Lesters, why special?

I was just wondering what is the deal with lester mags? I see them on alot of triples and z's. Are they lighter? I understand the look part and the fact that they are period correct, but do they perform better?

I have one Lester and one einki on my bike. I wish they matched but oh well. I have never weighed them but from what I understand they are heavier than spokes, I like em because they do not rust like my spokes have done

is there a reason you would swap factory mags for them?

In the early days very few bikes came with alloy wheels. I believe Lesters were available just before factory alloys were offered and/or they were a way to put mags on a bike that came with wires.

Thank you, this is what i was looking for. I am bidding on a lester for a kz but it is starting to go fairly high. I have the stock kz mag and will prolly just stick with it if there is no real performance gain

If Im hot mistaken the Lesters are a lot stronger than spoked rims and are made of real magnesium which is lighter that the aluminum mags

I have a set of Lesters on my 77 1000. i personaly do not care for the look and will be selling them this spring. 18" rear and 19" front. I doubt that they have 2K miles on them.I want to go back to the Kawasaki mag again.

650ed wrote:

In the early days very few bikes came with alloy wheels. I believe Lesters were available just before factory alloys were offered and/or they were a way to put mags on a bike that came with wires.

Yes. And available for drum rear brake.

Good Luck!

my pair(19 front single disk ..18 rear drum) are an extra pair for me,,and were what my bike came with...they feel much lighter than any other rims,spokes,kawi mags,d.i.d, that i have...i know this cause i just moved a while back and had to lift them all in and out of a truck..the lesters were way lighter to the arm feel...and really was easy to tell....the lesters are aluminum...the don't loosen or rust like metal rims with spokes,and they won't get brittle from age or use as quick as magnesium rims do....epm's...were only good for a while and then would begin to show stress cracks...the muzzy teams used to replace all their magnesium trick rims after so may miles,hours ,races....and before a single season was up..........

i'm gonna strip my lesters and do the duplicolor light coating sytems in gold and drilled dual disks.....stay tuned:woohoo:

It's been said already pretty much, but just to repeat basically, up until 1976 with the 900LTD there were no cast wheels, so you had the Lesters you were the height of cool in an aftermarket wheel. Of course all changed quickly after 1976 and a lot of the guys with Lesters decided spoke wheels were still cooler. The factory cast wheels on Kawasakis are not even close to a Lester in looks. Polish up that Lester it shines with quality. Strongest wheels ever made arguably. Of course paint them and all bets are off, junk from there, but factory they are the bomb. I think the 76 900LTD used Morris mags, then Enkei starting in 1977. The jury is still out for me as I like spoke wheels, but the Lesters are a nice wheel set. Seems to me they were around $600 a set way back in 1976, so some pretty good money on a $2000-$3000 motorcycle.

thanks ron i will take that to note...i have other mags that i could experiment with...not trying to start a museum..but maybe messing with the lesters would be a hastey choice...they are stock and in awesome polish now...good tip...

I think they look good. I have a friend that has them on a "z". Roy