Bent Rim II

[Steve in VT]

The axle-removal tool I ordered hasn't arrived yet, so the roadster sits in the garage with a dinged front foot. The local BMW guy says to just ride it and in fact, I did ride it a couple times before I noticed the dent. Guess my pre-flights aren't as thorough as they could be.
But while I've been waiting, when I'm not thinking about how I'm going to hold the wheel as I smack it with my huge hammer and whether or not I should pre-heat it, I've been wondering.
If my front suspension were a little more compliant (softer), might it have allowed the wheel to roll up and over the edge of the hole without damage?
The suspension is stiff, which most of the time I like. But on some of our Vermont back roads, stiff is no fun. Would an adjustable aftermarket shock make for a less harsh ride, and would I be giving up some precision in the cornering?

[Bob Ain't Stoppin']

Steve, I recommend that you don't hit your wheel with a hammer. Go to MCwheel.com. Shouldn't be that much of a drive for you if you want to go in person. Or just ups to them. They do great work and your wheel will be straighter than it was when new.

As to why did your wheel bend. Two possibilities. One is that the impact was just too much and it should have bent. Second is that the tire might have been under inflated. You should run 38psi in the front for rim protection. If there's a big hole in the road, you're supposed to go around it!

[Lost Rider]

You should run 38psi in the front for rim protection.

Recommending that someone runs their tires above the rated maximum pressure is not good advice.

Obviously none of us know what Steve hit, but it's my opinion you must have hit something very hard to bend the wheel.
I don't believe that running your tires over pressure wouldn't have helped and maybe you'd have blown out the tire and crashed instead of just bending the wheel.
Plus I think it would just take away from the bikes performance, on top of keeping your tire from heating up properly to get maximum traction. 32-36 psi depending on the load for tarmac use is what's recommended. 30 psi at the track or in the canyons, and 25psi on gravel is what works for me, but you should always understand what changing your tire pressure can/will do before you go outside the recommended pressures.

Even my front wheel isn't bent after the tens of thousands of off-tarmac, low tire pressure dirt road adventure miles my R has been on. That's in addition to tens of thousands of miles ridden around the city of Chicago, and I can't imagine any roads being worse than Chicago with the 100,000+ pot holes they fix a year. (don't miss that!)


To answer your question, if you ride regularly on crappy roads or enjoy having your bike handle the best it can then yes, the first place to look at throwing some money at the problem would be suspension. The stock Showa shocks are cheap garbage IMO.
Good shocks will transform your bike in general, greatly improve handling, traction, braking, and smooth out the ride significantly on rough roads, along with probably helping protect the wheel when you hit a pothole.
At least that's been my experience with my GS and bent wheels, then Ohlins forks and no bent wheels.

Suspension is hands down the first and most important custom work every BMW owner should invest in, if the owner cares about how the bike feels as much as how it looks that is.
I prefer Ohlins and get all my suspension work done by Dan Kyle at Kyle Racing, one of the top Ohlins suspension guru's in the country.

[michael Tobias]

I had a bent rim on my R1100RS and I don't think the wheels have changed composition since then...it is my understanding that the alloy the wheel is made of needs to be heated and brought back to shape...smacking it with a hammer could put a crack in the wheel you may not see and that might end up being worse than what you have now. I send my wheel off to Woodys and they had it back in 2 weeks good as new.

I am not much of a gambler... I would rather have someone who repairs these things for a living fix the wheel....just my .02 ymmv

[boxermoose]

Woodys Wheel works has a very good reputation for fixing these type wheels

[jkhomes]

I am not sure you really have to hit the rim that hard to bend it. I got rear ended by a guy I was motorcycle riding with (he doesn't ride any more) and the rim actually bent out at the bead of the tire on the other side of where I was hit. So evidently the pressure on the inside of the tire bent the rim out. I always run my tires exactly what the manual recommends.

Wish I would have known about wheel straightening then. Although maybe being where the tire beads to the rim would be safety issue. My dealer charged me $869 for the wheel plus installation on top of that. The other guys insurance paid for everything, so I guess it was better to go ahead and get a new one instead of pocketing the difference. Safety first.

[Steve in VT]

Great advice, and thanks to all who replied. Probably if I had read all of it earlier, I might have done things differently, but being a independent Vermonter determined to do it myself, and willing to trust to brute strength and ignorance, I attacked the problem head on (see video)
I did finally go back and look at the stretch of road I was on, and found several nasty potholes. There's a picture in the video of the one I think did the damage (beer can for size reference). There's a ridge on the left side, so that's where the wheel hit. I think if it had been a straight lip, I probably would have gotten away with just a good jolt.
Aftermarket shocks are on my wish list.

http://youtu.be/5wYWvuneFvE

Steve

[Bob Ain't Stoppin']

Steve, Looking at your video, and the first frame with the road pic. I could only think that this is road hazard anyone in New England will see (and hit) every day. I still think you had an under inflated tire, but I wasn't there. To offer a comparison, I submit an honest bad road situation:

[Anyname]

That looks like most of the better Vermont roads after this fall's hurricane. The bad roads just ain't there any more.