL

    Can that it's a front, google led me astray, bloke from motorcycle tyre warehouse set me straight, there are zero available in our market like you said speedzter, I'm thinking cheap is the way to go now lol.
  • Hilly
    Hilly
    2 months
    It's either these or the cheapest shinkos, any experience with them out there?
    Screenshot_20251212-220103.png
  • speedzter
    speedzter
    2 months
    Using a front on the rear is not as unusual as you'd think .
    But I get it if you don't want to go there !
    For dirt riding, having grip on the front is a bit more important than the rear, so that part is easy to sort . 

    Shinko is pretty big these day, a lot of Harley guys are running them (unsure what version in a 130 - 712 ? - bargain $).
    Kenda is also big in the dirt market, but unsure of their road tyres.
    I'm sure the 671 will be fine ( been around for over 10 years like the Shinko 712). 
  • Hilly
    Hilly
    2 months
    Legal nuances if things go pear shaped kinda pull me up on running a front on the rear, I don't want to mismatch front and rear either as the bike won't be solely on dirt and I can foresee situations that a difference in grip could cause me grief, thanks for all the suggestions though, I'll mull my options over.
  • obisteve
    obisteve
    2 months
    Hilly this might sound like a weird recommendation, but it's backed a lot of miles on dirt roads, beach work on Fraser Island, and on the sandy tracks in the Pilliga Scrub.
    I've gone through a lot of 4.10 x 19 Dunlop K81s on the Sporty. It's a 60s style tyre so it's got big tread grooves and it's got big separate blocks around the tread edge. I've got a 21 front now with an Avon Trekrider on it, typical modern adv tyre, and I wouldn't guarantee it's any better performing on dirt than the old style Dunlop. The other thing, they have a stiff sidewall so cope OK with dropping the pressure to under 25 psi, spreading out to give a big footprint.
  • Hilly
    Hilly
    2 months
    I'll check em out Steve, thanks.
    Pulled the seals to check the bearings condition and see what the shim pack thickness was, shims were in the wrong side, clueless to whether that matters or not, discounting the stepped washer the pack was .8 of a mm but that's a moot find as the pulley side bearing was toast.
    EasyR sell an All balls kit, they any good? I could chase up the timkin bearing separately but by the time you add bearings and seals and postage you are at roughly the same price point.
    I don't have a tapered bearing remover installer, I only have a stick welder and I'm not keen on putting a bead on the bearing with that, I can get one on flea bay for just under 80 bucks, maybe that's the ticket?
    PXL_20251213_011848164.jpg
    PXL_20251213_011912060.jpg
  • speedzter
    speedzter
    2 months
    All Balls gear may not always be Oem quality,  but it generally works perfectly fine.
    If you had a local bearing supply shop it might be different. 
    Tapered bearings are good and bad .
    Superior in lots of ways, but a lot more work to set up. 
    Stick welders suck for that sort of work !

  • Hilly
    Hilly
    2 months
    Ended up going with timkins, they, seals, shim kit and installer/remover on the way, gawd knows when it will all turn up given the madness that is the postal service at this time of year.
  • beaglebasher
    beaglebasher
    2 months
    Quoting speedzter on 05 Dec 2025 01:43 AM

    If you need any advice on Brake fluid, I think we have a member here that has some experience 😁

    Cheeky bastard
  • Hilly
    Hilly
    2 months
    Still waiting on parts, sigh!

    PXL_20251223_093108259.jpg
  • Hilly
    Hilly
    1 month
    The bearing remover installer finally showed up, well the second one did, first one is still sitting in Melbourne, it went from Zhuang to Illinois to Melbourne, took 3 weeks to do that, after it spent 2 weeks in Melbourne I got a refund, a week before the refund I though stuff it I'm not gunna get it and brought another one that was implied to be in an Aussie warehouse, lying bastards, again from some city in china, it was slow but at least it got here. 
    Had to modify the 2 driver cups, I knew that before I brought it so no surprise there, just had to chamfer the bottom of the small end as the gap behind the bearing is radiused not square cut.
    Knocked the old cups out, the reason for the bearing failure was right behind one cup, previous bearing change chap must not of used lube when he belted it in, it picked up on one side and rolled a nice little bead of alloy up behind it, I'm guessing that over time this squished further and the bearing clearance went to shit.
    Cleaned the Burr out of the bore with a bearing scraper and lightly touched up the pick up area with a little 120 grit flapper wheel in the cordless drill.
    Lost the will to live at that point.....was buggered I mean.
    PXL_20260128_025438526.jpg
    The mod, one done
    PXL_20260128_033216742.jpg
    Bearings out
    PXL_20260128_033039530.jpg
    The naughty
    PXL_20260128_033237397.jpg
    PXL_20260128_071222410.jpg
    Cleaned up ready for new bearings cup, it will have lube, always time for lube .....
  • Hilly
    Hilly
    1 month
    Found a gap in the must does for a bit of wanna does, gave the new bearing cups and the bores a light smear of white lithium grease, it's good stuff for pressing bearings and pins, used it heaps when I was rebuilding earth moving equipment, new cups went it no worries. 
    Set up a dial indicator and with the help of a few spacers dry set the bearing end float on the bench using shims to get .05mm or .002", I'm happy with that, hopefully tomorrow I'll get it lubed, sealed and back on the bike.
    PXL_20260130_031118929.jpg
    PXL_20260130_031040432.jpg
    PXL_20260130_031051915.jpg
  • Hilly
    Hilly
    27 days ago
    Weekend was a write off, today I got the back wheel all buttoned up and back on, pulled the front wheel to check the bearings even though they felt fine rotation and play wise. 
    Glad I did, both sides were water damaged, grease was contaminated, both seals literally fell out of the hub under the weight of the spacers when I rolled the wheel forward.
    The shim pack was in the wrong side again plus the stepped shim that's supposed to butt up against the bearing was in the middle of the shim stack, anyway knocked the cups out and will clean it all up tomorrow.

    PXL_20260203_054619212.jpg
    PXL_20260203_054625414.jpg
    PXL_20260203_054630738.jpg
    PXL_20260203_054636666.jpg
    PXL_20260203_073908858.jpg
  • speedzter
    speedzter
    27 days ago
    Wow, a hidden mess !
    It really is a convoluted system, and you can see why the average dodo fucks them up .
    You know you were always going to check them 😉 
    Fix it now and you can forget them for a few years.
  • Hilly
    Hilly
    26 days ago
    Quoting speedzter on 03 Feb 2026 09:48 PM

    Wow, a hidden mess !

    It really is a convoluted system, and you can see why the average dodo fucks them up .
    You know you were always going to check them 😉 
    Fix it now and you can forget them for a few years.

    Yep I was lol, I've held off on buying tyres until I could double(triple, quadruple) check how much rear tyre clearance I have between the sidewall and the lower belt guard, I can only just squeeze the shank of a snap-on 9/16th combo spanner through so its bugga all.
    Such a shame as there are so many more choices with a 140, haven't decided yet, I thought I had it pinned down but then second guessed myself and thought I would check the options again, no rush. 
  • obisteve
    obisteve
    26 days ago
    The previous system was a bit simpler but more expensive and time consuming to service; no spacers, just a colour coded graduated length set of the steel spacer tubes inside the hub. Replace the bearings if needed, dry assemble on the bench, measure the end float, if necessary buy another spacer tube, install, measure end float again, hopefully not have to buy another tube, grease bearings, replace seals, put it back on the bike. And check for smooth rotation and rock.
    Still, I got to 230,000 kms with only having 2 spare spacer tubes. When I installed a 21" wheel from a mates part stash, I needed to buy a 3rd tube. I replace wheel bearing seals every tyre change and grease the bearings. That's for a 1990 model, dunno when they changed to the shim system.
  • Hilly
    Hilly
    26 days ago
    I dunno when they changed to shims in all models Steve, thought 92 for sportsters but not sure, the shim stacks are good for fine tuning clearance however as you point out set up and maintained properly either way should last a long time between bearing changes. 
    The tapered timkins are pretty robust, the woeful condition of some of the bearings we had to reinstall on cat dump trucks because of warranty constraints beggars belief, Warman pump barrels are another extreme environment they excel in.
    Can you get ABS tapered bearings I wonder? Might be one of the drivers to the move to sealed bearings as wheel bearings in Harley's? I assumed it was just to make it simpler(cheaper) for the moco, jaded I know.




  • obisteve
    obisteve
    24 days ago
    Went looking for what's available in sensor bearings. SKF, NSK & NBC only have them available in deep groove Ball bearings, not in tapered rollers. Makes sense I suppose, correct operation would depend on precise accuracy in the Hall effect sensors clearance with the rotating bits. You can control that if you pump them out of the factory as sealed units, not if you are depending on end user assembly.
    Since HD went to sealed balls wheel bearings about 10 years before adding ABS, it must have been for speed of assembly. Made them the same as the rest of the bike industry, didn't cost them sales, no body ever bought a Harley because having tapered roller wheel bearings was a selling point.
    I like to be able to maintain stuff though.
    After I once had to replace a wheel bearing on a W2 650  Kawa with the bike propped up on the side stand and my helmet in a metered parking spot in the Gosford CBD when I was 1000 km from home, I took to fitting sealed ball bearings, pulling out the inner side seals, drilling, tapping and fitting a grease nipple to the hub and pumping the hub cavity full of grease.
    Did that on a couple of the succeeding bikes, another W2 and Norton Commando.
    Got a parking ticket that time in Gosford.
  • Hilly
    Hilly
    24 days ago
    Gave you a ticket for a breakdown! Some people suck at being human.
    Drilling the hub was to be able to force new grease through the bearings? 
    The outside seals would pop I would've thought, I suppose if you pump fresh through, wipe the excess away and pop the seal back in it would do the job well enough.
    Providing there was room to do it without pulling the wheel it would save a bit of time and a set of seals compared to tapered ones.
    I was musing about the feasibility of going to sealed bearings on older Harleys in a thread on here awhile back, someone pointed out that given the available space if retaining the stock hub and axel there simply wasn't enough room for a bearing that would be up to the task, fair point I thought.
Topics
6/7