Motorcylce frankensteins.

[willimo]

So I built a model bike a while back (a long while) and it's junk. So, I want to do another. But anyone who remembers my models around here remembers I can't leave well enough alone.

Now, I want to do another Yamaha R1 because the 'Busa looks like it has cancer and there's not model kit of a very recent street CBR (unless I'm missing something). I plan to do some detail work and some scratch work and whatever else here and there to make it a tricked out little bike. The only thing I foresee having trouble with is changing wheels for this thing. Casting aside the fact that I'd have to buy a whole second bike kit just to get a different set of wheels, I have come to assume that racing bikes have much different sized wheels than the street bikes, and I won't be able to swap the wheels from one bike to another without having to use slicks (I would like to use the wheels from one of the two recent racing Yamahas, and am fully dissappointed in the normal looking rims in the Yoshimure 'Busa, because I would have loved to have pinched the muffler from that kit if only for the decal). Am I right or wrong? And how close would the front fork of a recent racing Yamaha be to the old R1 kit, since Tamiya makes the fork in fancy metals, as that might be worth looking into, too.

[builderweave]

Maisto makes some diecast/plastic 1/12 scale bikes that have treaded tires use could use instead of slicks. I picked one of these Maisto kits at Wal-Mart for about $7. The pic below is of the Maisto tire on a Tamiya YZF500 Tech 3 Yamaha wheel(rear). They fit pretty good. The bike I'm using them on is planned to be a conversion from race to street. I have done some mods to it so far.

[willimo]

Thanks for the tip! I could even source cool wheels from them, too, no doubt.

[builderweave]

Well the only ones I've seen from Maisto are the R-1 and the 'Busa. I bought the 'Busa and it had the same three spoke style wheel as a Tamiya R-1.