2nd pair of wheels for off roading???

[WindyChuffer]

Am new to going off road and after some advice on what to do re: tyres & wheels.

I have an R1200GS with alloy wheels, and want to take it off road. I gather the alloys are not really a good idea off road at all - any hints on where can get a reasonably priced pair of spoked wheels? I guess also need discs too to make the changeover easy.

For those with spoke wheels - when you go off road, do you pay to have your tyres swapped around each time? Have just been quoted around £40 for labout to swap tyres to knobblies, and then the same again to stick the road tyres back on - so £80 per off road ride...

Or what about riding round on knobblies the whole time? Most of my road riding is round London.

Thx
M.

 

[Clive]

I do a fair amount of green laning on alloys - I'm just careful with large rocks and deep potholes.

I did the first 12,000 miles on Tourances and then swapped over to TCK80s which I have used for the last 21,000 miles - approx 5,000 miles per rear and 7,000 miles per front. The TCK80s are great in the dry and ok in the wet - just need to be a little careful when roads are "damp" and the tyres are cold.

 

[Mouse]

Like Clive I have done a fair amount of green laning on alloy wheels. Absolutely fine, as long as you don't go mad, I think. The only choice for tyres is TKC80s really, they are the true "all round" tyre. By the way, 40 quid to swap a couple of tyres is a massive rip off, I know you live in the south but last time I had that done here in Murkeyside it cost me a tenner. For a skilled tyre fitter this is 10 minutes' work.

If you decide to get a second set of wheels, it'll cost you about 800 pounds at a rough guess, well that's what it cost me anyway

- £450 for a second hand set of spoked wheels.
- £200 for a pair of EBC brake discs.
- £35 for an ABS ring for the front wheel.
- £10 for the rear wheel bolts
- £50 (!) for the front brake disc fittings.

With a bit of practice you can change the wheels round in about 30 minutes, a bit longer if you take the opportunity to clean the brake calipers, which never hurts.

As for where to get the spoked wheels, just ring round all the BMW suppliers you can find. I got mine from Sherlocks, and at the time they were very hard to find. Now that there are more bikes out there they might be a bit more common.

 

[Clive]

I got mine from Sherlocks, and at the time they were very hard to find. Now that there are more bikes out there they might be a bit more common.

I'm still looking - Sherlocks don't have any at present but will take your contact details in case they get some

 

[Mouse]

Also worth considering is finding some damaged wheels and having new rims built on the existing hubs, although you probably won't save a huge amount of money doing this. But I'm thinking of doing this so that I can have an 18" rear wheel, you can get much better dirt tyres in 18" size than you can in 17". I think that's getting a bit hard core though

 

[Fanum]

I ride on Knobblies all the time...you need to be a little bit more cautious over tarmac banding, grilles and gratings in the wet but otherwise they are better at gripping than I am a rider if ya see what I mean......

They do wear quicker, but on the other hand they're cheaper than tourences.



Another option for you would be to try Heidenaur (sp?)....knobblies with slightly less of an aggressive cut than TKC80's, reported as giving much better mileage than TKC's but as much grip as Tourences....Richie (Madmountainman) runs them and he's a nutter with his throttle ......if he rates them, they gota be good (Try a search..in fact I saw a thread about them earlier so it'll be easy to find)

 

[Fanum]

In fact, here's the thread;


http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51922