Rear Wheel on R1100RT Help!!!

[EMSimon]

:ear

[motoriley]

Did you do the two step torque procedure? I put my rear wheel back on just before going to Vermont and the second value is very high. BMW wants that wheel tight!

Riley

[bmwmick]

I have a 99 R1100RT. As you know, this bike has 3-spoke wheels. The rear is an 18-incher. I was able to obtain a 5-spoke wheel which is NOT an RT wheel but I do not remember anymore which bike it is from. This wheel is 17 inch and fits my RT because the brake rotor and ABS ring is not wheel mounted.
I put it on my RT with a 175/55 rear tire.
I rode about 1,000 miles with it when on the way back from Vermont on Sunday, the rear wheel started to wobble and I realized, it had come loose.
I used the original bolts that were on my 3-spoke and they do not bottom out. The only thing I changed was adding one additional spacer on the drive side to give the tire a little more clearance to the swingarm.
What happened? Was the wheel just not torqued properly or are the bolts wrong?

Mike,
I used the K1200RS wheel on the rear of my '96R1100RT and I run a 170/60/17 ME-880. Only ONE spacer should be used and use the bolts from the K1200RS.

[AntonLargiader]

What happened? Was the wheel just not torqued properly or are the bolts wrong?
Probably it didn't seat properly due to the ABS ring bolts.

http://www.largiader.com/parts/wheels.html

[bmwmick]

Can't seem to make sense of that without looking at the bike. Need to do this tonite.

Thanks all for the help!

Mike,
I think Anton is referring to a different bike. I know there is at least 1/2" clearance on my rear wheel with the 17" K1200RS wheel mounted. I think Paul Glaves had an interferrence problem on one of the early R1100RS bikes that he converted to 17" but I don't recall what wheel he used.

Anton,
It was great finally meeting you in person at the RA Rally. You have a great assistant mechanic too. :) :)

[stan]

Did the smaller wheel lower your gearing.? This would be a plus as well as making the speedo more accurate. I'm happy to hear that it is even possible to do.

[bmwmick]

Did the smaller wheel lower your gearing.? This would be a plus as well as making the speedo more accurate. I'm happy to hear that it is even possible to do.

No,
The 160/70/17 rear tire has the same rolling diameter as the 160/60/18 it replaced. The speedo is driven by the front wheel, not the rear. :hungover

[stan]

Yeah, I guess it would help the speedo if it was transmission driven.

[PGlaves]

I put a K1200RS wheel on an R1100RS - same deal as on the R-RT.

I did have interference from one of the small allen head capscrews that retain the ABS ring. It lined up so as to interfere with one of the 5 spokes.

The solution is to install small buttonhead bolts that clear the spoke. I ran a feeler guage leaf through after torquing the wheel to ensure that there was no interference.

Also - make sure that there is sufficient wheel bolt thread engagement. The 55mm bolts seemed too short and the 60mm bolts bottomed. I ground the 60mm bolts down by about 1 mm which gave full thread engagement without bottoming.

[bmwmick]

Paul,
Different deal on the R1100RT. I think I sent you these pics when we discussed this the last time. You can see that the wheel is no where near the brake mounting ring or the pulse wheel.

[PGlaves]

Thanks, Mick

I think you did send that - I lost/forgot it somehow:)

[EMSimon]

Yeah, I guess it would help the speedo if it was transmission driven.

No, it wouldn't help the speedo even then! The speedos are notoriously fast, i.e.: indicate a higher than actaul speed. A smaller wheel would make that worse! Same tranny output speed - smaller diameter wheel, ergo: less distance covered than indicated.

I retightened all bolts according to the specs and have closely monitored the situation. So far, no problem. Also: No interference with ABS ring or other hardware anywhere.
Only explanation now is, that I was sloppy to begin with.