How much does a "smiley" affect handling? I had one of these earlier this year... hit a hidden rock at low pressure. which I sort of fixed and a press and also sort of looks like this now But I notice my bike is just not tracking straight and still feels like the front runs everywhere on loose gravel. Speeds around 60 - 65 are fine but anything over that can become hairy. (I initially thought it was the suspension, but I had that serviced and re-valved) On the black stuff, I do get a faint wobble at around 90eish and it just gets worse over 100. Tires dont make much difference. MT21, TKC... both do the same. Could the steering shake cause my "tracking" problem at higher speeds off road ? What do the guru's say?
Mine was about that bad from a hit in Moab at the Rally. We pounded it almost straight and I have ridden on it since (4 yrs) it's real bad now after Baja. New rim is on it's way from Woodys
Just have it straightened. It's about a 1/3 - 1/4 the cost of new and very safe to do. they'll have to de-lace it for the repair but when they relace it you know it will be straight. Might take care of the perceived tracking issue. You can contact Cytech. I have no experience with them, but they're close enough to post your wheel to them and can at least answer your questions. <table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr class="T4A-body"><td colspan="3" align="left" valign="top">Cycle Technology t/a Cytech and Tours for Africa </td> </tr> <tr class="T4A-body"> <td align="left" valign="top">Telephone:</td> <td align="left" valign="top" width="36%">(011) 433-8850</td> <td rowspan="9" align="left" valign="top" width="53%"> </td> </tr> <tr class="T4A-body"> <td align="left" valign="top">Email:</td> <td align="left" valign="top">info@toursforafrica.co.za</td> </tr> <tr class="T4A-body"> <td colspan="2" align="left" valign="top"> </td> </tr> <tr class="T4A-body"> <td align="left" valign="top" width="11%">Address:</td> <td align="left" valign="top">61 Port Road</td> </tr> <tr class="T4A-body"> <td align="left" valign="top"> </td> <td align="left" valign="top">Robertsham, </td> </tr> <tr class="T4A-body"> <td align="left" valign="top"> </td> <td align="left" valign="top">Johannesburg. </td> </tr> <tr class="T4A-body"> <td align="left" valign="top"> </td> <td align="left" valign="top">2190 </td> </tr> <tr class="T4A-body"> <td align="left" valign="top"> </td> <td align="left" valign="top">South Africa</td></tr></tbody></table>Good luck
Thanks. I do have a couple of local guys that can do it for me. I was originally thinking about 1.6" rim but think Ill settle for a 1.85 Excel with a rim lock. I think the 1.6 might be a tad too narrow. The stock KTM Saxxes are made of putty!
my stock rim started to look like it came out of a Salvadore Dali painting since I laced up an A60 I havent had one dent
Yup, my stocker looked like a wooden nickel. I laced up a woodies excel 185 and its still perfect. I thought I bent, or dinged it many times but nothing. Its pretty rock solid
No issues at all. It's so dented up right now I have vibration but I have a second rim to install while the original gets relaced with a 185
Low pressure on a 950 is a bad idea I bent the lip on an Excell from WWW because of that. In my case the wheel is still round, so no vibration or other issue, but...
Timely thread for me. I just put an Excel A60 on the front of my Adventure. I took off the Sun Rim which looked like a stop sign that got run over by a truck just like the original stock rim ended up. My second rim, Sun, didn't make it 100 miles before its first minor ding and that was with 28+psi. My new A60 just did 500miles last weekend 90% dirt to Laughlin and back and it is still a perfect circle. Even as bad as some of my dent got I never felt a performance issues in the dirt. There might have been a slight issue on the pavement but I always run knobbies and never balance them so I just dealt with it.
I had one front wheel get so bad after multiple dents that I literally couldn't ride between 35 and 42 mph. The bike would try to go into a tankslapper if you weren't hanging on tight with both hands. I didn't stop denting rims until I had my suspension revalved.
