Who has had problems with cross spoke wheels?

These were stock spoked BMW wheels? What tire pressures did you use?

The verdict: Both wheels were "wacked" - Woody. He identified flat spots on the same side for front AND rear wheel. According to Woody, it was likely due to an impact during a ride. For me letting air out of my tires in an off road situation is a thing of the past. I'd rather deal with reduced traction than have another $636 bill.
However, there were also numerous divots that required machining. The cause: sloppy work out of the manufacturing plant is to blame.

Also, what type was it replaced with? Does Woody's sell BMW wheels? I'm looking for a new (to me at least) spoked front wheel for my 12GS.

Hmmm... looks like I'll have to find their phone number.

I have 40k miles on my 05 GS with spokes. A couple of spokes have needed be tightened once. Otherwise no issues.

I think spokes are great if you think you will ever hit anything - like a roack when riding off road or a big pot hole on asphalt. I dont go off road much but i have had a few potholes sneak up on me over time.

SPokes do better than mag rims in taking punishment. If you have never had an issue with mag wheels and you dont go off road much then the cheaper mags might be a better option for you.

OK, I'll bite!

08 GSA, wheels out of spec from new. BMW replaced only the rear one 4 times to get nothing but shitty ones with the same problem, out of true and flat spots on both front and rear. BMW dealer tried to true wheel and it got worst. Finally they conceeded to the BMW Rep and said there was nothing more they could do. I had to settle for what I had as they " were within BMW spec"!
I dissagreed and Sent them to Woody. He said they were within BMW's spec but not his so he got them almost perfect. I couldn't be happier as the vibration is gone!

I have been running them a little this year but just swapped them out again for a spare 09 cast set I got from a guy on Ebay so I just run them on the tarmac. I have the spoked ones with knobbies ready for the TLH next month....I won't be airing down, Period! They are a good design but not assembled well, lacking QC IMHO and could be perfect...

No BMW won't cover the fix but I think the money spent was well worth the price of no vibration at speed. Thanks Woody. I have been enjoying the GSA much more these days without issue...

Oh, I have 27,000kms on the bike!

I just turned 6000 miles on a 2009 1200 GS with wire wheels. Went off road and over a few potholes, but nothing too serious or fast. I've been over worse on paved roads. Got back on the highway, and the front wheel was out of round. It was immediately noticeable at speed, and visible as a depression more than a deflection. Several spokes were (what I'd call) loose (remembering my R100GS).

Question: Should the 600 mile service have addressed the spokes?

Question: Has anyone experienced loose spokes from the factory?

They wouldn't have checked the spokes at the 600 service and I have never experienced loose spokes from the factory.

Remember if you do attempt to snug them up that there is a grub screw in the spoke nipple that you have to loosen first.

And - don't over do it as you can screw them up in an instance and they are very hard if not impossible to true unless you have a rig and expertise like Woody.

It's under warranty - take it back - most times the dealer will replace the entire wheel as it is too hard and costly to true them up.

Good luck.

considering $1250 is the average cost for your X-laced wheels,,i'd say fixing em is a sound no-brainer investment ,,,,especially if they come back truer,, with seated spoke heads and the divots filled and machined.

the other part of the equation is that if the rim is bent which i can tell in a heartbeat on my surface table,[after loosening all the nipples],i can straighten the majority for less than 1/3rd of a new one [circa$400]....now if the rim is bent ,please don't ask BmW to warranty it,,,they do not bend on their own ya know

and now to
Iraj [I just turned 6000 miles on a 2009 1200 GS with wire wheels. Went off road and over a few potholes, but nothing too serious or fast. I've been over worse on paved roads. Got back on the highway, and the front wheel was out of round. It was immediately noticeable at speed, and visible as a depression more than a deflection. Several spokes were (what I'd call) loose (remembering my R100GS).sure symptoms of possible bent rim or one that took a big hit....it may or may not be bent . your wheel needs all the spokes loosened and rim placed on surface table...any wobble shows the exact place of the hit..straightenable usually

Question: Should the 600 mile service have addressed the spokes? i ascert they should have found the loose spokes ,,,snugging them up is better then having them loose and ya run the risk of making the wheel if even more untrue:huh

Question: Has anyone experienced loose spokes from the factory?]I've never heard of it nor experienced it myself...the known anomalies IMHO have their source in sloppy humans at the controls of the divot grinder as well as the assembler not seating the heads of the spokes....the little serrated edges used to keep the straight spoke from spinning come in various heights depending on how new/crisp the punch/die is.....you're lucky if the 40 spokes came from the same bunch= even seating versus some from a new and some from a worn die= uneven seating with the consequence that when you ride 500-1000miles your wheels will get ever more out of true

I smacked a rock at speed and found a flat spot and loose spokes after the ride.
I snugged up the spokes and had no problems.

Later I found a wheel way out of round with a lot of side to side run out. I called Woody and was ready to ship off my wheel for repair. Then my friend who I bought the tire changer and balancer with told me he bent the rod for the balancer. With a new unbent rod my wheels were fine. 32,000 miles.

Mine were out of round. New ones dealer ordered were worse, so I sent them off to Woody's. 35,000 miles later they are still perfect.

Joe

05 GS, 65k miles, lots of off-road and some air time. Just sent them tto Woody as the rear appeared to have some wobble. Verdict was the rims were within BMW spec at the tire seating surface (the part that matters).

Woody filled the front diviot and sent them back. No work needed on the rear wheel and this bike has blown out shocks and crowned the shock mounting bolts from hard landings. The wheels are strong (way more than the KTM of 800GS wheels).

Cheers,

Thanks Woody. You may get them if I can't cure the problem at the dealer.

I'm currently on my 5th GS ADV, all from the same local dealer.

I had two GS 1150 Adv's (2003 and 2004), and had no wheel or rotor problems with these two bikes. (The 2003 surged, and the 2004 blew
a rear seal and contaminated the clutch).

I traded the 2004 1150 in, and bought a new 2007 GS 1200 Adv. Quite quickly I noticed and complained about two issues:

1) both wheels out of round (= wheel hop, and handlebar shake / vibration)

2) warped front rotors (= pulsing brakes)

The response from my local dealer was sympathetic, but neither issue was ever solved (several new wheels were ordered, but they were as bad or worse than the originals). They basically threw in the towel regarding the wheels.

As a direct consequence of my dissatisfaction with these issues, in early
2008 I traded the bike in on a brand new 2008 GS 1200 Adv, hoping that both
these issues had been resolved.

In fact, I had both of the same issues with the new 2008 bike, although
I would say that perhaps the severity is slightly less than with the 2007
(that one was BAD!!). My dealer replaced the front rotors and carriers, and that solved the pulsing brake issue. Both wheels remained out of round, and this was evident enough to cause irritation, and a significant reduction in the "rideability" and rider satisfaction that we all expect and deserve from a high quality BMW product.

I recently traded my 2008 ADV in on a new 2010 ADV. I feel there is still a smaller amount of out of round issues with both wheels on this one, but it's early days (only 2200 km). We'll see.

Ideally, I would like to get Woody to make both my new wheels "round" and true", and it's not really the money that's stopping me. It's the fact that I ride almost every day, and have no car.

sandman ,,,et al,, we have solutions to most of your ''problems''
well we do have ''loaner wheels'',,,,
but ya have to pay the postage to n fro

good chance/opportunity to try a 21'' while you are at it...

hope that wasn't spam

woody

Rear wheel and tire currently on my 95 1100GSA came from a 2000 1150GS that spent ~2 years in the ocean (as in laying on the bottom.) Wheel looks pretty scabby but is straight and strong. No probs with front or previous rear wheel over ~50K miles either.

Don't know if the cross-spoke design has any inherent problems other than being harder to build/true than traditional arrangements. I love the whole concept of tubeless spoked wheels and wish I could have them on other bikes too.

Who has had problems with cross spoke wheels?

Not I.

Haven't GSs been delivered with spoked tubless wheels since 1988? Mine did in 1988. Did they go to a spoked tubed wheel at some point after that?

Just curious.

when your wheel is ''out of round'' and your salesman/service department ''blame'' the tire you have on it for the ill handling,,,

in the case of your X spoked wheels,,,a common occurence in dealerships across the country,,,,the most scape-goated of the tire marques and model were the Metzler ''Tourances''....

these are pretty sticky road oriented tires,,,they like to stick and not squirm underneath you like the knobbier tires you just replaced which hid the fact that your wheel was out of round...

after the trie swap,,your bike started handling bad,,weaving etc,,,,

sooo pay attention and 'don't throw the baby out with the bathwater',,,if your bike handles bad after a tire swap to more road oriented tires,,CHECK your wheel for true!!!

FYI,,,IMHO,,,metzler puts out some of the straightest tires around

woody

I have pre-delivery inspected Mcdozens of bikes with X spoked wheels from airheads to 1200's. They are almost always more than a little out of wack. Very often they are WAY out of wack. And this is all on brand new bikes! I have often considered swapping my Mono mags for X spokes because those K bike mags are SO heavy. 90% of all X wheels I have ever seen brand new are too out of round for me to use on my bike. I have enough chatter issues as it is! I don't need a wobble for a wheel. It's a good thing Woody has figured them out. Other than not being straight, they are GREAT wheels! And now we can have our cake and eat it too!

Since for a long time lurking here this is the first typing here.Hi to everybody is there.Yes I also have problem with front tire sensing tingling/vibrating on handle bar and front fork while speed around 60 km/h(40 mph).Here my around no mechanic can handle it I guess will wait tire change very soon may be cause of tire life which is battle wing oem (21000 km).Than we'll see.This is my first 12GSA 2008 that was bought new.Greetings.
ps:sorry for my english from now.