Vintage BMW Motorcycle Owners

R11 owners and restaurateurs. What experiences have you made ​​on wheel bearings front of the R11? Do you use loose balls in the original races (assuming the paths are in good condition), or have you found other standard bearings that can be used? Want to hear what you have experienced and how you may have solved it.

Regards,Frode

I was going to say something here about my R52, which has a very similar looking hub. But I took the time to look at the R11 parts book -- and I'm glad I did. There are three different front axle setups. Loose balls only go into Series I and II bikes. Series III bikes have angular contact ball bearings, probably because the setup requires a certain amount of side preload. The Series IV and V models use a 6304 ball bearing on each side.

How have you solved it on your R52? I guess there is something of the same as R11 series 1/2.
Regards, Frode

I'm running a pair of 6302 ball bearings -- this is what was in my bike when I bought it 10 years ago. I've since changed the bearings twice (before each Cannonball) and not found any problem with the bearings being swapped out. The setup has to be done carefully so as not to put too much preload on the inner races.

I’m not sure from the postings if you are working on your S5 or another R11, but if the S5 then the bearings fitted as Darryl states are standard clearance 6304 and in mine have done over 6000km and ok. The axle and bearing carrier on this model don’t allow for any preload. Also if S5, would it be possible to make a drawing with dimensions of the axle spacer bush inside the front brake drum? It is part no F66C74b in the parts book. Mine is not the original and I had to make one many years ago by guesswork before ever seeing a parts book.

Hello!
Sorry my bad information. I work with a series 5, but I have a front wheel apparently from serial 1/2. Contains among parts F66C23, F66C29, F66C21 / 2 etc. This means that I basically have bearings courts (laufringe) with "loose" ball bearing balls. The balls may be replaced with new ones, but bearing courses are a little worse. I would prefer to avoid doing too much mechanical adaptations to use a "standard / 63xx" bearings, but at the same time this is a wheel I'll use on longer trips, and should as such work well. Have any of you with R11 made you some experiences about this challenge?

Regards, Frode

Hi Frode

I don’t have any experience with this earlier axle configuration, presumably the preload is set with F66C30, and along with F66C29 also support the outer sides of the bearings. Can you give the bearing dimensions, but I guess you have already tried bearing suppliers for new bearing rings and balls.

Just a thought, it appears in the parts catalogue that the two halves of the bearing have different internal dimensions. The large half (inner) fits in the wheel hub and the inner smaller half (outer) fitting on the F66C30/29. Could you fit angular contact bearings where both halves have the same internal dimension fitting on the F66C30/29?