Looking across to the snow capped alpine mountains seen from the back seat of a motorcycle

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125 Rear Wheel Rebuild

It never rains…

a few months now the 125 has been developing a little “shimmy” at about 10mph or so. Not a big shimmy, not a tank slapper, just a gentle but noticeable wobble, particularly when accelerating. At speed it’s fine, slow riding’s ok, but I knew it was quite as it should be.

I checked the headstock bearings, moving OK, not notchy and no play…not that. Checked the front and rear wheel bearings, no play and the wheels spin freely…not them. A good shake of the rear wheel showed no movement in the swingarm bushes. The shock seemed to be moving correctly…nothing there. As far as I was concerned there was nothing wrong with the bike. I even got a biking friend to confirm my findings and he reached the came conclusion.

If you read the rest of the blog you’ll see the 125 has recently spent some time off the road to sort the exhaust. In the interim period the 600 was used daily. The 600 feels as solid as a rock, so when I finally got the 125 back out into the wild it really brought home how loose the handling had become and in particular how annoying that 10mph wobble was becoming.

After a wet and wobbly ride to work I just got off the bike and started checking the bearings and bushes again. Nothing. In anger I grabbed the back wheel and shook it really hard…aha…

When shaking the wheel I noticed the spoke ends moving around in the hub. Further vigorous shacking confirmed this around the wheel. It seems that 28,500 miles of potholes, off-roading, overloading and general everyday abuse has finally taken it’s toll. The obvious thing is to tighten the spokes.

In my youth I’d tried tightening spokes on my pushbikes, to remove buckles. It didn’t work, generally I made things worse. The rim, although suspended on loose spokes, was running true. I hoped I’d be able to tighten the spokes without placing the rim out of true. With spoke spanner in hand I started with the first spoke nipple. No movement was available. Rusted in, solid. The more vigorous I try to turn the nipple, the more the whole spoke twists and threatens to break. The same applies for all the other spokes I try.

It’s a rebuild job this. And that’s one job I don’t have the knowledge, equipment, experience or tools to do myself. A phone call to the local bike tyre shop had me the number of KB Wire Wheels in Bolton (01204 844204) and I left the wheel with him, after spending 2 hours cleaning the rim with the wire brush drill thingy.

It took almost a week before the rim was ready, but I was sure pleased to see my wheel resplendent with shiny spokes and running true. Back home I wondered what will be the best way to stop the rust from returning. A tin of smoothrite was purchased and applied thickly on both the inside and the outside of the rim, and over the nipples. Tyre back on and wheel back into the bike.

WOW! What a super transformation. It feels like…well…like it used to when I bought it with 7,000 miles on it. I can negotiate corners and it feels like it’s tracking correctly, no wandering about. The 10mph shimmy has gone and the whole bike feels tighter. You never realise how worn things are until you replace or fix them.

CLR 125 City Fly Rear Wheel, rubuilt and now dirty
As you can see the wheels already dirty. So I cleaned a patch to show my...er...wonderful painting skills.

Reader's Comments

Garth said :-
How much was the wheel rebuild? I rekon my mates wheel might be getting knackered so it never seems to ride right. Where can he get it done?
09/02/2017 13:35:39 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
Oooof blimey Garth, this was quite a while back. If memory serves me well I think it was £80. Where? I had mine done at KB Wire Wheels Bolton. I don't know where you're from but the big player at wheel building is Hagon, the same people who do the shock absorbers.
09/02/2017 17:26:18 UTC

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