I'm thinking about getting a set of wheel spacers for my Wolverine and have a few questions. Does it make sense to add the same width to the front as the rear? What is the best setup for woods riding, stock or go slightly wider? Billet or composite? I'd like to hear from folks who have personal experience with spacers, 2 or 4 wheel drive bikes. Any help would be appreciated. Pros and cons.

 

Ive got wheel spacers. The round "block" style 1.5" gain on each side for a total stance of 3 inches wider. they were on ebay they're billet aluminum. Had them on for 3+ years not a single problem other than making sure you get the bolts tightened down right. See you need longer studs or bolts to go through the rim and the spacer and the hub. the stock bolts are set into the hub so they cant spin. the aftermarket ones arent that way so you need to have a wrench on both sides of them to get them tight or the bolt will just spin in the hub. not easy on front wheels with disks in the way. Had to hand tighten them up then put a piece of rubber over the bolt and clamp down with pliers (so not to destroy the threads) and then use an open ended wrench to tighten down the nut while not letting the bolt spin. once you have them on there pretty tight you can crank them down and the bolt usually wont move on you. only had one bolt/nut come loose in 3 or 4 years not too shabby

 

My wife runs 3 inch spacers on the front of her 250ex and has not had any problems. I tried 1.5 inch spacing on the rear of my banshee. It created a wobble at anything over 4th gear.

 

I had em on my Wolverine--- never again. Stability was nice, but bump steer was horrible.

 

That's A good point!! You almost need a steering stabilizer if you want to do more that flat track. LOL I think it has something to do with the yamaha steering stem. My wife's 250ex seems to handle the spacers up front better than my banshee.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: LotusPosition

I had em on my Wolverine--- never again. Stability was nice, but bump steer was horrible.</end quote></div>

I havent noticed any bad bump steer on mine. I have renthal bars maybe the different stance/angle of the bars makes a difference

 

i turn my front rims around ;-)

 

For aggressive trail riding, the handling was awful, and changing wheel bearings twice a year sucked, too. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: LotusPosition

For aggressive trail riding, the handling was awful, and changing wheel bearings twice a year sucked, too. [img][/img]</end quote></div>

Right, adding the spaces puts a lot more load on the bearing but the right way to widen the track is very expensive, a lot more than a box of wheel bearings.

 

I widened mine up 1.5" with the billet style aluminum rings. Mine came from my Yamaha store. The studs are set in the back of the aluminum and offset from the studs on the spindle. These in my mind, ARE the strongest... I also put a set of SS112 rims and they have an offset to them also so now my bikes' tires stick out at least 3"-4" past the fenders... makes for messy ridin' I guess you could say I'm "RIDIN" DIRTY" ;-]