Desert tyres on R80 G/S

**Tone & Andge** · #1 20 Sep 2005

I wonder if anyone can help me? I've got a BMW R80 g/s 1982 (PRE-PARALEVER)and I wanted to put Michelin 'Desert' tyres on it.
I know you can buy a 5mm spacer to allow the later paralever models to use these tyres, but i've not found any information on my earlier model.
If anyone has any information or experience of this I would be most grateful to hear from you. Thanks.
Tone

**Frank Warner** · #2 20 Sep 2005

Err don't the Paralevers use 17 inch rears? And I think the Paralevers’ housing is larger too. So clearance issues on the Paralevers don't necessarily go over to the monolevers.

You'll want an 18 inch rear. About a 110 or 120 should fit. Some times the knobs on the left side rub the spring – most people just cut the knobs.

**BCK_973** · #3 2 Oct 2005

Tone
I used allways TKC 80 120-80 on the back.No spacer on my old G/S.Never put a Desert because a matter of cost.You can try Pirelli MT 21 looks allmost like Desert.And not so expensive.
KH

**gsworkshop** · #4 3 Oct 2005

The Easy, cheapest and the safest way to modify the wheel to take Michelin Deserts is to offset the rim from the hub by about 16 mm.
If you have a dealer that does wheel lacing and trueing you can take it to them(you need a special mount for the GS rear wheel to put it on a trueing stand).
If the spokes is not in a great condition it is wise to replace them at this piont as well.
Make sure that once the offset is set that the the spokes on the left side of the wheel are grinded shorter as they stand out to far out of the nipples and will cause a hole through the innertube. This can be done with a small die grinder.

This method is proved by HPN on BMW bikes prepared for the Dakar rally for BMW itself.
As far as the spacer is concerned I doubt its safety as it leaves a gap between the hub and finaldrive for sand to get in and it also move the brakedrum of the brakeliner.
This will be more severe on a drum with high milage as it would have left a ridge that will eat into the brake liner.
If you need help to do this yourself you can e-mail me.

**gsworkshop** · #5 3 Oct 2005

If you realy want to try the spacers tough , I have some that was lasercut from stainless steel to fit the monolever three stud finaldrive and hub.

**Philippe[Hannibal]** · #6 8 Oct 2005

Look here - had similar question. Ended up with the Continental - won't be able to tell you whether iit was a good choice (compared with going with the trouble of adapting the Desert) before end of November though...

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb...ML/000577.html

[This message has been edited by Philippe[Hannibal] (edited 08 October 2005).]