19" Harley front wheel on a Vaquero?

[thomsen]

Hi.

After a few years of absence from this forum I recently bought a 2011 Vaquero.
I'm going to install 12" apes as soon as they're back from powder coating. A few other mods will be added later, but I really want to change the front wheel more than anytning. My biggest problem is that I want (need) to do this without spending a fortune!
I know there are billet wheels to be bought that will fit bolt on, but they come at a great cost, and my wallet can't really handle that right now.....

There are tons of 19" Harley front wheels on ebay, and I want to know if there is any chance of making them fit on my Vaquero. I've also found a couple of front wheels from older Kawasakis, and maybe they will fit better?
I want to keep both brake rotors since it's a heavy bike. Another issue is the ABS brake system. I guess I need to take the stock rotors of the stock wheel and mount them on the new 19" wheel.

Does anybody know if this is possible at all, or even better, has anybody done this? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

[OldSchool]

Welcome to the forum . There are guys here that have switched to bigger front tires. They should be around shortly.

[The Black Knight]

Welcome from Italy!

[skullbagger]

ABS on a 2011 vaquero?

[thomsen]

Originally Posted by skullbagger

ABS on a 2011 vaquero?

Sorry, I slipped on the keyboard... It's a 2012.

Thanks a lot for the welcoming and the input guys.

The only reason I'm looking for a used wheel is the money issue. Ordering a new one from Phatperformance Parts, or any other website would be more expensive than I wanted, but I might have to consider this anyway.

Great link Gypsy Dragon! That's exactly what I needed. :-D

I'll let you know how it works out eventually. Please keep the info coming! ;-)

[Fried Chicken Blowout]

Any updates here? Anyone figured out if there's an easy way to do this? I've been looking at wheels and $1100 for a new 18" wheel seems a little silly when there are Harley take-offs for $400 with rotors on eBay.

[veronicamays]

You will need a hub for a vaquero wheel in order for it to work I believe.

[hlknvlcn60]

You will need a hoop that the rotors will fit on, then they have to fit exactly right inside the calipers. Try going to Phatperformance Parts.com. .....they have available for our Vaqueros a huge choice of custom wheels and in different sizes, like 18, 21s, etc. To keep your handling working well I would go with an 18, 2 inches taller than stock and would look great, and still give you good handling. They (Phat), have some nice choices in that size....like the 18X3.5 which uses a 130/70 18 tire...you can get into one of those for under a grand and order it set up for the Kawasaki Vaquero front end specifically. There are a few great choices in the 18 category that are nicely styled. I would forget about attempting to put a Harley wheel on your bike.

[Gypsy Dragon]

I have the EXACT question. I would like to be able to pick up a Road Glide/Street Glide front wheel and adapt it. I know there have been several people that have done this on the 1600's and specifically the 1600 Classic.

http://www.vulcanbagger.com/forums/s...ide+wheel+1600

It seems like the process shouldn't be much different for the Vaquero. New wheel bearings, easy enough. All balls can cross reference your axle size and the hub size on the wheel. Same rotor size, so the brake alignment would have to be addressed. And finally, the spacers.

Does anyone know the fork spacing difference between the 1600 Classic and the Vaquero?

[JD Hog]

Welcome from Northern California.

[Ronald]

I know dshelly has built spacers for the 1600's but you also most likely have to machine the rotor mounts. So coat is a big factor when you add that up

[Fried Chicken Blowout]

Yeah if you don't have your own machine shop that's a problem...

[V2K_Rod]

I read that the 1600 bagger group had done it and decided to do the same on my VN2000. I shared this information on Vulcanforums.com and the Facebook Vulcan pages. Since then I have seen three VN2000 and two VN1700 bikes do the same mod. Here is my write up. Hope it helps.

https://sites.google.com/site/rodsv2...awasaki-vulcan

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[hlknvlcn60]

Phat offers substantial discounts off retail for quality stuff including wheels and are cheaper than any other major aftermarket vendor I have seen. You can get an 18 inch wheel for your Vaquero from them for under a grand. It may be hard to find a used hoop to convert or adapt to your Vaquero and be able to get everything to work correctly like brakes, rotors, wheel bearings, etc. ....especially a used rim that can open up even more worm cans. The Vaquero is a heavy bike and requires an exact fitting well balanced strong wheel to handle the weight and at higher cruising speeds especially. If it were me I could just keep throwing $$ in the home piggy bank until you can get a good rightly fitting wheel and not be taking risks.

[rocnrol]

Here's a 17" FLH front wheel I mounted to my 2010 VN2000. I did a little different route than V2K_Rod, but the process is still ridiculously easy.







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