The Yamaha Super Tenere XT1200Z Big Thread

Gearwrench 85050

Yea, you don't want to simply tighten spokes around the wheel without stagering the tightening. After the ping method failed for me miserably I decided to try to torque spokes. I started at around 20 in/lb. There are 8 spokes that nipples face up each side of wheel, 8 that face down, so pick one series of 8, tighten one spoke, then turn the wheel and count 3 spokes with the nipples oriented the same, tighten that one, count 3 and tighten that one. After 8 times of doing this you have staggered tightening and tightened all 8. Move to another series of 8 and repeat, then the 3rd and 4th series. I found very few spokes tightened to even 20 in/lb. After this repeat with more torque, then repeat with more until the 56 in/lb is achieved. I initially did this after I lost a nipple a couple years back, and just recheck every 4000 miles during each oil change. I rarely find a loose spoke now. If one is loose it takes very little tightening to get back to spec.

But even doing it that way can still put your wheel out of true. Exact torque on each spoke, even applied staggered and equally as you detail will throw your wheel out. If you get a loose or broken spoke, torque it to spec is okay (but tighten to ping better). One or two spokes will not effect the wheel too much. But tightening all of them in that manner will almost always guarantee your wheel goes out of true. It might not be enough for you to notice ill effects from it but definitely not the recommended method.

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Most bicycle wheel builders will tell you that even spoke tension is more important for the longevity of a wheel than trueness. If you can't build / true a bicycle wheel and keep the tension closer than + - 20% I don't want you to touch my wheels.

It is not difficult, just time consuming. Oh and hot too. Or maybe that was because I did it in Death Valley

Question for a knowledgeable Tenere mechanic. I just pulled the rear drive assembly off the swingarm to grease the drive-shaft splines. They had some grease on them, but I added more Honda moly 60 paste anyway. The OEM factory manual (the worst I have ever used I might add) said to bolt the drive assembly to the swing arm then install the tire. When I slid the shaft in the swing-arm and the drive unit over the 4 bolt studs and finger tightened the nuts, the drive assembly could be moved up and down - left and right a small amount. I could not figure out how to align it with the axle centerline before tightening the 4 nuts.

As is typical for me in these types of situations, I sat back and pondered the problem over a glass of whiskey. I came up with the idea to install the axle in the swingarm and clamp it on the right side, then center the left end of the axle in the hole in the drive assembly, before tighting the 4 nuts on the drive unit. The wheel seemed to mount up fine and the bikes tracks straight.

The drive unit moves around quite a bit on the mounting studs. Is there a better way to do this or am I over-thinking the process?

Just picked up this new '12 with 4 miles on it. Like!!


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The general rule is that you want the wheel true within a mm or so and that will REQUIRE some variation in spoke tension and up to +/- 20% is generally considered acceptable. (You have to have a reasonably true wheel to avoid brake rub with caliper brakes.) Most good wheel builders will do somewhat better - with some work, I generally am in the +/- 10% range) - but any wheel with exactly equal spoke tensions will almost certainly not meet specs for trueness. Some variation is spoke tension is a necessary evil to get a true wheel. That's why the idea that equal spoke tension (or worse, equal spoke torque which is a poor surrogate for tension) is all that is important is faulty.

(On bicycles, the rear wheel is deliberately set up with dramatically different spoke tensions on the drive vs. the non-drive side to dish the rim to one side to make room for the sprocket cluster. On the rear wheel you only pay attention to spoke tension on the drive side and just accept the other side will have dramatically lower tensions.)

- Mark

My head is spinning over all this spoke tightening talk. What is the KISS (keep it simple stupid) method?

The opposite to MICS. (Make it complicated smartass)

That is funny, but not helping! I'll just have a few whiskeys and take a crescent wrench out to the garage, what could go wrong?

You have a hardley that needs servicing???

Cast wheels.

Bumped to get it answered hopefully. Maybe the spoke tightening has everybody thinking too hard

I could never figure out how to tighten those cast wheels with my crescent wrench?

Maybe someone has the patterns crankcase protection? I want to try to make their own hands.

Maybe a daft question but; did you pull back the rubber boot to check that the splines engaged with the cardanic joint on the back of the engine ?

Your question confuses me somewhat. Are you saying that when the 4 bolts are done up you still have movement between the swing arm and the final drive unit (the bit with the oil in it that the wheel keys into) ?

There is a lot of space between the the shaft and the swingarm casing as they are not in anyway connected. If the 4 bolts are not tightened, there will be play.

Does this help ????

I believe I understand your question and the answer is to torque those 4 nuts after final torque of the axle nut. The initial looseness allows the FD housing to mate to the swingarm properly, without any tension from misalignment with the axle.

Plus one on the above. As I recall when I did this to my FJR, they said not to tighten the four bolts holding the final drive to the swing arm until the rear axle and wheel assembly was in place and torqued down.

Old Git Ray, you miss-understood my question, or I did not state it clearly enough.

Post 28709/28710 was what I was thinking of also before I changed my mind and did it like I posted.

The Yamaha manual is very vague on the procedure and basically says torque the FD (4) bolts first then put the wheel on.

The reason I did not do it like post 28709 (my first instinct also) was it seemed to me having the weight of the wheel, tire and FD cantilevered from the right axle end swingarm clamp, could have the FD end of the axle hanging low under the weight of the combined assembly twisting the right swing arm leg. The other reason was there is a fair amount of slop around the axle end coming out of the final drive also.

Hmmm