"A" wheels on a "B" model

My '79 KZ1000 LTD has the stock 16" rear mag wheel. I bought a '78 "A" model 18" rear spoke wheel and plan to put it on this bike.

I am guessing that this will be a straightforward swap as far as wheel spacers, chain length etc. go. Anyone else done this?

At the moment I am waiting to pickup a centerstand. Can't take the back wheel off yet and want to plan ahead. The replacement spoke wheel will get new wheel bearings and spokes, plus a polishing.

By the way, the replacment wheel has a disc brake, same as the stock 16" wheel.

Thanks, Mike

I believe that there are differences between the rear hub assembly in the KZ1000A1/2 and the KZ1000B models. There are also differences in the diameter of the rear disk. All else should be similar. I don't know how big the differences are and whether hubs and rotors will swap.

Hmm, let's rephrase the question and see if someone else will add to this.

Has anybody taken mags off an LTD and put them on their KZ1000A? If that is a simple bolt on procedure then putting spoke wheels on an LTD should be fine too.

Note: I already have a spoke wheel on the front, just wondering about putting a spoke wheel on the back.

Well if it's a disc rear wheel, to disc rear wheel. Going from the LTD Lester wheel to an older spoke wheel, the only thing we needed to change when doing it on a twin in the opposite direction, spoked to mag... was to change the wheel bearings as the spoked had a larger axle than the mag. Forget if we had to change the rotor's over or not, so long ago heh.

So the only thing you may need to do imo, is change the bearings in the spoke wheel you want to put on, to the bearing size used in your existing mag wheel. Should then be a cake walk, and use your existing spacers, etc. Before you just order bearings for the spoke, you may want to check and see if they used different sized ones, like they did on the 750s.

Captain America, thanks very much for that info. I do plan on changing the wheel bearings. Soon as I get a centerstand I'll take the rear wheel off, compare the two and order new bearings.

It will take awhile, but when it's done I'll post an update.