gs wheels

[mike reakes]

I have an 1100gs and I read somewhere that you can use cast wheels to replace the spoked ones. Aparently quite common in Germany. Has anyone info on this, eg source, cost and advisability?
Thanks,
Mike Reakes

 

[andy malton]

alloy wheels????

Hi Mike,
I think you mean alloy wheels,yes you can fit them,I have done this to my 1150,the wheels I used where from an 1100s and go straight in,and then your bike looks like this.Andy
P.S private message me and a I will post my phone number back to you and you can phone me for more info if you want!!

 

[Nick]

I've had R1100RS wheels on an 11GS and R1100S wheels on an 1150GS. Highly recommended, tremendous fun. You get quicker steering and can use sticky sports bike tyres for more grip. Not of much benefit when riding on dry roads admittedly - but a distinct advantage on wet roads or track days. I use Dunlop 207RRs.

Cost...well it depends if you can get cheap wheels from somewhere. New ones from your dealer cost a bomb. You may also need new discs, rear wheel bolts and read disc carrier, depending on your permutation of bike and wheels.

Fitting issues...nothing significant except for getting a speedo reading. If you use R1100RS wheels you can hook up your GS speedo to your RS front wheel, no problem. But the reading will be wrong because the tyre circumference will be a lot smaller. If you use R1100S wheels you have an interesting challenge because the S takes its speedo reading from the rear. All in all a great excuse to fit an IMO computer if you ask me.

 

[Nick]

Before I inadvertently posted the above I was also going to mention:

Ride height: going from a 19" front wheel to a 17" means the front of the bike sits 1 inch lower. Feels fine if you like quicker steering. If not you need 1 inch risers to compensate. I got some made from billet for my 11GS but they weren't really necessary and I never bothered with the 1150. One thing to watch is using the centre stand on a slope. Because the front end is lower the bike is more likely to roll forward off the stand if you park downhill. (Not that you should be doing that anyway...better to use the sidestand with the bike in gear.)

Summary....if you like to ride fast and aggressively, road wheels will help you turn the GS into a serious road tool. But if you ride more conservatively it's a waste of time and money.

 

[Captain Beaky]

Ally wheels

This ally wheel lark is all very good until you get to fitting it to an ABS bike.

Here, things get a little complex.

The simplest way to do it is to get the wheels complete with the ABS rings of the donor bike.

There are several ways that this is done, using either cast or pressed abs rings. On mine, the rear is off an early 1100s with ABS, so I have used the cast ABS ring off the 1100S that spaces the disc about 4mm away from the rim (in the correct position for the caliper and sensor.) Early 1100s's had a choice of two wheels, with and withoud ABS. On later 1100s's with abs, there is nly one wheel, as the abs ring is pressed, and on non abs bikes, a space is used in place of the abs ring.

On the front, it gets very messy. there are different spacers etc required, and it is definitely not for the faint hearted.

I have heared that the best wheels to get are from the R1150 RS,RT or R, as these are a perfect fit. Nice to know after I've bought the bits.....

Good luck.

Mike.

 

[Duncan]

I have heard that on a small amount of machines the ABS 'pooter can get "confused" requiring some sort of swapping of wires. Well thats according t the bloke @ Motorworks.

 

[Ian Dowsett]

I've done it.

Hi Duncan, I have 17" wheels running with ABS ( eventually ) and cable driven speedo. If you have cast ABS rings , you will have to have 5 mm machined off of each disc mounting post. Any machine shop ( i had mine done in Hertford ) should be able to perform this task.
Give me a shout if i can give any more advice as i have been using these wheels for 8 months or so with no problems.
Ian.