Boxerworks.com

Currently, I have a set of original recalled snowflake rims on my bike. I never bothered to check but at Redmond Oregon this summer the famous Snowbum pointed them out to me as different. I've put nearly 100k on them on different bikes. The airhead in me contrarian view would be why fix what ain't broke.

The question to you is... Should I keep running them and have a conversational piece or do I trade them in for federally mandated - new perfect factory ones (the dealer will even prep, replace new bearings, remount my tires, balance them) for free!

Thoughts.

Ridercam wrote:... contrarian view would be why fix what ain't broke ...

The question to you is...

Are you willing to assume with certainty that because the wheel hasn't broken in the past
that it will not do so in the future ?

Can you truly believe that BMW took all these wheels back and replaced them without charge
and at considerable cost – for NO GOOD REASON ?

Does the 100k somehow contribute to make the wheel LESS likely to fail ?

Will the price of a new replacement wheel and peace of mind (FREE ! from BMW)
be a financial burden ?

... vs the potential cost of hospitalization, skin grafts, physical therapy, or funeral expenses ?

Unless the MC is intended to be a concours resto sitting in a museum – isn't the answer obvious ?

I'm with Vanzen. There will come a time when the recalled snowflakes will be a valuable collectible item, but that still won't make it a good idea to ride thousands of miles on them.

I think the potential collectibility of the recall snowflakes probably makes it worth finding yourself a nice used pair of replacement wheels, and putting your original recall wheels up on the shelf to increase in value, but there's no question that there is risk in continuing to ride on them. You can't even measure the likelihood of the risk occurring, but in these situations you have to weigh the risk against the gain. So, while we don't know the specific likelihood of failure, we know that we are measuring the chance of catastrophic failure at speed, against . . . what? Either the loss of a possible collectible wheel, or the cost of a couple used wheels. No way I can see that you can justify such a risk.

Ridercam wrote:
Should I keep running them and have a conversational piece or do I trade them in for federally mandated - new perfect factory ones (the dealer will even prep, replace new bearings, remount my tires, balance them) for free!

I s'pose it depends on your assessment of risk. They were known to break apparently.

The content of the conversation could be interesting.

The only anecdotal information I'd heard about them breaking was when running over cobblestone roads. I can't say as the last time I saw a highly "cobbled" road...

Kurt in S.A.

An interesting picture posted by SteveD (yes we've seen it before)
I would hope the wheel failure was found before catastrophe occurred.
The cracks appear to have been there for some time before finally breaking, as evident by the dark stains.
Actually it looks like the rim and outer spokes were cut to separate the wheel, indicating the problem was with the hub only.
Also interesting are the dark areas in the cracks, they are all on the same side of the spoke.
I would think that all these recall snowflakes would show signs of cracking long before a major problem presented itself.
Has any official reason been given for the failure?, besides the lack of re-enforcement.
I can see two possibilities, one being that the wheels came out of the manufacturing process with inherent stresses around the hub from different cooling rates of the hub and spokes, and the lack of re-enforcement or webbing allowed the act of 'braking' to eventually do its stuff.
I'd like to see a close up of a crack (not those cracks) (well, yes those cracks too) to see just how much porosity (tiny bubbles) existed.

I like the thought of a nice new front wheel!

Kurt in S.A. wrote:The only anecdotal information I'd heard about them breaking was when running over cobblestone roads. I can't say as the last time I saw a highly "cobbled" road...

Kurt in S.A.

Victoria Canada
Vancouver Canada
Edinburgh Scotland
Sacramento California

Those are the ones that immediately leap to my memory, but I'm sure I've also seen some in San Francisco and Oakland. I wouldn't worry about it though - there's no potholes or rough broken pavement in any other locations...

Major Softie wrote:

Kurt in S.A. wrote:The only anecdotal information I'd heard about them breaking was when running over cobblestone roads. I can't say as the last time I saw a highly "cobbled" road...

Kurt in S.A.

Victoria Canada
Vancouver Canada
Edinburgh Scotland
Sacramento California

Those are the ones that immediately leap to my memory, but I'm sure I've also seen some in San Francisco and Oakland. I wouldn't worry about it though - there's no potholes or rough broken pavement in any other locations...

Agreed.
"Pot-holes ", rough & broken pavement, or any of numerous and assorted road anomalies
can and will, without warning, exhibit the exact same forces upon a wheel as "cobbles" –
Semantics nor the regional peculiarities of roads or language will alter Physics.

OK! Since I live in the third world country of California... I am going to the dealer for new rims. I was assured that I would get new ones off the shelf in San Francisco. BMW pays and I save on a blue moon wheel lube too. The dealer would charge me over 1500 for these if I had to pay. Show up with the rims off the bike and the service free!

I'll post pics.

vanzen@rockerboxer.com wrote:Semantics nor the regional peculiarities of roads or language will alter Physics.

Hit anything hard enough and you'll damage just about any wheel and/or go down in a heap. My point was from the anecdotal info was that the nature of cobblestones, the repetative makeup of the stones and the forces they apply to rims might have been especially hard on the snowflakes in that particular instance. That the visual that comes to my mind...as opposed to hitting a single rock or pothole.

Kurt in S.A.