The rim in the pics was from a bike bought new in Norway in early 2012 ... I believe. So if it was worse before 2010 then the first couple of years rims must have been terrible.

Yes he did a lot of miles on the rim before Siberia but it was all on asphalt apart from 500 km or so in Tajikistan - which was graded gravel roads.

Geir's X-Challenge rims suffered minor damage. As I mentioned above, they suffered damage, but a fraction of what the F800 rim suffered. Geir has since changed to an Excel rim (a) so that the bike is as good as new and (b) cause he wants to keep riding it and adventuring with it and felt that a quality front rim was a wise investment so that he never has to worry about it again.

At the end of the day, a good Excel rim is about 190 EUR retail! and the top of the range rim money can buy about 250 EUR. I dont want to even guess how low BMW could buy Excel rims at an OEM level, in bulk runs of thousands ... no more than 50 EUR thats for sure - probably 30 EUR. So maybe BMW save 20 EUR by putting crappy rims on the bike.

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Walter; I've seen photos of KTM's (950's and 990's) with rims as you showed earlier in the thread.... it's not only BMW who is using butter rims. Ok, the KTM will take more punishment than an BMW but they are not that good...



Casper

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www.exilepixel.com
www.c-note.dk

Oh I agree ... totally. You can find plenty of threads of me criticising KTM for dumbing down their Adventure bikes ... That they used to put their best quality forks and rims on them, and now they put their cheapest forks and rims on them. Having said that, it still seems the cheapest WP forks are a long way better than BMWs cheapest tho. Rims? I think both 990 rims and F800 rims come from Behr ... not sure if there is any difference in spec. KTM also go too far when it comes to saving money on outsourced components (rims, fuel pumps etc), but it seems not always quite to the extreme level BMW do.

If you get a 990, its one of things you need to change before you go offroading. Again, its something that someone who buys a 990 and wants to ride to Magadan should be aware of. My reference to the 990 earlier in the thread was more regarding suspension than rims.

A friend of mine, Joe Pichler (http://www.josef-pichler.at/), does a lot of marketing rides for KTM on the adventure side ... rides across Africa, Siberia and South America for promotional and marketing pics ... has been using 950s and 990 from 2003 till 2011 ... and the main change (and first change) KTM marketing guys made to his bikes before each trip was the rims - changing to either the DID dirtstar rims or any Excel rims.

See also:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...ehr-rims-22519

and my post on the same topic on another forum:

ADVrider - View Single Post - Sibirsky Extreme 2012 - The Toughest Ride of Them All

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The OEM front rim on the KTM 950/990s is soft. But . . . without knowing the exact model . . . I've seen plenty do far more than the eastern BAM without a problem. I have an Excel A60 1.6 on mine.

As for the "cheap" KTM forks ? The company is guilty of being a box of (high quality) parts across really all models. There are ALOT of BMWs running WP (KTM) forks for all the right reasons.

Recently, on ADVRider someone put forth an "Ohlins" upgrade over the standard WP parts on ADVs/SEs via a poll.

Over 60% of respondents said "nope, I'll spend the money on ". The majority of those had re-valved and/or re-sprung their forks. KTM suspension parts are pretty good, at least.

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Orange, it's the new black.

Thats becuase more and more companys are being run by accountants where they will try to save every last penny to make themselves look better

I'll be bolting these together when they finally come into our place...

I really do hope they're impressive.

As a historic BMW hater, my new job has opened my eyes up to many things.

They're not as bad as I thought. They're actually really good enjoyable bikes.

Would I take one travelling though.............

NOPE !!!!!
.

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

As will i

I have always thought they are fun bikes to ride, not tried them for anything more then a test ride though.

I bet I scratch a screen with my T25 before you do !!

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Joe Dakar (official BMW off road instructor, BMW tour guide and BMW tour guide instructor), is doing the BMW Launch project for the 800 Adventure ... A ride to Magadan ...

The project - JOEDAKAR - MOTORCYCLE ADVENTURE, MEDIA & MORE...



I just spoke to him yesterday about the rims to warn him.

He told me that BMW marketing had already changed the rims to proper ones !

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Does this mean that we will only receive a highly sensored marketing version on how it fairs ???



www.touringted.com

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

On that particular bike he is gonna use on his trip or in general?

I still remember when I realised how extreme it was ... the day I learned that BMW paid the suppliers of the 1200GS rear shock 27 EUR a piece at OEM supply level, - the same shock that if you buy from a parts counter will cost you about 900, thats when I realised how much they save on these components. Thats when I realised for another 27 EUR you could have had a shock that was TWICE as good. Or as mentioned earlier, for an extra 20-30 EUR you could have had two Excel rims on your F800GS instead of those horrible Behr rims.

But really, can you blame the companies? They are only just reacting to public demand. Its the public that demand bikes be as cheap as possible. For adventure bikes especially, I would prefer they were as good as possible rather than as cheap as possible - but I am in a minority. It goes back to the fact that 95% of adventure bike buyers arent going anywhere except up and down motorways and daily commutes. Those buyers dont want to pay extra for good rims or suspension because they dont need it. And the manufacturers cant make all this stuff optional, it would be too expensive. Its either in or its out of the standard spec. 95% of buyers want it out. As I pointed out earlier in the thread, it took KTM a while to figure that out - but they are heading there too now.

The market gets what it deserves.

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