Front 18 inch spoked wheel compatibility?

[senseamidmadness]

I'm considering a spoked wheel swap for my R850R but can't find any info on this.

A front 18x2.50 tubeless spoked wheel was offered on the 850R, 1100R, and was standard on the R1200C and R850C. The part numbers, however, are different for the Chromeheads.

The R1200C wheels seem to be more available used, and don't look much different other than how shiny they are. Haven't been able to find any info on brake rotor mounts or speedo drives for either bike, though.

Does anybody know whether the front from an R1200C would mount to an 1100R/850R without issue?

 

[henzilla]

Just off top of head after chasing spoked wheels for years for our 1100 is no. The 1200C was a strange mix of parts and some unique differences. For some reason I think the rotors def different

 

[senseamidmadness]

I was able to confirm by finding detailed photos of both parts -- the R1200C wheel has a fairly different hub design, with cast reinforcement ribs that have a triangular rather than radial pattern. The big issue for stock compatibility is that the R1200C hub has no provision for an analog speedometer drive, so it would not work with any cable-driven speedometers like most 1100 and 850 bikes have.

I have ordered a cheap poor-condition R1200C wheel along with a stock hub from an R1100GS, and will be ordering spokes; the plan is to swap the hub myself, do some cosmetic cleanup on everything, and rebuild the wheel. Before I take it apart I'm going to see if the R1200C wheel will mount at all on the front of my 850R without brake rotors.

Not going to ride on it as it's got a few broken spokes but I'm curious as to whether the axle diameter and spacing are the same. Hopefully I remember to take pictures.