Thursday, October 7

Weird offset. Hmmm...


I'm putting a 21" rim on the front of the Pan, and moving the 18" rim to the back.

I got this wheel off Ebay (nice chromed and rebuilt OEM star hub) supposedly laced for a Pan or Knuck (would the offset be different for a springer?), but as you can see it doesn't sit centred between the forks. By my reckoning I need to move the wheel a quarter of an inch away from the brake.

Now... can I just loosen the spokes and try to do this in situ, using the axle and forks as a makeshift trueing stand? Advice needed.

7 comments:

SHIFTHEAD SPEED said...

Ive got the same issue with my FL frontend on my shovel. Mine is offcenter, but not as bad as yours. My wheel seemed to "walk" about an 1/8in on the axle. After adjusting the brake correctly, I realized I was missing a spacer. I spaced the wheel away from the drum by using a washer I drilled out. Everything works great now! Good luck, keep me posted on what you do.

arcadian said...

Guy as far as I'm aware, all wheels are built centred. You should put a 1/4 spacer between your hub and brake drum plus longer bolts.
Billy Lane ses in his book he laced offset when he fucked up in the early days.
- maybe someone may have a different opinion but i had stainless wheels built for my chop, there was no offset option.

Guy@GK said...

Well, the factory manual stipulates a 1/4" offset for 18" rims on the brake side...

Quaffmeister said...

Can't build wheels myself mate, but the few blokes I know who can reckon that a half inch or more is available by adjusting the spokes, don't think it would be a problem. Start adding spacers an' shit and you'll just be putting a Band Aid on the problem. Go for it mate!!!!

grant said...

just re-true it in the forks! HD gave you two trueing stands from the factory, one in the front and one in the rear! use a zip tie on the lower leg as a guide

KNUCKLE BUSTER 1939 said...

I just measured my 57 wide glide which has a 21 inch wheel, it is off set about 1/4 inch in the other direction! (it's 1/4 closer to the non brake side) been working fine for 25 years...

Anonymous said...

sure, you can loosen up the left spokes, and tighten the right ones. Doing it with the wheel on the bike is the easy way to make sure that it will fit.

but there is one issue: The spokes that you tighten will now poke up into the inner tube. So the first step is to take the tire and tube off the wheel before you start truing.

When everything is good, grab a grinder and knock down the spokes, use a good rim strip and you'll be ready to go.

Or you can probably skip the whole effort and just ride it with the small offset. It might track down the road just fine.

good luck.