metal valve stems

[WJBertrand]

I used a file to widen the gap on the rear wheel so I could fit the Orange Electronics TPMS. I’ve done about 30,000 miles with no issues since.

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[Checkswrecks]

Apologies to WJB for my sounding like a Negative Nellie but please keep a close watch on the flange whenever you check the air pressure. For any others, I would HIGHLY recommend NOT filing a rim like that.


DCStrom (twice), Limey, and others have found that these rims are able to crack in regular use. Filing closer to the spoke holes, not giving the corners a nice big round radius, and undercutting like WJB did - I'm going to be surprised if that doesn't crack at some point.


Photo from Limey:

 

[WJBertrand]

Apologies to WJB for my sounding like a Negative Nellie but please keep a close watch on the flange whenever you check the air pressure. For any others, I would HIGHLY recommend NOT filing a rim like that.


DCStrom (twice), Limey, and others have found that these rims are able to crack in regular use. Filing closer to the spoke holes, not giving the corners a nice big round radius, and undercutting like WJB did - I'm going to be surprised if that doesn't crack at some point.


Photo from Limey:

Everyone has their own opinion and comfort level, and I respect that. The key to this modification is to leave no sharp corners and to smoothly radius everything. As an engineer, my analysis is that most of the uneven stress in the structure is already there as a result of the OEM gap. Carefully widening it slightly would only be a minor change. Not shown is that I also painted the exposed aluminum to protect it.

BTW, your “scare” photo is of an unrelated failure.


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[Checkswrecks]

It wasn't meant to be a "scare" photo, just one to illustrate my point that flange cracks have happened. The flange flexes where the spoke holes merge to meet the rim, which is right where it is now undercut with a small radius.


We've been here together long enough that I'm pretty comfortable assuming you'd catch it before a crack becomes a failure. I totally respect that you have more aptitude than a lot of folks and know enough to watch the area closely, so I hesitated before posting what I did. My concern was was posted to the many less technical members around here who might look at the photo and feel they can file away.

 

[Cycledude]

My guess would be over tightening spokes might have contributed to the cracking.

 

[charlie.c]

I won’t be filing that flange and I wouldn’t recommend anyone else should either. I think the best solution here is to go for one of the systems that strap the sender to the inside of the rim.

 

[OldRider]

I'm still pretty much old school and just carry a tire pressure gauge. I should knock on wood somewhere because in 45 years riding street bikes, I've never had a flat tire. I look at the tires at gas stops, give them a kick and roll on. Part of my luck my be that I carry what I need to fix a flat plus I almost never run a tire past 50-60 percent of it's life. I like new tires.

 

[WJBertrand]

I'm still pretty much old school and just carry a tire pressure gauge. I should knock on wood somewhere because in 45 years riding street bikes, I've never had a flat tire. I look at the tires at gas stops, give them a kick and roll on. Part of my luck my be that I carry what I need to fix a flat plus I almost never run a tire past 50-60 percent of it's life. I like new tires.

Even with close monitoring as you describe there's no way to know you've sustained a puncture mid-ride in the middle of nowhere until you've lost enough air that it becomes obvious. The TPMS system I installed on my ST1300 alerted me while traveling 70 MPH on the 405 freeway in traffic. I was all the way over in the left car pool lane. The early warning not only allowed me to merge safely across 6 lanes of freeway all the way to right shoulder and find an off ramp, it also allowed me enough warning to find a service station with compressed air before going completely flat. I had just checked the air pressures and inspected the tires that morning. I do carry gummy worms and a compact air compressor, but I'd rather do the repair in safe place like a service station than on the shoulder of a busy freeway.

 

[RonH]

Never had a flat in 45yrs on the street? My gosh you must be lucky. I started on the street in 1976, so 42yrs almost, and just an estimate, I'd say I've had a good 50 flat tires in that time. I've had 2 flats in the same day. Even that being said, I don't care to have a tire pressure sensor setup, no need.

 

[Sierra1]

....I don't care to have a tire pressure sensor setup, no need.

Yeah, 'cuz with your luck, you know you're going to have a flat. (and I thought I had bad luck)

 

[OldRider]

Never had a flat in 45yrs on the street? My gosh you must be lucky. I started on the street in 1976, so 42yrs almost, and just an estimate, I'd say I've had a good 50 flat tires in that time. I've had 2 flats in the same day. Even that being said, I don't care to have a tire pressure sensor setup, no need.

Yep it's true, I've never had a flat. The only break down I've ever had was I threw a chain off one time and got lucky then, it threw it out on the road behind me instead of wadding it up in a ball around the front sprocket and taking out the engine cases.

 

[Terminus]

Yep it's true, I've never had a flat. The only break down I've ever had was I threw a chain off one time and got lucky then, it threw it out on the road behind me instead of wadding it up in a ball around the front sprocket and taking out the engine cases.

Ha! You might want to knock on wood or something. That reminds me of something I said a long time ago. I was on the way back to the office with a coworker. He was telling me a story about a deer he hit with his truck. I told him that I have never hit a deer......about 30 minutes later as I drove my truck home I hit the biggest buck I have ever seen... Just about totaled my truck and didn't even kill the deer. I think he got up looked at me and took off. Before that incident I was not superstitious.

 

[WJBertrand]

Yep it's true, I've never had a flat. The only break down I've ever had was I threw a chain off one time and got lucky then, it threw it out on the road behind me instead of wadding it up in a ball around the front sprocket and taking out the engine cases.

I've had so many damn flats I've cussed the inventor of the pneumatic tire (John Dunlop I think) at length on occasion. Had a stretch there where hardly a month went by with out a puncture on one on my vehicles.

 

[Fortech]

I’m hoping someone can point me in the direction of reliable metal valve stems that work with the Tenere rims - without filing the flange.

I’m hoping to fit the Garmin TPMS to my 2012, but don’t wish to open up a can of worms with crappy and cheap valve stems that are going to leak periodically.

Thanks

 

[Tenman]

Yep it's true, I've never had a flat. The only break down I've ever had was I threw a chain off one time and got lucky then, it threw it out on the road behind me instead of wadding it up in a ball around the front sprocket and taking out the engine cases.

I slung a chain on my friend's dad's Zuki GT750. It went about a foot deep in the cases and turned it into junk.

 

[gv550]

I’m hoping someone can point me in the direction of reliable metal valve stems that work with the Tenere rims - without filing the flange.

I’m hoping to fit the Garmin TPMS to my 2012, but don’t wish to open up a can of worms with crappy and cheap valve stems that are going to leak periodically.

Thanks

This is what works for me. Metal stems from NAPA store here in Ontario, Xtraseal part number 17-416, $2.06 each when I got them a couple years ago. No modification to either wheel but I did file a couple flats on the supplied washer to get it to fit inside the flanges of the front wheel, and I didn't use the washer on the rear wheel. The large nuts won't turn, the flats sit nicely inside the flange so I just turned the stems from the inside. These are heavy duty stems, meant for trucks and pressures over 100 psi.
I use a standard stem nut to lock the Garmin sensors on, just a bit of theft proofing.
The only disadvantage I can think of is the weight of all this, I currently have 54 grams opposite the stem to balance the front wheel, a bit less on the rear.

 

[EricV]

My guess would be over tightening spokes might have contributed to the cracking.

Or maybe just riding the hell out of that bike on non-roads all over the world?

WJB's spokes are much cleaner. Should be no problem.

With some seriousness, Checkswrecks - (hey, read the name, sort of self explanatory), has a lot of experience seeing failures. As a retired machinist, mostly from the hydraulic tools industry, I've seen my share of R&D and customer failures too. I often worked with engineers that were sure their designs would hold the test of time. Often they did not. That said, WJB didn't really widen the slot that much and did radius the corners, if not quite as much as I would have. I do agree with CW that sharp corners are just cracks waiting to happen. Metal fatigue is pretty well defined and when you add vibration and stresses like rotational forces, compression/release cycles and normal bumps that wheels take, it's not a matter of if, but when. The good news is that most likely when is a long time in terms of us mere mortals not doing RTW trips. That doesn't mean you shouldn't be vigilant at checking your wheels if you start doing mods to them.

It's not really that hard to check the tire pressure with the stock valve stems. I've been doing it for 8 years now and ~140k miles. I'm just a poseur to some of the riders on this forum too. Rubber is easy to replace too. I've had metal 90º stems on my FJR and liked them, but we each have to decide what's right for each of us. I won't do it on the ST. You get to decide what you want to do. America's Great, isn't it?

 

[RCinNC]

My guess would be over tightening spokes might have contributed to the cracking.

I'd lean more towards uneven tightening of the spokes as one potential cause of the flange to crack, rather than spokes that are too tight in general. Unbalanced tension makes the rim flex more, which makes it load and unload force on the flange to a greater degree.

 

[EricV]

Even with close monitoring as you describe there's no way to know you've sustained a puncture mid-ride in the middle of nowhere until you've lost enough air that it becomes obvious.

Edit - (I assumed you stated "obvious" as equating to more than you did. My apologies. ) I disagree that it's that big a deal. If you're paying any attention at all you should notice a 10 psi drop, or less, and have more than enough time to safely pull over in most conditions. A fast leak would be irrelevant, as the TPMS would only confirm what your puckered butt was telling you.

Front tire low = heavy, slow steering. Rear tire low = a weave that doesn't change from corners to straits. I can't count the number of flats I've had and only a few have been discovered in the garage.

There's nothing wrong with TPMS, but it still requires the operator to know the system and understand its limitations and benefits. I find TPMS on cars to be a joke. By the time they alarm, you're already too low. At least the ones I've encountered. Great on the one's that allow you to see the actual pressures and essentially check your pressure via the TPMS, IF you take the time to scroll thru the menu and do that on a regular basis. The Wife's Chevy has actual pressure readings for all four wheels. My former Smart and the Mini just say everything is OK or FUBAR, no actual pressure readings. I found the Smart to have lower pressure several times checking the the gauge and was stunned that the TPMS had not gone off with a warning at 8-9 psi below normal. Turned out it only went into warning/alarm mode around 10-11 psi below the owner's manual specified normal pressure. I haven't found that point on the Mini yet.

 

[EricV]

Edit made. Too quick to pull the trigger and made false assumptions.