Three spoke wheel strength

[kdahl]

I recently acquired a 93 K75S with the intent to do some touring on it. Reliability is critical, so besides getting all the maintenance up to date I am trying to identify the things most likely to go wrong with the bike on a trip, and either upgrade the relevant components to something more robust, or plan to carry (or have on call for immediate overnight delivery) replacement parts for those items.

I have come across a few comments here and there online suggesting that the three spoke wheels on my K are prone to bending. While I don't plan on crossing any Boulder fields or playing connect-the-potholes, we all know that stuff happens. I'm not, of course, going to carry spare wheels with me, and even shipping them is very expensive. So ... is this a legitimate concern, or a mostly hooey? Is there a benefit to changing out my wheels for the Y spoke style before heading for the horizon?

[johnny]

greetings...

i have one of every component boxed up with a fedex airbill attached just waiting on a delivery address... each box is numbered so when i call home all i gotts to do is tell them the box number and the delivery address...

they complete the airbill and take it to kinkos... i go off the radar till the box shows up...

j o

[Chaos]

You could swing by here and I'll trade you even for my y-spoke wheels!

Theoretically the 3 spoke wheels are weaker since the rim is only supported every 120 degrees.  But it's not a big enough deal to worry about.

[kdahl]

Has anyone here ever bent a three spoke wheel? Do you know of anyone who has?

[The Mighty Gryphon]

I have a '92 K100RS with a little ding in the front wheel.  Can't tell by the ride or the handling.  Bought the bike with it and didn't notice until I did a tire change.

[johnny]

greetings the mighty gryphon...

that one looks easy to fixt... what i do is 2 x 4 on the bent part with ratchet strap... off moto with tior on... tighten strap down real good... may need 2 straps... gotts to be supertight... whack the 2 x 4 with a sledge... repeat as necessary till its straight... spin to see if true... if true you are good to go... if not theres gotts to be somebody up there that trues wheels on the cheap... badly bent wheels can cause premature bearing failures...

greetings kdahl...

all of my 3 spoke wheels are bent... i gotts 4 bent fronts and 4 bent rears... i bent one so bad once it whacked out my final drive bearing within a couple hundert miles... here is the ride report on that deal...

j o

[The Mighty Gryphon]

I have a business card someplace with the name of some guys up in New Hampshire or Vermont who unwhack wheels. 

[johnny]

i had a guy in socal unwhack one of my wheels... he had the fancy table with precision instruments and hydraulic presses and looking impressive and all... in the corner were 2 ratchet straps and abouts a 5" chunk of hardwood 2 x 4 and a sledge hammer...

i asked him how he was gonna unwhack mine... he pointed to the straps wood hammer... once he unwhacked the dent he put it on the table and made sure it was true with his fancy stuff...

since then i have commenced to whacking the wood with good results...

j o





 

[Snowman]

If used as intended there is absolutely no issues with the wheels.

[kdahl]

If used as intended there is absolutely no issues with the wheels.

What do you mean by "if used as intended"?  It sure sounds like a few others here have experienced bent three spoke wheels.

[kdahl]

all of my 3 spoke wheels are bent... i gotts 4 bent fronts and 4 bent rears... i bent one so bad once it whacked out my final drive bearing within a couple hundert miles... here is the ride report on that deal...

Wow.  So do you think the Y spokes are better, i.e., more robust?

I'm starting with some weekend/overnight touring here in the midwest, but if all goes well I will be setting out for a three week trip to the Canadian Maritimes in September.  I do NOT want to get stranded.

[johnny]

whack free motobricking...

ha ha ha... ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...

that thing aints no honda... its an underpowered topheavy overengineered abomination at best...



j o

[TimTyler]

i have one of every component boxed up with a fedex airbill attached just waiting on a delivery address... each box is numbered so when i call home all i gotts to do is tell them the box number and the delivery address...

Remind me to confirm this next time I pass though WI.  :deal:

[TimTyler]

I recently acquired a 93 K75S with the intent to do some touring on it. Reliability is critical, so besides getting all the maintenance up to date I am trying to identify the things most likely to go wrong with the bike on a trip, and either upgrade the relevant components to something more robust, or plan to carry (or have on call for immediate overnight delivery) replacement parts for those items.

When I acquired my well-used K75 with 83k odometer miles nearly four years ago I had similar feelings and expectations. It had a wobbly front end, mediocre fuel mileage, and a bunch of handling and operational quirks. Never the less, with no knowledge of K-bike repair technique or protocol, I changed the fluids and hopped on a month later and rode it from ocean to ocean. At the 1k mile point I noticed my rear main seal or O-ring was leaking. I kept riding. I let it sit covered in a driveway 3200 miles from home over the winter and flew back to ride it home in the spring. 400 Miles into the return trip the rear master cylinder and shock failed. I hobbled to a BMW dealer and had them R+R it, then rode it back to Seattle.

My point, if you haven't already read it in one of Johnny's posts, is "ride it till it won't move." The Brick is an amazing machine and there is a wide network of problem-solving solution providers. I'm not suggesting that preventive maintenance is a wasteful enterprise. I've been preventivising (sic) my bike ever since I learned how on motobrick.com. But there's no point in waiting to ride or expecting to anticipate every possible problem. It's just not economically feasible.

Pack your bags, bring a credit card and hit the road. And bring a camera so you can post your ride report here along the way.

[kdahl]

there's no point in waiting to ride or expecting to anticipate every possible problem. It's just not economically feasible.

Pack your bags, bring a credit card and hit the road. And bring a camera so you can post your ride report here along the way.

Tim, I'm sure you're a nice guy and mean well, but I'd really appreciate it if someone with knowledge could answer my question.

I'm no rookie.  And I'm not scared or waiting to hit the road.  I rode yesterday and I will be riding this weekend.  I will be riding it several times a week, at least, for the next six months, and I expect to have the occasional hiccup to deal with with.  That's not a problem.  Hell, my ride up to this point has been a bike that was already a teenager when I was born, and I have plenty of experience dealing with its idiosyncrasies and not infrequent breakdowns. 

But I am planning a trip in which I will cover nearly 3,500 miles, much of it across fairly remote parts of eastern Canada, in just three weeks.  And I have to be back by the end of those three weeks, because I have a family and a job, and bosses at home and at work who were reluctant to allow me to take three straights weeks off as it is. Any breakdown along the way that takes more than a day to get repaired almost certainly means I don't complete the trip -- a trip I have been dreaming of and wanting to take for 25 years now. 

So I bought myself a bike that has a stellar reputation for quality and reliability, and my particular example may be one of the finest left considering it has only 6,000 miles on it and has been impeccably maintained.  But I have also learned over the years that anything electrical or mechanical can fail, so following my Boy Scout training, I will Be Prepared.  Will it guaranty absolutely no problems on my journey?  Of course not.  But I would like to identify the likely weakest links now, and address them in advance, so as to maximize the probability that my trip will be a success.

[johnny]

greetings kdahl...

i answered your question... i have bent every single 3 spoke motobrick wheel i have ever owned... except the wheels on that l t of course... butts was never stranded by a bent wheel and still ride on them...

perhaps you should start a thread asking  what has left motobrickers stranded rather than what has not left them stranded...

j o

[kdahl]

Yes, you did answer my question about three spoke wheels bending, johnny.  I appreciate it.  I was replying to someone who chose to tell me I did not need an answer.

I am still hoping to learn whether the Y spokes are LESS prone to bending.  So far, I have heard plenty of accounts of three spoke wheels bending, and none of Y spoke wheels bending, so I may have my answer.

And I have been doing quite a bit of reading, already, about what has left others stranded.  One item in particular kept coming up -- three spoke wheels.  So I started this thread to see whether others had experience with three spoke vs Y spoke wheel strength. 

[Jumpin Jimmy B]

 The wheels will be fine.

 Set the tire pressure dependant on your load.

 The majority of bent wheel stories I've read and or heard were most often the result of a lower tire pressure being used, or an underinflated tire. Tire
pressue must be set in accordance to theentire load AND with the consideration you are NOT on a race track.

 Normal street riding, some dirt & back road is fine. I ran my K11100RS with 5 other riders up to White Top mountain in Virginia while at HM. Some good sized
rocks, some wash outs, & all gravel. Just take it easy, it'll be fine.

 The roads all over the Midwest to the NE this spring are going to be beat. Lot's of chuck holes, pot holes, seam rifts & chunks of pavement missing.

 I don't know you, so no offense, but I feel you are searching for some reassurance that can come only for first hand experience. So to help get you there, if I pegged that right, I would leave the wheels and install a tire pressure monitoring system. Best piece of mind $ can buy on a long trip.

 I road every state, minus AK & HW on an 81 R100RS until I had one gifted to me a few years back. Thanks JO.   Which is on my 93 RS. Not sure I want to be with out one again.

 Best luck on your trip!  Sounds EPIC!!!

 

[johnny]

greetings kdahl...

that moto at that age and at that milage is unreliable...

it needs to be parted out... and those 3 spoke wheels destroyed...

if you dont wanna mess with it i can be there saturday afternoon to take it off your hands... assuming you gotts the title and its legit...

j o

[Jumpin Jimmy B]

 I call shotgun!

[kdahl]

Thanks, Jumpin' Jimmy.  That's helpful information.

And FWIW, I'm not looking for reassurance, just info.  I used to climb mountains in my younger days, and was a backcountry ranger with the Park Service who did extended solo wilderness patrols.  So I have no anxiety about this trip.  But as my dad liked to say, "only a fool learns from own mistakes -- a wise man learns from others' mistakes."  So if I can benefit from the collected experience of experienced motobrickers, I would like to.  That way, when something does break, I at least won't be kicking myself afterward for making a rookie mistake.  I never set out on a climb or a backcountry patrol without learning as much as I could first about what I might encounter, and ensuring I was reasonably well prepared for it.  And that philosophy has done me well, seeing me safely through many epic adventures.

[Elipten]

All wheels can bend with enough abuse.  I would suspect the snow flake wheels are stronger, but all wheels should do fine.  Less gap along arc of wheel results in a stronger wheel.  Hence the Egyptians 6 spoke chariots versus other cultures 4 spoke wheels.  Same for today's bicycles more spokes equals stronger, but trade off of weight.

[Snowman]

If used as intended there is absolutely no issues with the wheels.

What do you mean by "if used as intended"?  It sure sounds like a few others here have experienced bent three spoke wheels.

On the highway, it's a street bike. Sure if you hit a 2x4  it will bend the rim but in normal street applications the wheels are plenty strong enough. I know of riders that drive on un-surfaced (gravel-rock) roads that the bike was never designed to do so that is what I meant by "used as intended" by its designers. This is one reason the internet is a hindrance, It is so easy for one persons problem to become blown out of proportion. How many of these wheels are out there? tens of thousands? And maybe 0.5% have bent a rim, it gets posted and Oh My God, we all need new wheels!

[johnny]

greetings kdahl...

i do not know of a single occurance of a 3 spoke wheel bending with a car tior mounted on there...

now to the matter at hand...

i justs wanna make sure i understand...

only a fool learns from his own mistakes...

only a wise man learns from others mistakes...

my question is... how do you describe a man who learns from his own mistakes and the mistakes of others...

j o

[The Mighty Gryphon]

6,000 original miles on a '93...?

Change ALL the fluids, flush and bleed the brakes, lube the splines(I'd do the clutch, too), change the fuel filter, check the torque on all fasteners, put on new tires, adjust the clutch, run it around the block a couple times, sign up for AAA Premium RV Plus and then get the f out of town.

Spares?  Clutch cable, throttle cable, fuel filter, bulbs, fuses, a handful of metric hardware and a key.  You might want to carry some sort of interweb thingy so you can tap into the data bank here in a really serious emergency.