GS Supermoto. How to align your 17" wheels properly.

[Shaun1000]

BREAKING NEWS! There is a lot of stuff on here about fitting 17" wheels but I think you are all missing a trick. The usual problem is fitting wheels that do not align properly. Fit an ST or RT swing arm to a GS and then use RT wheels and it will line up correctly. I did one a few weeks past. Swing arms are cheap on ebay in the UK and still only the price of a set of tyres in the breakers. Try Motorworks or James Sherlock for example. It also means that it can all be put back to standard if required which is not the case when you start machining the strength out of things! The ST/RT arm is a direct replacement but is offset to the right by about 12mm more where the bevel box attaches - That is the difference between GS wheel offset (32mm) and an RT wheel offset (44mm). Hey presto - no tendency to turn right when you take your hands off the bars any more. No more exhaust clearance issue (in my case, albeit with an aftermarket can) and no centre stand clearance issues. Drive shafts etc are all common to both. It looks good. handles brilliantly and you don't feel you are compromising anything by having the traditional rear wheel 12mm out of centre problem. If your gonna do it - do it right. Swing arm change was easy enough except for the siezed pivot pin.

Nick covered everything else in the link below but swing arms are not available for peanuts in South Africa so he did not try this conversion.

http://www.ukgser.com/technical/nic...moto (BMW R1200GS & GSA, '04 to '13) V1.0.pdf

Have fun.

Shaun.

 

[Fanum]

Lovely.

Hate to break this to you, but a pressing need to fit 17 inch wheels plainly shows that you chose the wrong fucking bike in the first place

GS.....Gelände/Straße

 

[Shaun1000]

Agree. But its so much better now.

 

[DING-DONG]

BMW have been producing bikes with offset rims since the 70's, you seem to have gone to a lot of trouble swopping swingers for no apparent gain, also when you refit the gs wheels you now have offset rims !

I've done several 17" wheel conversions and not one pulled to the right, and tracked Perfect.

 

[Shaun1000]

BMW have been producing bikes with offset rims since the 70's, you seem to have gone to a lot of trouble swopping swingers for no apparent gain, also when you refit the gs wheels you now have offset rims !

... well you seem to think that the offset is not a problem, so an offset GS wheel would presumably be ok then? Personally i would spend the hour swapping the swing arm back. I tried the conversion with the just the wheels (and the corresponding 12mm wheel misalignment) and could feel it pull to the right so i reckon that a swing arm swap is the way to go. Just trying to help those people who are not happy with their wheels being out of line - especially those who start getting bits milled off the wheels and hubs... S.

 

[Bendy toy]

Lovely.

Hate to break this to you, but a pressing need to fit 17 inch wheels plainly shows that you chose the wrong fucking bike in the first place

GS.....Gelände/Straße

Why do it?

Because they can & unlike other manufacturers BMW parts are interchangeable so why not.

 

[red line]

good idea if you NOT ever going to use the ADV spoked wheels with knobblies.
Have S wheels for road and ADV spoked wheels with knobblies for eveything else

 

[Neil W]

Perhaps because a gsa with spokes handles a lot better with standard gs alloy wheels fitted and even better with 17" rims, you get a physically spacious bike with sports bike handling and it is different

Lovely.

Hate to break this to you, but a pressing need to fit 17 inch wheels plainly shows that you chose the wrong fucking bike in the first place

GS.....Gelände/Straße

 

[red line]

Lovely.

Hate to break this to you, but a pressing need to fit 17 inch wheels plainly shows that people can make and modify their bikes the way they want ....maybe I chose the wrong fucking bike and forum

GS.....Gelände/Straße

should have read....

 

[Bendy toy]

The handling of mine with standard GS alloys is unchanged from my GSA wires. But no surprise - they weigh the same.

17" wheels both ends will affect geometry and some models haver lighter weight wheels. Better for handling but potentially more fragile.