what year of rims will work on a 1981 1100

[macd20]

hi all. i have a question. i bought a 1981 Goldwing that a guy before me had done some changes, It looks great. i pulled it all apart and polished the aluminum and was going to replace the rear tire and grease everything, noting that the cast wheel from a 1983 had made the tire rub against swing arms on the right side, only about a 1/4 of an inch, but it rubbed the lettering down. i cant figure out how to adjust it, because there is lots of room to left or even if can, i if he has put a space in the wrong spot. maybe use the wrong long spacer bushing, or if that wheel just wont work. i would love to put spokes on it but not sure if that's reasonable possible.

i have looked through the forums and i cant find anything that touches exactly on my little dilemma, and i apologize if i missed it and this is a repeat question. thanks in advance for any input

[newday777]

hi all. i have a question. i bought a 1981 Goldwing that a guy before me had done some changes, It looks great. i pulled it all apart and polished the aluminum and was going to replace the rear tire and grease everything, noting that the cast wheel from a 1983 had made the tire rub against swing arms on the right side, only about a 1/4 of an inch, but it rubbed the lettering down. i cant figure out how to adjust it, because there is lots of room to left or even if can, i if he has put a space in the wrong spot. maybe use the wrong long spacer bushing, or if that wheel just wont work. i would love to put spokes on it but not sure if that's reasonable possible.

i have looked through the forums and i cant find anything that touches exactly on my little dilemma, and i apologize if i missed it and this is a repeat question. thanks in advance for any input

I think you are saying that you have the 83 11 spoke cast rims on your 81. The letter rubbing is more likely the tire size being too wide as the rim cannot be spaced over towards the left any. The final drive is non adjustable in spacing and you need to keep the rim tight to the final drive so you don't mess up the teeth.

Different brands of tires have actual different widths even though they have the same marked tire size. This has been addressed in other posts in the past. It's been @ 10 years since I have dealt with my 83A gl1100 tire widths, I ran 140/90-16 which is wider than stock (MT90/16 =130/90-16). The 140/90-16 did rub the swingarm some at times because of the flex in corners.
What tire brand and size tire is on it that is rubbing?

[macd20]

The tire that I found rubbing was an mt90b16 m/c
74h Dunlop elite
The original one off the 1981 that he took off and replaced is a 130/90-17 Challenger.

Now I called my local tire shop and they told me the width for the one that is on there that is rubbing is a 130

[macd20]

Okay just to update, I put the swing arm on the 81 from the 83 and it gave me lots of clearance. So I answered my own question. So if anybody needs to know...

[newday777]

I was thinking that I had read in years past that the swing arm was wider on the 82 and 83 than the 80/81 had.