ABM rotors have excessive movement

GunMD · Feb 10, 2007

I have the ABM rotors that were offered in the Spiegler group buy in March of 2005. I have just under 24K miles on the rotors. I have always been happy with the rotors despite the noise that they make. As full floating rotors tend to do, these babies rattle and shake making the bike sound like it has loose fairing parts or something. I've learned to live it. No big deal. This morning when backing the bike out of the garage for a ride I heard some unusual noises from the rotors. After some investigation it turns out that the left rotor is MUCH looser than it ever has been and much looser than the right one. The right one seems just as loose as it's always been but the left one is scary. I decided to take the bike to my local shop, Desert Cycle Works, for an evaluation. The owner (and my mechanic), Dawn, said "that has the potential for a catastrophic failure". Not good. I'll be calling Spiegler on Monday to see if it's normal for these babies to wear out so soon (and so suddenly). In the mean time does anyone else have these rotors installed? How long have you had them? How many miles? Any rattling? Are yours loose? Have they always been loose? Are they any worse now than when you first installed them?

EDIT: Oops...guess I should have placed this in Technical problems area. Admins, feel free to send the enforcers to my place to teach me a lesson.

skyway · Feb 10, 2007

I've been running them for a while with no rattling sounds like you describe. I wonder if you got the full floating Vs. semi-floating?

GunMD · Feb 10, 2007

skyway said:
I've been running them for a while with no rattling sounds like you describe. I wonder if you got the full floating Vs. semi-floating?

Their website only lists solid and full floating...

Model Year Note MM Position Part Number Price FJR 1300 2001-2002 full floating 298 front 114-01635-XX $309.95

FJR 1300 2001-2002 solid 267 rear 114-03985-41 $159.00

FJR 1300 2003- full floating 320 front 114-02767-XX $309.95

FJR 1300 2004- solid 280 rear 114-04297-41 $159.00

skyway · Feb 10, 2007

You might be right, but I seem to remember the GB was specifically for the semi floating type? Can't find the GB page to check the info.

GunMD · Feb 10, 2007

skyway said:
You might be right, but I seem to remember the GB was specifically for the semi floating type? Can't find the GB page to check the info.

Here it is...and you're right, the GB did specify semi-floating. I wonder how I can tell if I got semi-floating or full?

Groo · Feb 11, 2007

I'm with Sky... I've got the front rotors purchased during the group buy, and haven't had any of the rattling/noise you describe. Mine have something close to 18K miles on them by now.

Warchild · Feb 11, 2007

I have ~ 25,000 miles on my ABMs, and about 6000 miles on a second set on my R1

The first set is semi-floating, and aren't any looser than when they were installed two years ago.

The set on my R1 are full-floating, and again, no looser than when they were installed.

Any way you can take a short video clip of you moving them manually with your hands, so we can see what you are seeing?

yamahlr · Feb 11, 2007

I gonna go out on a limb here, seem to remember a similar post right about the time we did the G.B. someone had a similar issue and I believe the fix was adding a washer behind the bolt heads. Does that ring a bell with anyone?

skyway · Feb 11, 2007

yamahlr said:
I gonna go out on a limb here, seem to remember a similar post right about the time we did the G.B. someone had a similar issue and I believe the fix was adding a washer behind the bolt heads. Does that ring a bell with anyone?

That was the rear rotor that Spiegler fixed by mailing everyone a set of washers to prevent the rotor bolts from bottoming out.

GunMD · Feb 11, 2007

Warchild said:
I have ~ 25,000 miles on my ABMs, and about 6000 miles on a second set on my R1
The first set is semi-floating, and aren't any looser than when they were installed two years ago.

The set on my R1 are full-floating, and again, no looser than when they were installed.

Any way you can take a short video clip of you moving them manually with your hands, so we can see what you are seeing?

Yes, I can do this. I'll get on that soon and post later today.

GunMD · Feb 11, 2007

Here is a link to a page where you can download a video of my problem rotor. It's about 10MB...I didn't want to compress it so much that you couldn't tell what I was trying to show.

Please be kind to my bandwidth and "Save target as..." rather than streaming it.

My shake rattle and...don't roll.

skyway · Feb 11, 2007

That rotor is way loose compared to mine, proceed with caution IMO. There should be some part#'s on each rotor to check if their supposed to be the same. I can't say for sure cause my bikes not home right now.

Warchild · Feb 11, 2007

The right one is about nomal for a semi-floating ABM rotor... the left one is WAAAAAAY out-of-spec!!!

Yank both of them puppies off, re-install your OEM rotors (that you hopefully kept - right?), and give Mattias a call on Monday and give him this link. That **** is obviously no good.

From my perspective, it appears to be a material issue: the aluminum carrier has developed elongated holes where the buttons reside. (Possibly, it's the buttons that have worn). Regardless of which one is the culprit, your mechanic Dawn is correct; this is unsafe. Pull 'em for now.

GunMD · Feb 11, 2007

At the time that I installed the ABM rotors my thoughts went something like this:

"I'll never use these OEM rotors again. Why am I keeping them? I'm going to move them around the garage for five years and end up throwing them away in a spring cleaning fit someday...screw that, I'm selling them." And I did. And crap, I'm supposed to have the FJR at GZ's this weekend to install my CCS100. Crap. I'll never hear the end of it if I roll up to GZ's w/ the bike on a <gasp> trailer.

<_<

Warchild · Feb 11, 2007

GunMD said:
...screw that, I'm selling them." And I did. And crap, I'm supposed to have the FJR at GZ's this weekend to install my CCS100. Crap. I'll never hear the end of it if I roll up to GZ's w/ the bike on a <gasp> trailer.

*sigh*

Well, I'd have you PM me your address so I could send my old set until you get yourself fixed back up, but mine won't work for you.... mine are the 298mm rotors from the first-year 2003 model. You take the 2004 and later 320mm rotors... :huh:

Can someone else hook a brutha up?

GunMD · Feb 11, 2007

Warchild said:
*sigh*
Well, I'd have you PM me your address so I could send my old set until you get yourself fixed back up, but mine won't work for you.... mine are the 298mm rotors from the first-year 2003 model. You take the 2004 and later 320mm rotors... :huh:

Can someone else hook a brutha up?

I've already emailed Mattias...I'm really hoping that he sees the email and the video first thing tomorrow and feels like shipping me some new goods. I'll also call him first thing tomorrow. I'll be out of town starting Weds of this week, returning late Friday night. If Mattias can ship I think I'll have 'em sent to Desert Cycle Works, leave the bike there when I depart on Weds and have Dawn do my install while I'm off learning to be a geek in San Diego (thank you Uncle Sam). Then I can grab the bike from DCW first thing Sat morning and bomb down to GZ's place for a CCS install.

Groo · Feb 11, 2007

I'd send you my old ones, but I sold them under the same reasoning you had... I think Vectervp1 got them for a backup wheel he was assembling for his future rallying...

Lake Powell · Feb 12, 2007

I know this is a total thread hijack but is their any possible GB for these Spiegler Rotors in the future? I didn't have an FJR when the original sale went through.

Despite the problem GunMD ran into I'd like to get the full set.

Any help would be appreciated!

Bounce · Feb 12, 2007

Bad mojo, dude! Good luck. I could hear the looseness of the first ones but couldn't see it well until you zoomed in. On the bad side there was no need to zoom; it was obvious from the beginning. Tread lightly, friend. Good luck with a speedy resolution.

ABM rotors have excessive movement

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