Rim Locks and Tyre Wobble
 

I reckon this will only take one reply but here goes: I fixed rimlocks on my F650GS Dakar yesterday and have noticed a considerable hopping in the front wheel as a result (also added a heavy-duty tube, so it could be that).

Should I: 1) Ignore it. 2) Counterbalance it with those wheel-balancing lead weights 3) Do something else.

I'm afraid after reading about the "tank slapper" that this un-uniform wheel spinning could send me screaming for my momma somewhere down the road.

Cheers.

Do you have one rimlock on front wheel?
If yes remove it... it will be ok.

Why did you put a rimlock in the front? You will not need it and it makes it harder to fix a flat.

I use a rimlock on the front and rear as well as heavy duty innertubes on my KTM 640 Adventure with no problems. It does takes quite a bit of weight to counterbalance it. My rimlocks are directly opposite from my valve stems(which was the heaviest part until the rimlocks). This helps a bit, but you still need to balance as the rimlocks are very heavy in comparison! It took 3(I forgot what weight) spoke end weights on the rear to balance it, but only 1 on the front.

Having said that, Shelton and AliBaba are probably correct - you probably don't really need one on the front.


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Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius - William Blake

Right on guys,

I'll remove the front rim lock. I guess since there's no power to the front it won't matter if I drop the pressure to 1 BAR for the really sandy stuff?

Cheers,
Hunter

Remember that depending on the surface\situation most of your braking power goes through the front tyre.

Yes most of the breaking power goes through the front wheel, but you don’t brake that much in sand anyway. You will probably not need to drop the pressure lower then to 1.5 bar. If you doubt that it will work then drop the pressure and try it for some weeks before you leave.
Personally I seldom drop the pressure anymore and ride with 2.5 bar all the time. On your way north you will probably find that corrugation is worse then sand so going to Sesheke is a nice way to test your setup :-)). If you drive fast you will have a lot of braking.