I posted a while back looking for a good way to improve the tire wear on my In the winter with Karoo's I was only getting about 2000mi out of a tire not to mention there is not a whole lot of rubber on the ground, lots of spinning in the snow and slush. I started looking for a car wheel conversion. I needed to have a bolt up wheel that maintained the ABS which is an absolute lifesaver in the snow. There was really only one option that I found - STROKER (who is an inmate) He was great to deal with. Prompt call returns and very knowledgeable. After PM'ing and talking this came in the mail WOW!!!!! Damn, I had seen pictures but this thing is gorgeous......It came with ABS ring, brake rotor, tire, and the necessary longer bolts to fit the adapter. The rim is a standard off the shelf 15" centerline rim. The adapter holds the ring and rotor. I used the BMW cone washers from my stock wheel. Here it is bolted up. The wheel is great. The overall diameter between the stock tire and the 165/80 tire is negligible. So the accuracy of the speedometer is not changed. Now the good part, it handles like a dream. I thought my rig handled well before, but it got better, the extra squish from the car tire is nice and the square profile helps handling at all speeds. It is especially nice at higher speeds (85mph was what I tested it at). The extra contact patch is great for winter weather as well. One of the best purchases for the rig yet!
Very cool rig, and good on ya' for not being a fair weather rider (which is, of course, why you're an inmate!). That wheel is absolutely brilliant! I need one, yesterday - seriously! I found inmate Stroker in the member listings, but he's not accepting PM's. I would be indebted if you could put me in touch with him. I have three rigs, and all three need a pusher like that - I too get about 2,000 to 3,000 miles out of a rear tire, and have been looking for another option, ideally, Made in the USA!
Glad that you love it... Lets keep track of the mileage... I have 3500 miles so far and no wear!!! You need to try it in deep sand! I keep trying to get stuck to no availll it amazes me... Be well... now I am rigging solar power on the car!!! Ara & Spirit
Try David Hinze <stroker77@sbcglobal.net> He won't mind, great Friend to deal with... Be well... Ara & Spirit
Looks good! But you should get those parts anodized or powdercoated before you do too much more riding in our lovely Wisconsin road salt or they will corrode in a hurry and look like crap!!! DAMHIK... I had my rear wheel and adapter anodized at Efco Finishing on 124th St in Butler for right around $100. They do them both in a single batch so the finish of both is a perfect match to each other. and are freindly folks. The owner has BMW bikes of his own. Anodizing is a more rugged finish on aluminum. Without it the road salt will have that unprotected rim pitted in a matter of weeks... btw - if you want even MORE snow traction, try fitting a 175/65-15 Bridgestone Blizzak WS-60 tire to that rim when you get it back. Your speedo will be off by about 5% for the winter, but you will have crazy traction, and a little bit lower gearing for smooth takeoffs on sloppy intersections, etc... That is what I have on my R1200RT rig right now, and I really like it!
Mike, I sent you an email to contact David. David uses the same 165r15 tire size that we have used on our own conversions and they typically get around 20k as far as milage goes. Pretty good for a sidecar rig eh? Good thing is the tires are not expensive either. Win win situation all around.
Hello Claude - thanks for the send. Just got off the phone with David, very informative, passionate and knowlegeable. He's going to do some checking to see if the R1100GS wheel fits an R1150GS (unfortunately, the BMW Parts "fiche" shows differing part numbers for the rear wheel hubs, so no help there). Worst case, I can send him one of my R1150GS rear wheels so he can check dimensions. If we're lucky, he won't need to make any mods. We've both heard of R1100GS and R1150GS owners who have put the 850R final drive on their bikes to lower the final drive gear ratio, so there's a reasonable expectation that the wheels are interchangable as well. If it all looks good, I'm going to have David build me a wheel for my rig. It it works, well, then I have a "problem", as I have two R1150GSs, and of course, for parts/tire commonality, both of the tubs have the same rear wheel/rototrcaliper as the tugs. That's four custom wheels potentially. I don't even want to think about the R1200 . . . .
Mike, Make sure and post what you find out about the 1150GS rim, thinking about the same route on my 1150GS. Just whether or not he can do it, I can get the contact info and get in touch with him for pricing. Thanks Dana
Thanks for the interest in the wheels. Early reports indicate rear wheel interchangabity between the 1100 and the 1150, so no problem there.Once we finish building these next few wheels, I'll take a hard look at a model for the 1200. I'm making a prototype sidecar wheel adadpter, for my rig, with a little offset built in to clear the reverse mounted caliper Dauntles uses on the BMW wheel conversion.
Like I said earlier our milage feedback on those using the 165r15 tires with our wheel conversions are around 20,000 miles. We have used various tire brands and it does not seem to make much difference if any at all. The worst milage we had reported was on a K12OOLT/ Hannigan rig that ran a lot on th ehot southwest on interstates pulling a very large camper trailer. The rig was etup by the owner so that is unknown also. We have had the car tire conversion deal covered pretty well for the BMWs that do not have the brake rotor attached to the wheel itself and always wanted to get something going for the other models. I am more than tickled that David (Stroker) came up with this conversion as it fills a void in the market that definetly needed to be dealt with. Stroker brought Yellow's wheel by the shop so we could see it and I can't wait to get another one in house. Big thinks to you David for making this happen. Great story on this..right David??
It looks great.When the wheel is installed are the front and rear wheels still in alignment or is the rear wheel offset slightly?.Looking at both rear end photos they seem to be slightly offset. A2
David, has just finished a demo wheel (That I will try very soon) and put it on the chair of his sidecar, here is the result, what a beauty, if the dynamic matches the look, I guess this is the way to go for all GS rig! Now David you have to work on the front wheel
Dammit. This gets expensive cheaper than tires in the long run. I wanted to get one of these a few months back but had too many other expenses and truth be told I don't love the big chrome-looking wheel (is it actually chrome?) Love the work though. R1100GS and R1150GS wheels are identical. I have one of each and use them interchangeably on my rig's rear and hack wheels.
Might take a bit of time for the message to get through to America Andrew.. Either that or you typed too quick..
