Front wheel removal C650GT.

[moodleman]

Does anyone out there have any ideas about how to elevate the front wheel on a C650 to enable wheel removal - eg for fixing a flat - on the roadside? I have seen a gadget called a trail stand, which enables you to pivot the bike on its side stand and then use the trail stand as a prop to keep the front wheel off the ground. This item is used by off-roaders but the stand needs to be plugged into a convenient hole in the bike frame or sump-plate. Nowhere on the C650 that I can see.

Mind you, in 56 years of bike riding, I have never had a flat tyre on a road bike! (tempting fate here, I know. Big Time!)

 

[Ceesie76]

The obvious way would be to ask someone to sit on the bike when it is on the centerstand, leaning backwards.
Or perhaps prop a piece of wood/'something' underneat the front suspension of the right length with the bike on the centerstand.

 

[Delray]

No idea about elevating the front wheel on the roadside, although Ceesie's idea sounds pretty sensible.

(FYI for non-roadside elevation, I put the bike on the center stand and use a floor jack under the engine. Jack it up until the bike tilts back and rests on the rear tire and center stand. While the front tire is off the bike, I stack 2 x 12 pieces under the front forks so if the jack fails, the bike will sit on the wood).

After three flat tires last summer within a month, I learned three things about flats on a bike.

1. Front tire flats are very rare. Most flats happen in the rear tire. Main reason is if the front tire runs over a nail or screw, it won't be affected because the nail or screw is laying flat on the road. What happens is the front tire passing over the nail or screw can "activate" it and propel it toward the rear tire or stand up the nail or screw so it's in perfect position for the rear tire to roll over it with tremendous force, enough force to puncture the tire.

2. Although extremely rare, front tire flats most often result from valve stem failure, and that can be catastrophic. Replace those valve stems with every new tire! It only costs a couple extra bucks.

3. If you are riding at high speed and pick up a nail or screw in the rear tire, you may not even know you have a flat until you slow down. Motorcycle tires are small enough and rotate fast enough to hold air inside when they're spinning rapidly. Two of the flats I had from screws in the rear tire were on I-95 (a high-speed highway). Both times, I discovered I had a flat on the off-ramp as I slowed for a stop sign. With the third flat, I was on a country road averaging 50 mph until, again, I slowed for a stop sign and heard the dreaded thumpa-thumpa behind me and felt like the bike was moving in mud. It was kind of reassuring to discover that those particular laws of physics kept my tires from deflating while I was moving at 50 to 70 mph.

 

[moodleman]

Further to my earlier post (above) I have indeed tempted Fate by mentioning "no punctures in 56 years" ... On a recent ride to a fairly remote part of Australia, one day I noticed a drop of pressure on the rear tyre, thanks to the TPMS. From a starting pressure of 42psi, it had dropped to 38. As I watched, it gradually (over about 20 minutes) dropped to 24. Time to stop. Could not find the source of the air loss - no obvious nails etc - so reinflated with my mini compressor and continued. Next section of the ride I only got about 10 minutes before it got low again. So this time I applied water and eventually found a tiny hole in the tread of the tyre.

Plugging a tyre on the roadside, in the sun, on a day of 35 degrees Celsius (close to 100F) is not a pleasant job. But my efforts were rewarded - got the plug in, reinflated, and for some time there was no shift in the air pressure! Success! but after another half hour, quite suddenly the pressure began to drop again! Still another 50km to go before reaching a town with a tyre repair service, so had to do another couple of reinflations, oh boy that mini compressor earned its keep that day.

Next day, the tyre repair service put in a better plug and all was sweet on the 2,000 kilometre trip home. I swear I will never again make a remark like I did in that earlier post about punctures!

 

[Delray]

Good story and good on you for being prepared!

Can't imagine working on the roadside, much less riding, in those temps. When it's 90F (32C) with no clouds in Florida, I use my Prius. If I want to travel on the bike during The Baking Season from June through August, I ride at night and early mornings.

Once I bought a Honda Silver Wing on the other side of the state, about 200 miles away, and thanks to a serious Florida thunderstorm, my ride home was delayed for a couple hours. It was 9:00 p.m. by the time I hit the road for home. Now, the middle of South Florida is nothing like The Outback, but there is not a whole lot there. Swamps and sugarcane fields, gators and snakes and few towns spaced far apart. So I'm on a new-to-me bike with no hotels or even house lights in sight, no tools on the bike, riding through the night singing and yelling at myself to stay awake and praying and thanking the wonderful work of Japanese engineers who made the Silver Wing so blessedly reliable. Ah, to be young and foolish.

Wait, that was three years ago .... ;o)

 

[moodleman]

Good story and good on you for being prepared!

Can't imagine working on the roadside, much less riding, in those temps. When it's 90F (32C) with no clouds in Florida, I use my Prius. If I want to travel on the bike during The Baking Season from June through August, I ride at night and early mornings.

Once I bought a Honda Silver Wing on the other side of the state, about 200 miles away, and thanks to a serious Florida thunderstorm, my ride home was delayed for a couple hours. It was 9:00 p.m. by the time I hit the road for home. Now, the middle of South Florida is nothing like The Outback, but there is not a whole lot there. Swamps and sugarcane fields, gators and snakes and few towns spaced far apart. So I'm on a new-to-me bike with no hotels or even house lights in sight, no tools on the bike, riding through the night singing and yelling at myself to stay awake and praying and thanking the wonderful work of Japanese engineers who made the Silver Wing so blessedly reliable. Ah, to be young and foolish.

Wait, that was three years ago .... ;o)

Young and foolish - yes - and then there's the other saying, "no fool like an old fool". I guess that's me! But to change the topic slightly, Delray, I know you will be able to advise me - at nearly 20,000 km the C650 is approaching belt replacement time. I've got everything I need to do the belt, but the maintenance schedule says "belt and rollers" - I am not at all clear what these rollers are, where they are, how many there are, or whether they are going to need replacement at all. Can you clarify?

 

[Delray]

These pictures are worth a thousand of my words (roller replacement starts at 5:12) ....

Just pop out the old ones and drop in the new ones. They get pretty beat up by 20,000 km and will probably need replacing.

Instead of OEM ball-shaped ROLLERS, a lot of folks use wedge-shaped SLIDERS from Dr. Pulley. The lighter 28-gram weight (OEM is 33 gram, I believe), generates faster take off and much-improved mid-range performance, which I can say from direct experience. The sliders also supposedly last much longer because they slide smoothly instead of rolling around constantly as the variator moves in and out.

Right now I am on a waiting list for a set of Dr. Pulley sliders for my belt change (I'm at 4500 miles and already have my new Mitsuboshi belt, so I'm a little over-prepared ;o).

This page shows Dr. Pulley sliders and explains the theory of why sliders are better than rollers:

Dr. Pulley Slider Weight 30X20 for BMW C600 / C650GT

High Performance Sliders 30X20 - 8 weights package

www.buggypartsnw.com

There are also four slider insert pieces that need to be replaced.

I have a pdf of someone's excellent words + pics documentation of changing the belt, which includes the Service Manual pages on replacing the belt and rollers. It's a pdf and I can't attach it here, but if you PM your email, I'll send it to you.

 

[moodleman]

These pictures are worth a thousand of my words (roller replacement starts at 5:12) ....

Just pop out the old ones and drop in the new ones. They get pretty beat up by 20,000 km and will probably need replacing.

Instead of OEM ball-shaped ROLLERS, a lot of folks use wedge-shaped SLIDERS from Dr. Pulley. The lighter 28-gram weight (OEM is 33 gram, I believe), generates faster take off and much-improved mid-range performance, which I can say from direct experience. The sliders also supposedly last much longer because they slide smoothly instead of rolling around constantly as the variator moves in and out.

Right now I am on a waiting list for a set of Dr. Pulley sliders for my belt change (I'm at 4500 miles and already have my new Mitsuboshi belt, so I'm a little over-prepared ;o).

This page shows Dr. Pulley sliders and explains the theory of why sliders are better than rollers:

Dr. Pulley Slider Weight 30X20 for BMW C600 / C650GT

High Performance Sliders 30X20 - 8 weights package

www.buggypartsnw.com

There are also four slider insert pieces that need to be replaced.

I have a pdf of someone's excellent words + pics documentation of changing the belt, which includes the Service Manual pages on replacing the belt and rollers. It's a pdf and I can't attach it here, but if you PM your email, I'll send it to you.

Thanks Delray. The Dr Pulley vendor also mentions (as well as 28g sliders) a U-shaped item called "sliding pieces" - will I need a set of those as well? Doesn't look like it on the video.

 

[Delray]

Yes, you need four new "sliding pieces." I referred to them earlier as "slider insert pieces." Same thing.

Dr. Pulley has AH and AE versions (the letters are part of their part #). I was told we use the AH version.

BMW C600/C650GT DR.PULLEY CVT SLIDING PIECES SP3020-AH | eBay

C600 SPORT. SLIDING PIECES.

www.ebay.com

 

[moodleman]

Thanks Delray. That's all clear now. I have ordered the bits and pieces and just need another 2,000km on the bike before tackling the belt and roller job. It really doen't look hard. Perhaps the worst part will be getting the plastic off first!

 

[Delray]

Not a hard job at all. But yes, removing the plastic is a PITA. I start by pinching off the fuel filler lid and work downhill from there.

 

[orlandopalladino]

Does anyone out there have any ideas about how to elevate the front wheel on a C650 to enable wheel removal - eg for fixing a flat - on the roadside? I have seen a gadget called a trail stand, which enables you to pivot the bike on its side stand and then use the trail stand as a prop to keep the front wheel off the ground. This item is used by off-roaders but the stand needs to be plugged into a convenient hole in the bike frame or sump-plate. Nowhere on the C650 that I can see.

Mind you, in 56 years of bike riding, I have never had a flat tyre on a road bike! (tempting fate here, I know. Big Time!)

I cut two lengths of 2by4 to fit under the forks to carry the weight of the bike while I had the tire changed