Im trying to find some older style 16" spoke wheels to powder coat black for my 2009 Deluxe. Right now I have the smooth style rim with no shoulder, I'm not a fan of these. I like the older style but my question is can I just press in 25mm axel bearings into the older hubs? I tried to find info on this with no luck. Any help would be greatly appreciated! And if you have a bearing part # thats even better.

Thanks, Ellis

 

The bearing outer diameter is the same, but the width of the 3/4" bearings are wider than the 25mm. You'd need a spacer behind the disc side bearing and the appropriate length bearing spacer for between the bearings to use the earlier wheels.

Since you're probably going to unlace/relace to powdercoat, you could lace in your existing hubs. Then everything will be as it should be.

 

Thanks Mike, I actually powder coat the whole wheel. I like the look of it better. They make those bearing spacers long so you cant cut them right?

 

I'm pretty sure you can buy the center spacer to the spec length. The actual bearing spacer, the thickness would be the difference between the bearing widths. You'd probably only need one. The disc brake side. You install that first and bottom it in the hole, then the drive side bearing butts against the center spacer. But if it were me, I'd use a spacer on both sides in case the disc side bearing decided it wanted to walk itself out of the bore. Then it could only go so far.

I did the opposite. Later wheels on an earlier bike. I have a well equipped garage with a lathe, milling machine and various other machine tools. I bored the bearing bores deeper to take a 3/4" bearing in the rear, and made custom bushings for the front that adapted the 25mm to my 3/4" axle.

Now, I've seen the center spacers at outfits like JP Cycle, but I've only seen the bearing spacer at Ryca and that was for a 1" bearing bore. I'd imagine some research will turn some up. If not, they can be made by a machine shop easy enough.

Good luck with the project!