Hi,

I'm considering buying some spoke wheels for my GS. The idea being to keep the road tyres on the cast wheels and put some knobblies on the spoke wheels for a trip abroad on dirt roads.

My question is, other than the BMW spoke wheels, are there any other suppliers of spoke wheels for 1200GS I should consider ? Has anyone got non-BMW spokes ? I've tried a couple of places but they don't build wheels for the GS because of the tubeless tyres. Bear in mind I am in the UK.

Thanks,

Ian

If you want solid spoke wheels for the 1200 you can not use the 1200 rim because it’s not solid.
You can get solid tubeless rims in 17(‘2.5)”, 18” and 21” from BMW but that’s probably not what you are looking for.

One option is to use BMW hubs and solid aftermarket tubetype rims. Most wheel builders should be able to do this. I think Africa Queens used to sell this for the 1100GS, maybe they sell it for the 1200…

Wait for a set of used R1200GS or Adventure spoked wheels to be advertised. There was a set on UKGSer* ::::* For BMW GS Enthusiasts recently for £300 without discs, ABS rings or tyres. New pair of bare wheels are about £1,500.

Getting them built from scratch will probably cost £1,000+ assuming you can find someone to take the job on. Not sure if anyone in the UK will do it, only person I can think of is Woody's Wheel Works in the US, find him on Adventure Rider Motorcycle Forum. If going this route, consider having the hub laced to a tubeless 21" front rim from an airhead GS for increased offroad ability - same number of spokes etc.

Might be wrong here but if changing from cast to spoked wheels on a 1200, you may need the matching wheel bolts as I think there's a 5mm difference in length IIRC.