BMW R1200R R1150R/T F800 K1200R R1100R/T R1250R RnineT Message Board

Last year I bent the front rim on my '07 R1200R. You may have seen my short video of the repair. What I didn't discover until several weeks after I re-installed the wheel (with a new tire), was a rather pronounced pulsing under hard braking. I was sure I hadn't damaged the rotors, although I did remove the left one to better access the dent. MAX BMW suggested I replace the thin plastic (?) washers that sandwich the rotor, and carefully torque the hold down bolts in a cross pattern. I did this, and the brakes still pulsed. Then I got out my micrometer and dial indicator and started measuring the rotors. The rotors "float", so it's a little tough to get an accurate runout measurement. But I was well within the spec of .005" max. And the thickness of the rotors didn't vary by more than .001", not enough, one would think, to cause the problem.
BTW, there was no brake pad buildup, grooves, shiny or rough spots.
I took my troubles to Nickwackett Garage, and Bud Provin told me to try removing and rotating one rotor relative to the other one. It sounded crazy, but in a way it made sense. I had figured out, by jacking up the front wheel and lightly applying the brake, that there were definite "loose" and "tight" spots. By rotating one rotor (two bolt holes worth) I seem to have re-aligned the tight/loose spots, because now it stops like it used to, i.e. no pulsing.

Very interesting solution. My 09 developed pulse after a tire change and i was unable to come up with a "smoking gun" measurement either. I figured it was time for new brake pads. Unfortunately 2 weeks later the bike developed other issues unrelated to tires , wheels or brakes & we lemon balled it. So I never got to the bottom of the issue.

On my '05 1200GS, I had severe pulsing brake problems for a while. BIke had only 10k miles on it at the time and I was on a trip. I was about to call a maintenance day and change pads when we happened to get a good soaking rain day. Driving through the rain for hours fully cured the pulsing problem. There was no visible build up on the discs that I could see, but the washing sure worked well.

Well, I didn't figure this would be the end of the "Pulsing Brake" issue, but if it helps anyone, I'm happy. Funny thing is, I never had a problem with the dual-disk Brembos on my '84 R65LS.