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Rim locks or not? Rim locks or not?
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  #1  
Old 30 May 2008
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Question Rim locks or not?
Hi folks

I have been surfing the net for a couple of days reading about rim locks and can't decide if I need rim locks or not.

I have recently bought a KTM 640 Adv 2004 that isn't predrilled for rim locks. My previous "Adventure" bike was a F650. I didn't use rim locks on that one and that was never a problem when riding with low pressure off road.

However the F650 doesn't have the same power/torque as the KTM...Looking also at the tires today I also see that the tubes have moved a bit...

So should I put on rim locks front and rear? If I do so I have read that two in front and two at the read is preferred for the balancing.

I have only 3 weeks until i leave for Mongolia, so would reallly appreciate some quick answers :-)

/spakur
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Old 31 May 2008
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I've logged 70,000 km on my 640 and never had the bead slip to cause a flat..... But I always run 26-30 psi in both tires and have gotten use to the way the bike handles in varied terrain with that pressure..... Also I leave the nut off the valve stem and instead slip a small length of rubber hose down the stem to the rim so if it does move a bit it wont rip the stem out....

If you plan on running in the low 20s psi I would recommend running rimlocks for sure.....
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Old 31 May 2008
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I had rim locks on my motocrossers rear wheels but not the front. It depends on how much hammer you are going to give the bike and how much pressure in the tyres, it only takes one mud hole and a hand full of revs to turn the tyre on rim.
The fact that there is no hole for a rim lock suggests that you don't need them on your bike, some tyres fit very tight.
Cheers
Ian
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Old 31 May 2008
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If you do fit rimlocks pay careful attention to wheel balance. Each rimlock weighs over 110gms and unbalanced thats a fair bit of vibration. It gets worse though! If you've got the usual 21" front and 18" rear the wheels rotate at different speeds so the vibration from the individual wheels goes in and out of phase.

You only start to notice it above about 55 -60mph but it gets worse rapidly as you speed up. It feels like a severe shake followed by a period of smooth running repeating over 4-5 seconds.

When they multiply the vibrations get very intense and 10 miles at 75mph was enough to snap the exhaust mount on my CCM (and give me double vision). You don't have to get the balance perfect - to the nearest 20gms was good enough to fix it to the point where I can't feel it any more.
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Old 1 Jun 2008
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Hi

On my previous bike I used to run the tires at about 20 psi (offroad) if I remember correctly and with no problems at all, but I ain't so sure if this will work for the KTM.

I am glad however to hear that there's no problem if I run them a little bit higher.

On my Husberg enduro bike I have rim locks both rear and front, but then I also run them at 15 psi or so...
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Old 3 Jun 2008
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I gave the wheels to a mc tire shop today and they said that if I run the pressure above 1.0 bar witch is about 15 psi I should be fine without rim locks...so I gave up the idea about rim locks...We'll see if it was the right decision or not when I'm in mongolia :-)

Thanks for the feedback!
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