Confused on tire sizes for my GS550

[Guest]

Hey guys, so i'm looking at tires for my recently purchased GS550 and a few things that don't add up. I have a 1980 GS550e. When I look up the wheel and tire sizes it says I should have a 18 inch rear wheel, but then when I go look at my bike it has 17 inch tires on the oem star style cast wheel. How could the tire be a inch smaller on whats supposed to be a 18 inch wheel, is there another GS with 17 inch wheels that someone could have put on my bike?
Also the other thing is when I look at the parts diagram I see a tube, but the tires that are on there say tubeless. Is it okay to run tubeless tires on what was originally a tubed wheel?

[mmattockx]

Hey guys, so i'm looking at tires for my recently purchased GS550 and a few things that don't add up. I have a 1980 GS550e. When I look up the wheel and tire sizes it says I should have a 18 inch rear wheel, but then when I go look at my bike it has 17 inch tires on the oem star style cast wheel. How could the tire be a inch smaller on whats supposed to be a 18 inch wheel, is there another GS with 17 inch wheels that someone could have put on my bike?
Also the other thing is when I look at the parts diagram I see a tube, but the tires that are on there say tubeless. Is it okay to run tubeless tires on what was originally a tubed wheel?

Lots of the GS's have 17" rear wheels. My 82 1100E has a 19"F/17"R combo as OEM. What sizes are cast into the rims, both front and rear? It should be something like '2.5x17MC' or similar. All street tires are tubeless these days, they are fine to run with a tube or you can often convert your wheels to run tubeless with a new valve stem.


Mark

[Nessism]

The photo in your other thread shows that your bike is an L model, which received a 17" rear wheel in 1980.

Tires that are designated "tubeless" can be run on a tube type wheel as long as you put a tube inside. The tire doesn't care either way.

[Steve]

Verify the wheel size. After 37 years, you can expect many more surprises as you work on the bike.

My guess is that it might have been changed to allow a better selection of tires.