Lester Wheels- how bad do you want them ?

[wayne]

Want to bid on a set of Lester Wheels and have a whole RE5 thrown in ?

www.ebay.com/itm/Suzuki-Other-1975-suzuki-re-5-low-mile-vintage-bike-/111342769144?forcerrptr=true&hash=item19ec8bd3f8&item=111342769144&pt=US_motorcycles

[toystoretom]

I saw that. It's in Pennsylvania.... too far away from me to go pick it up.

[wayne]

With regard to that bike (and many, many others), people do hang a lot on speedo mileage. Really, "very low miles".............

That poor old bike has been through a lot of adventures in its "very low" 7,000 miles. Have a close look.

I'm also very suspicious of any "low mile" bike with recovered seat. My RE has 40,000 genuine klm, and original seat cover is perfect (underside is not so good admittedly). How was this (or any bike with a recovered seat) stored/used to render its seat in need of a recover after just 7,000 miles.

[ap951]

am I seeing things or has that frame been chrome plated?

[toystoretom]

It looks that way, doesn't it. Now I want it

[hitch007]

Hmmmm where are the ignition and tank locks? This looks a touch shady. Why doesn't the seat even come near the tank?? Stay clear from this one....

My 2 cents....
Gareth

[toystoretom]

OK... check this out. Do you think the rear wheel off of this GS 750T would work on the RE5?

Look at this rear wheel

I know the front is wrong but it appears that GS 850 front wheels are common and have twin disks. It is the rear that is hard to match up because of the drum. If this rear would work it wouldn't be too hard or expensive to come up with a set of quality mag wheels, and they would be Genuine Suzuki!

Edit... apparently the GS750t rear wheels are 17" and not 18" like the specs say in the link above. I wonder if you put a little taller tire on it if it would be very noticeable, it might look good with a little fatter tire.

[charles]

toystoretom-

There's more to this than meets the eye. The "Snowflake" Mags that were on the first GS-750 would fit an RE-5. As I recall, these mags would not even take tubeless tires.
Here's the deal: Those mags in the pictures are from the "Next Generation" mags and the front wheel was WIDER than the Triple Tree of the RE-5 as I found out to my regret once.
So it's not just a replacement of mags for spoked RE-5 alloy wheels. The wheels seen in the pictures are not "bolt on" items.

CW

[wayne]

Tom- I just did a rough measurement (very rough) comparing my 1981 GSX1100 17" rear wheel with tyre to my 1975 GT750 18" wheel with tyre. They are both very close to 25" in diameter so the fatter 17" wheel (I'm using a 120/90 x 17") is not far off the 4.25/85 x 18" on the larger rim.

The early Suzuki mag wheel front as Charles mentions will fit the RE5 and they are a straight bolt on. They were on some of the GS bikes.

As Charles says, those early mags were not tubeless. I have a slightly later one which does fit the RE as well and is marked "Tubeless tyre applicable" but my tyre guy will not put a tubeless on it and drew me a handful of diagrams to show me why.

The rear is the issue, someone once mentioned the GS400 or 450 rear which was a drum but I checked this out in a recyclers and it is too narrow. I would also be dubious about its weight bearing ability.

I've put this picture up before but just to remind anyone new, these front mags are a straight bolt on:



I've shown this before as well. These are Henry Abe "7 Star" wheels. I have a rear of one of these and they sometimes appear on ebay. They are a straight bolt on. I don't know the quality of Lester Wheels but these 7 stars are crap. They have loose tolerances on the bearings and crack easily during use unless you're riding nothing but eastern USA roads that look like they were laid with a spatula.

[toystoretom]

So the front wheel should be no problem (I can run a tube) but the rear is still a problem. Has anyone tried to convert the RE5 into a rear disk brake bike? I might as well pony up the money for Lesters before I do that.

The reason I go on about this is that the wheels on my M are nasty. I should just buy a set of spoke wheels and tear them down, polish them, and re-spoke them. When I'm done I could swap them out. I just have one problem with that.... I'm lazy

[charles]

I actually got through most of the project looking at a GS-550 (L?) rear end and the end result is not trivial.
The wheel's diameter was too small but at the time, that was OK.  Much of a long story here.  The GS-550 that I had used a Big Balloon tire and...well, never mind now.
So, you have the pizza plate disc - WAAAY too big -  the caliper and the mount which attached to the brake arm.  I got the Tab cut off from the old GS swing-arm and welded to the RE-5 swing-arm.

Now to the hard part: You must fabricate (and weld) mounts for the metal tube from the brake reservoir to the rear caliper that runs across the right side of the swing-arm.  You must either mount the reservoir and the rear brake lever on a plate or somehow mount the brake reservoir and connect it to the rear brake lever.  Now, mount it: 1 - 2 - 3 - Go!  Not a trivial task.

So many puzzles to this motorcycle.

It would probably be easier at this point to get a crashed SV-650 frame sans engine and fabricate mounts for the RE-5 and use that. Everything pre-mounted with the benefit of modern frame technology.  No pizza sized rear disc either.
You COULD send me about $10,000 dollars and I could have my Ducati friend build a nice Trellis frame for it.

Or just send me $10,000.

CW

[HGH 770N]

GS 1000 wheels with the forks and swinging arm fitted on a GT750 , Could be done to the RE5 in the same way and would give the correct size tyres. The smaller early GS bikes only had 16 and 17" rear wheels.  ,  I prefer the Lester's and keeping the bike with its original bouncy suspension in keeping with its age.

Only my thoughts though. Enjoy.
Rog

[toystoretom]

Oh Oh.... the auction ended early.... someone may have bought it locally or so it seems. Maybe the Lesters will surface on EBay (Or just email me ) and the bike will show up with some spoke wheels.

Sigh... more Lesters I won't be able to afford....

[dnaj]

Actually, I am the person that bought it locally. I purchased now 6 bikes from this former collection and knew about this Re5 for awhile. So its legit. I bought it with another bike they had for sale, a 1972 H2. I cant say it was cheap. I gave a good dollar for them.

The former owner had literally a few hundred bikes and had to sell them on for a divorce. Many of them were high dollar exotics or first year milestone models. That collector knew his stuff more than most and more than me. The Harley dealer kept the Indians and old HDs.

Its on my lift now and its very interesting. The whole frame is chrome, also the swing arm, the chain guard, the foot pegs, the bottom triple tree, are all chrome. the top tree is polished aluminum. The radiator top is polished aluminum. The seat was not right because it was removed from the hinges. It was recovered and probably custom on the stock pan. Looks like someone removed the locks to have keys made but the locks are no longer with the bike. Lester wheels which I never saw on an Re5 before. Someone spent a ton of money on this bike a long time ago. I'm trying to track down the history. There is an Alabama plate on it but the former owner was from CA. The dealer brought the whole collection to PA. There were two Re5s. I bought the other one last year, that one was near mint original. This one turns over and has compression. I expect it will run. I just drained the gas. I have a big order for rotary recycle for the missing pieces.

[wayne]

Well, not sure what you paid but someone had some Lesters for sale on this board and wanted $2000 for them. So you got a nice set of valuable wheels to go with the bike.