I check for cracks every tire change. Never found any. Today I pulled the rear brake rotor and when cleaning up parts before mounting the new one I found this: <img src="http://www.snafu.org/pics/r1200gs/2009/1125-rear-brake/p-20091125-1457-1327.jpg" title="Cracked rear wheel flange"> Grumble. The bike is an '05 with 50K miles. I don't have a puller to remove the old flange so will remove the FD and take it to the dealer. I don't expect the labor charge to be very much. The part, on the other hand.... More on removing the rear rotor at http://www.snafu.org/pics/r1200gs/2009/1125-rear-brake/
Marchy, look here:http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=509330&highlight=cracks+wheel This problem has occurred before - it appears that you already saw this thread. I suggest to get BMW involved and, if that does not help, the friendly folks from the NHTSA. IMO cracks in the wheel are a serious issue that pose a life threatening hazard to the rider and possibly other drivers. Just my opinion
Marco, Give it a go first with heat. You might find that it slides right off; I have found that before.
Yeah, and by the look of it he ignored the signs for a long time! As Marc know's, this is not a new issue, and more likely by far on the early 05 bikes. Hopefully it will not be a hard fix. I check for this every time an R1200, or K1200/1300 wheel is removed. Jim
Thanks Anton, I'll do that. I've got maybe half the stuff needed to make a puller, too. Maybe I can get creative. I'd like to do it without taking the FD off the bike. Not that taking it off the bike is a big deal, but I'm lazy and it means I'd have to clean my work bench. Happy thanksgiving, all.
On all the bikes I have changed tires on, and worked on, I have not seen one bike with cracks, but I always check. I've probably seen 50-60 bikes in the last couple of years that I had a chance to examine. I can't estimate, but I doubt the percentage is high unless you own one of the first 500. Jim
I have three good torque wrenches and know how to use all of them. Well, only two of them are good, the third is just average. What does that have to do with the cracked flange? The flange did not crack due to lack of use of a torque wrench. Nothing has been torqued in those holes since BMW installed the rotor 50,000 miles ago. They crack in use. Or at least some of the flanges on '04 and some '05 bikes do. BMW changed the flange somewhere along the line. New part number and all that.
That wont really help for those like the ones in the photo above if they do their own work, and it is not like BMW didn't redesign the old ones. Plus, the actual numbers of this must be very low indead or we would see this post repeated hunderds of times for every 10 times it happens, like with EVERY other problem BMW has. Jim
Jim, imo, we are going to see this more often, it's mostly 04,05,06 bikes with this problem, most of those bikes getting higher miles on now, and it seems like a mileage thing, not a age thing.
Thanks for the info. Thats about as valuable as we get around here. I'm guessing my 07 has the newer design, so I will not worry.
I wonder how many owners of the 3.8 million affected Toyota/Lexus vehicles actually have had the gas pedal get stuck on the floormat? This bullshit of BMW not owning up to mistakes is well, bullshit. Peoples lives are at stake and you want to defend a multi million dollar corporation? I just don't get it. Not every owner who has experienced this problem reports it on ADVrider.
Jim isn't defending BMW/nor would I. It's just that we don't panic and run around screaming that the sky is falling when something VERY unusual happens to a BMW. He is correct in stating that every problem reported is repeated 100 times...kinda reminds me of...better left unsaid.
Shit breaks on Hondas also, and Honda does not admit it is due to any fault of thiers also. Why all the brand bashing? I happen to ride BMWs now, and have ridden HDs, Suzukis, Hondas, ect... for a long time and every brand has had shit fail and not taken responsibilty for it, just like alot of owners have fucked shit up and blamed it on others... I am not saying that the OP had anything to do with his breaking BTW, I am just making a general statement. There are casting issues no matter who the end manufacturer is.