Ever since going to the Malibu Rally and seeing those nice chrome tubeless EV wheels in person, I knew I had to have a set for my 02 California Special Sport. But was told that they are hard to find, and especially hard to find in great shape without the chrome flaking off. When Todd started parting out a 03 EV, I jumped at the chance of buying the wheels from him. I was told by a few people that they should be a direct bolt on for my bike. Well that didn't turn out to be the case for the rear wheel, although the front did bolt right up. In 02 Guzzi put the wide swing-arm on the California's, which is the same arm used on the LM EV's, but they still used the narrow hub tube type wheel from the earlier models. The LM EV wheels have a wider hub, in which makes the spacing totally different as I found out after pulling everything apart.
What was needed for the swap was
(A) a different drive flange in the rear drive:
My original on the right and the donor from Rich R on the left that had a broken Ring and Pinion in it. (Thanks Rich!) You can see that mine was nearly a 1/2" longer to make up the difference in the narrow hub wheels. The donor rear drive is from a early Jackal (2000 I believe?), but it is also the same as a LM EV. I'm not positive, but I think that 02 may be the only year that Guzzi used the offset drive flange from what Ive been able to research.
(B.) a different length spacer that presses in the rear drive.
My original on the left and the donor on the right. The donor is off the 03 rear drive that Rich had bought from Todd, and had been mated with my new wheels originally. (Thanks again Rich)
(c) Brake caliper bracket. My original wheels used the brake bracket and a spacer on the left side of the wheel. The EV uses just the bracket for spacing. The spacer part of the brake bracket on the EV is wider then mine was. I was going to just make a spacer to make up the difference until I tried bolting my caliper in place. The EV caliper also has a different off-set and is narrower where the caliper bolts on. I ended up getting the EV brake bracket from Rich also.
Sorry to say I didn't get pictures of the two brake brackets side by side.
(D) The rubber cush drives in the EV wheels are thicker then mine were, although Guzzi just shows one part number for the cush drives. I had to get the originals from the EV wheels back from Todd.
You can see how much lower the rubber sits in the EV wheel when my earlier model rubber was placed in the wheel. The cush drives don't come close to being against the drive plate using the earlier style rubbers. My original drive plate however did work with the EV wheels as there was no difference from different model years.
Since the rear drive had to come apart, I decided to send the housing out to be power coated. After debating over what color, I ended up having it done in black wrinkle coat to match the Motor and Trans.
Still need to get the new tire mounted on the new front wheel this week, and get the bike cleaned back up. I will post pictures of the front wheel on the bike next weekend.
I rode it 150 miles yesterday with the new rear wheel and tire, and my old original front wheel on it. No problems with it at all except it didn't handle worth a damn with that new fat Road-Smart on the back, and a bias ply tire on the front.
Everything worked out great because Rich R is doing the opposite of what I did. He is putting narrow hub wheels on a wide swing-arm. We ended up trading drive flanges, spacers, and brake brackets. Hopefully he will be able to make everything work using my original parts on his.
What was needed for the swap was
(A) a different drive flange in the rear drive:
My original on the right and the donor from Rich R on the left that had a broken Ring and Pinion in it. (Thanks Rich!) You can see that mine was nearly a 1/2" longer to make up the difference in the narrow hub wheels. The donor rear drive is from a early Jackal (2000 I believe?), but it is also the same as a LM EV. I'm not positive, but I think that 02 may be the only year that Guzzi used the offset drive flange from what Ive been able to research.
(B.) a different length spacer that presses in the rear drive.
My original on the left and the donor on the right. The donor is off the 03 rear drive that Rich had bought from Todd, and had been mated with my new wheels originally. (Thanks again Rich)
(c) Brake caliper bracket. My original wheels used the brake bracket and a spacer on the left side of the wheel. The EV uses just the bracket for spacing. The spacer part of the brake bracket on the EV is wider then mine was. I was going to just make a spacer to make up the difference until I tried bolting my caliper in place. The EV caliper also has a different off-set and is narrower where the caliper bolts on. I ended up getting the EV brake bracket from Rich also.
Sorry to say I didn't get pictures of the two brake brackets side by side.
(D) The rubber cush drives in the EV wheels are thicker then mine were, although Guzzi just shows one part number for the cush drives. I had to get the originals from the EV wheels back from Todd.
You can see how much lower the rubber sits in the EV wheel when my earlier model rubber was placed in the wheel. The cush drives don't come close to being against the drive plate using the earlier style rubbers. My original drive plate however did work with the EV wheels as there was no difference from different model years.
Since the rear drive had to come apart, I decided to send the housing out to be power coated. After debating over what color, I ended up having it done in black wrinkle coat to match the Motor and Trans.
Still need to get the new tire mounted on the new front wheel this week, and get the bike cleaned back up. I will post pictures of the front wheel on the bike next weekend.
I rode it 150 miles yesterday with the new rear wheel and tire, and my old original front wheel on it. No problems with it at all except it didn't handle worth a damn with that new fat Road-Smart on the back, and a bias ply tire on the front.
Everything worked out great because Rich R is doing the opposite of what I did. He is putting narrow hub wheels on a wide swing-arm. We ended up trading drive flanges, spacers, and brake brackets. Hopefully he will be able to make everything work using my original parts on his.
