[rails99ca]

I own a 1999 Ultra. Last year I switched over the lower fork legs
to the 2000 and newer style which allowed me to use the newer style
4 piston calipers as well. You used to be able to buy all the components
in a retrokit from HD to do this swap (40904-00). The kit included
the lowers, calipers, brake discs, and a new axle (unique to this
setup) which allowed you to keep the current 1999 wheels with the
3/4 inch bearings.

I now want to switch to the 2000 and newer style wheels, but they
come with 1 inch bearings. You would think this would be a
straightforward swap - just use the newer wheels with the newer
style axle for 2000 and up. What complicates things is that my bike
is the last year to have the speedometer driven mechanically from
the front wheel. The speedometer drive also doubles as a spacer on
the left side of the wheel. There might also be some issues with
the brake rotors also because they need to have a small notch in
them for the speedo drive to fit into. I don't know if the rotors
from the kit that fit the 1999 wheels would fit the 2000 and newer
wheels.

So to do the swap it looks like I have 2 options:

1. Perhaps modifying/machining a new 2000 and up axle to accept the
speedometer drive (it has a 3/4 inch bore), if that's even possible,
and maybe having to machine/notch the 2000 and newer style rotors to
accept the sppedo drive.

2. If it's possible, switch the wheel bearings to those with the 3/4
inch bore like used on the rear wheel of the 2000-2001 bikes.

So, after the long winded story, my basic question is will the
bearings from the rear wheel on the 2000-2001 bikes fit into the
front wheel and give me the same overall width as I would have
currently on the 1999 front wheel?

 

[robertg]

I am thinking of doing something similar. I want to buy the newer style roller bearing wheels and put them on a 95.

If I were you I would use your old discs because they look better and have the notch for the speedo drive already. I am pretty sure the bolt pattern is the same. There was a guy selling the newer discs on eBay that were modified to fit the older bikes. I'm sure he just made the notch for the speedo drive.

If you have the wheels already with the 1" bearings you can buy the same OD bearings with a 3/4" ID. They are allways on eBay for $13.95 a set. I would then measure the LH wheel spacer from a newer bike and compare it to the width of your speedo drive. You can shim or machine your speedo drive to the same thickness. The RH side floats so it shouldn't matter.

Let us know what you do.