Ron I went to Second Gear...nice guy there and love the fact he can get everything in for our bikes and decent price...His K60 discount is still on but his MSRP is a bit high to start...but after the 25% off brings down the price of these tires to less than others....he also has a family membership for $20 and year....he signed me up because of my passion for bikes but did not ask me for any $$...
My tyre had a red dot that marks the spot where you should have your valve. I din't notice any wobbling as it is in 120km/h speeds on asphalt. My rims have some extra weighs directly opposite side of the valve. Then again my tyre is k60 scout, not the original k60. How picky are you?
Anyone expecting to mount their new Scout and do some distance traveling this season should be aware that the tsunami has affected global supply of BMW parts. I'm at dealer for warantee work this morning and they suggested I order anything I'm going to need this year now, especially electronics. They also said tht BMW is unable to produce any new bikes due to the parts shortage. What you see on the shwroom floor is all that's going to be available this year.
I suspect the weights you refer to are for the balancing of the tires that you had installed on your bike.....the placement and number of weights will change for every new install.
Yes. I just let them be as they were and remove if needed. Easier to take of than add more in your own garage. :)
I think you'll find that should be the 'yellow' dot and this is the light/thin point of the tyre. The 'red' dot indicates the high point of the tyre. Now if you get both a red and yellow dot..........well things change a bit. More here if you scroll down to the section headed "Coloured dots and stripes - what's that all about". http://www.carbibles.com/tyre_bible_pg2.html
Had an interesting conversation with my parts dept about the K60. Mine was the first bike to come into the shop with one on it last year and we've been in discussion about the tire ever since. My local BMW dealer will not be stocking K60 Scouts now or at any time in the foreseeable future. The service manager said that he'd love to stock the tire, and he's looked into what he'd have to do to put them on the shelves, but that Heidenau is not playing ball in making the tire available at a reasonable cost through normal supply chains. That's obvious. He doesn't want to screw his customers to make a profit so he's encouraging people to look elsewhere for them. In essence, BMW dealers have to pay the same price we pay as individuals getting the tire through Heidl engineering or a similar U.S. vendor, then the dealers need to mark it up to make any profit, at which time it becomes more cost effective for us to purchase the tire elsewhere. Or, if we want convenience, we'll be paying $200+ each for a tire from a second or third chain vendor. So there you go...someone go bang some heads over in Germany and motivate Heidenau to get with the program and make their tires available at reasonable costs through standard supply networks.
Actually, this came from the guy responsible for making sure motorcycles are on the floor when a customer comes in. Said he can't get any bikes from anywhere and that BMW germany has informed him that there won't be any for several months, possibly till near the end of the year. BMW production can't get the electronics they need from Japan to complete the motorcycles they are building. Re-tooling plants and moving operations isn't a simple or quick thing to do. Though it's underway it's cut down stock supply to a large extent. Production of electronics in Japan has been significantly impacted. The same issues are being discussed in all technology sectors that rely upon a global parts network for assembly and repair. Sony. Dell laptops. IBM, Ford even. No one can get parts that they would have normally gotten from Japan and the ones that are left in warehouses are being quickly snapped up. Motorcycle parts aren't "top" priority in most manufacturing operations so we're bound to see delays etc as other sectors are given priority.
Request for advice: from someone who has gone through a Scouts complete life cycle. I've got about 3 mm of tread (6,100 miles of use) left in the center of my rear but the outer knobs are still going strong. Planning to ride 400 miles-ish on Sunday, about 200 miles in the dirt and on trail. A 50/50 ride with hill climbs, rocks, mud (lots of mud) and sand. I'm on the fence about changing the tire before the ride or burning it up over the ride then changing it when I get home. I took it out for a short 2 mile dirt run over lunch and could feel the rear slipping a bit in soft-hard pack but not enough for me to say "I must change this tire". The other issue is that I'm leaving in 3 weeks to go to the islands for the summer and won't be in the states riding the bike again till I get back in August. Was hoping I wouldn't need to change the tire till then so I'm biased to not change it even though I'm thinking I probably should. It'll blow the schedule I set for myself for tire usage. Can't make a decision. How does a totally burnt Scout handle as it deteriorates to nothing? Will it bring me back from the ride? What should I do?
Sell the bike and all your belongings and move to the islands. Otherwise, change the tire in August. Fred
Got a call this morning about the K60s. Looks like the 150s are now delayed further. "Sometime in May". The term 'vapour-ware' comes to mind
Don't let the website fool you Heidi no longer makes a 150. That was a product that floated into to the clouds long ago. We're in for some tornado spawning storms tomorrow and the gamelands going to be extra muddy on Sunday so I decided to pull the Heidi off. It's probably got 800 to a 1000 miles left on it but it with the center being as flat and smooth as it is right now I'd just be spinning my tires in the mud (pun intended). Gonna hang onto it though, in case I run out of tires some time and need to put one on in a pinch. Guess that ends my Scout experiment: The usable life under normal conditions for me of this 140 Scout was approximately 6,000 miles. Could have stretched it to 7,000 but not with much performance left in the tire. Now to decide what to put on -> Big Block or the other Heidi?
In my experience, having mounted just short of 100 Heidi's (K60 & K76) they take half (at most) the weight of comparable tires.
Flash, If your dealer is telling you he's paying retail, he's playing you. I'm a retailer, and while I agree that far too many of my counterparts are charging too much for these tires, they are doing so based on their own greed, not necessity.
I certainly hope I don't ever have to fully change a Scout on a ride. That is one stiff carcass. Spooned my last one on. Took a breaker bar on the spoon to get muscle that last bit over the hub. They feel like you could ride them without air and not damage your hub.