Help Identifying Alloy Rims KZ1000

When I recently bought my KZ1000A2. I paid no attention to the wheels because I was only thinking about removing the 16" rear that made it look like a LTD. Today I read an older thread here about Lester Mags and was looking at the pictures, someone said they preferred the "I beam" shape of the spokes over the Kawasaki wheels and I was wondering what they meant as they looked like my wheels. Anyway on closer inspection, they need a good clean. I realized neither wheel has any obvious identification on them and they are not the same spokes as my 18" Kawasaki wheel I'd bought for the rear. The spokes are indeed "I beam" shape. So can anyone identify what they are, I just assumed someone had put LTD wheels on it when I bought it, but apparently not. Did Lester or Morris make a 16" rear, the rear almost looks like you can see where the drum would fit in an alternate casting. Looking at pictures of Lester Wheels they look very much like them, but I've not seen a 16" with a disc for the rear.

Yes lester made 16 with disc, they made several applications, the only thing you have to look at them and make sure they're not Yamaha clones.

Most prefer the 18" rear over the 16" rear

Now I have a dilemma, find an 18" rear Lester or get a stock LTD front wheel and sell the Lesters :blink:

18" rear lesters are pretty desirable and a decent price ($300 or so) may be able to find them cheaper, if you're lucky

I don't know how much better the Lesters are than the factory wheels, but looking how much they are going for it's tempting to sell the ones I have, the 16's are not so popular, but between that and the front one they are worth an awful lot more than a new LTD front wheel that will match my 18" rear.

Personally I'd go back to the spoke wheels that your bike was born with, just with some aluminum rims laced up instead.

On lester vs. the enkei kawasaki aluminum rims, the difference is purely aesthetic.

I would consider going to spoked, but I already have spoked wheels on my KZ650B1 and have often thought about going alloy on that so for the moment I fancy a change. As I have new tires to go on already and an 18" Kawasaki rear wheel and the front I think I'll just get a KZ1000LTD Kawasaki front wheel, they are pretty cheap, then I can get those rims powder coated and the tires mounted and then decide what to do with the Lesters at leisure. I'd also prefer not to have a bike minus wheels during powder coating process. I don't really want to ride it with the existing front tire that's got some minor sidewall cracks, but at least I can move it around and wobble round the block for some basic road test stuff. The wheel issue is currently hindering me getting to a stage where I can at least get a few rides in before winter hits, so getting another new wheel might be a blessing in disguise.

I presume that someone fitted the Lesters back in the day, a lot wanted the wide 16" back then people would even re lace the spoked rim hubs to a 16" Harley rim to get the fatter back tire. When I bought the bike I just assumed they were LTD rims that had been put on more recently because the spoked rims had corroded or similar.

Yeah the LTD wheels are easy to find, I've got a few sets sitting around. In my case my kz1000, goldwing and H2 have spoke wheels so I just like them.

Wire George built this bike last year and has inspired me to do something similar with my 77
I have a 18 inch rear though but I like how the black rims go with the tires ,fenders and pipes.

I'm still undecided on the color to go for, gold looks great if combines with the polished alloy of the outer rim, all silver also looks good on ones I've seen polished, I am going to look into clear powder coat over natural alloy or a powder coat to look like polished alloy for ease of cleaning. The original black also looks good, tough choice.

Satin black and polished aluminum alloy accents looks GREAT!

Agreed, but looking at pictures on the internet I also like these too.