Wheel surprises

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killfile
Mariana
Posts: 32
Joined: Sat Jul 28, 2018 5:16 pm

Wheel surprises

Post by killfile »

Hey folks,
I was trouble shooting my carbs in the other subforum and pulled my wheels to replace my tires the day before a 500+ mile ride. Discovered the bearings were frozen. Short on time, I sourced some bearings at my local bearing shop and dropped off the wheels and bearings at my friend's shop to have the work done.
It turned out 4 of the 6 bearings were the wrong sizes. Strange. I double checked that I had the right sizes based on the manual, and yes, they were correct. I measured the removed bearings, ran back to the bearing shop and managed to pick up matching replacements. It looks like I have a non-stock front wheel, which others have led me to believe is off a guzzi? The hub is a 6 bolt pattern rather than the 4 bolt that I believe was stock for a bevel 860GT. It appears my rear hub might have been machined to receive slightly wider bearings? My sprocket carrier took the stock size bearings. After rectifying this, we discovered the internal spacers were too wide for the space they were occupying, and in all probably cases were the reason the bearings froze in the first place.
The shop couldn't help with the spacers, so at 4:30 pm on the Friday before I'm supposed to be heading up to the mountains for the ride, I'm left with a handful of parts and two non-working wheels. I don't have a real shop for working on my bike, so it was time to call for help. I'd never pestered my friend Blaise Descollonges of Desco Atelier for help, but I figured he would be working on one of his bikes for the ride as well. A call at 4:45 pm and he's okay'd me to swing by his shop after our kids are in bed, while he is working on his BMW R75/5. If anyone ever needs a BMW gearbox rebuilt, Desco Atelier (http://www.descoatelier.com/) is the place to do it. That night we machined my spacers, which looked like hack-sawed plumbing pipe, into perfectly fitting squared-up clean spacers, and dropped the new bearings in.
Leaving Desco Atelier at midnight, I was home installing the wheels and the bike was rolling around 2:00 am. Plenty of time to make it to the ride the next day.

Here are a pic of the finished wheels. I'll post a closer image of the front wheel in the near future in case anyone can shed light on where the wheel came from. The other pic is of the bike on the first day of the ride. You can't tell, but I'm smiling from ear to ear. Funny enough, this picture was taken by Blaise!
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BevHevSteve
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Re: Wheel surprises

Post by BevHevSteve »

The things that take the most effort are often the things that give us the greatest pleasure.... :rad:
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1funduc
Cucciolo - the Lil Pup
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Joined: Mon Mar 15, 2004 6:50 am
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Re: Wheel surprises

Post by 1funduc »

Good work. That is certainly not the original front hub. Nice upgrade on the disk just too back the spacers were hacked.Good thing that you found the problem and fixed it correctly. You'll never have to worry about it for a long time.
ducadini
860 GT / GTS
Posts: 296
Joined: Sat Jul 31, 2004 9:54 am
Location: Antwerpen

Re: Wheel surprises

Post by ducadini »

The rim of the frontwheel looks like a 4777 ;) ;)
If those are stainless steel spokes, they could be Original Moto Guzzi.
The 6bolt carriers are made by Grimeca to fit Guzzi and Ducati.
The discs are EBC floaters.
All in all a nice and working upgrade :-D :-D

ciao
ducadini
Nego i ricordi peggiori
Richiamo i migliori pensieri
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