Replacing tires urself

[Kasumi]

Yea me and CndnMax bored out a GS motor and converted it to fuel injection and ran it with a power commander - dyno'd near enough 100hp it was about 97. something or other. The pic of it is what you can see from the top looking down on the cylinders with the power commander fitted.

[Kerry]

Here's a picture of the minimum amount of stuff that should come off when you remove the rear wheel.  I like to put everything on the axle this way for "safekeeping" while the wheel is away at the dealer....




For your peace of mind, you may want to pull a few additional parts that can sometimes fall out / get lost at the dealer's.  I'm referring to these items from the Haynes manual diagram below:

• The rear sprocket (11) and the sprocket carrier it's attached to (10).  They usually pull off fairly easily.
• Inner spacer (9).  I found this rolling around the back of my car one day, after bringing my wheel home with the new tire on it.  (I must have removed the sprocket that time, and then transported the wheel with the sprocket side down.  It took me the longest time to figure out what that part was!)
  
  

[Jlittle]

awesome, thanks kerry for that. Road in this morning to work and it started snowing on me by the time i got to work the roads were white scared the %$^& out of me.  Didnt know how well it would stick to the road, ended up going around corners like a old lady LOL

[GeeP]

Yea me and CndnMax bored out a GS motor and converted it to fuel injection and ran it with a power commander - dyno'd near enough 100hp it was about 97. something or other. The pic of it is what you can see from the top looking down on the cylinders with the power commander fitted.

What he's not telling you is that he had to bore it to 1,100 cc's.

[Kasumi]

Hehe the side walls were so thin that as soon as we started it up it cracked the cylinders. But oh well, that was our 200hp mod out the window we decided to settle for 595cc and used an electronic fuel injection system of an old 600 ninja.

[Jlittle]

hahahahaha, i love my GS yea i know its not the fastest bike on the road but i can dream!  People tell me to trade it in and get something faster but i want to keep it and get a second bike for alittle speed.

[Jay_wolf]

Is getting the tire off the hardest part? coz i need to put a tire back on the rim , and the motorbike shop removed the old one , when replacing my bearings ,

Any advice on to how 2 get it back on would be great 

[galahs]

This YouTube video shows you how to change a tyre yourself
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=anyY0UO5gqk

if you haven't got an air compressor to pop the tyre bead in place, just take your tyre/wheel to the local service station (gas station) and use their air.

[gsJack]

For your peace of mind, you may want to pull a few additional parts that can sometimes fall out / get lost at the dealer's.  I'm referring to these items from the Haynes manual diagram below:

• The rear sprocket (11) and the sprocket carrier it's attached to (10).  They usually pull off fairly easily.
• Inner spacer (9).  I found this rolling around the back of my car one day, after bringing my wheel home with the new tire on it.  (I must have removed the sprocket that time, and then transported the wheel with the sprocket side down.  It took me the longest time to figure out what that part was!)
  
  

Loss of spacer 9 is what caused the only wheel bearing failure I've ever had in over 360k miles of mc riding. I bought the 02 GS from a dealer with 4500 miles and a new rear tire on it and the right rear wheel bearing failed at 44k miles.  Appearantly they lost spacer 9 when they replaced the tire.

Lack of spacer 9 will cause the load of tightening the axle nut to be carried thru the 2 outer bearings rather than thru the spacers and inner races as intended. 

I don't remove the sprocket unless it's loose enough to almost fall out, best to balance with cush drive in place.  Transport in car trunk with sprocket side up.

[Kerry]

I don't remove the sprocket unless it's loose enough to almost fall out, best to balance with cush drive in place.  Transport in car trunk with sprocket side up.

Agreed; I don't usually remove the sprocket either.  But if, as you mention, the sprocket is really loose and you have reason to suspect that the dealer staff isn't very "careful".... 

[dgyver]

The sprocket carrier should be removed to balance the wheel properly. I have never seen anyone (who knows what they are doing) balance a wheel with the carrier in place.

[Kerry]

The sprocket carrier should be removed to balance the wheel properly.

I believe you dgyver ... but this raises a question.  If the carrier/sprocket can throw off the wheel balance, why wouldn't you want to do the balance with it in place?  This isn't something I've thought about before, so I'm eager to learn something new!

[dgyver]

Its diameter is small compaired to the larger diameter of the tire. So its rotating mass is much less.

[gsJack]

I don't remove the sprocket unless it's loose enough to almost fall out, best to balance with cush drive in place.  Transport in car trunk with sprocket side up.

Agreed; I don't usually remove the sprocket either.  But if, as you mention, the sprocket is really loose and you have reason to suspect that the dealer staff isn't very "careful".... 

The sprocket carrier should be removed to balance the wheel properly. I have never seen anyone (who knows what they are doing) balance a wheel with the carrier in place.

I guess you're saying the cush drive should be removed in order to balance properly whether it's spin balancing a carry-in wheel or stactic balancing at home.  I mounted my own tires for over 10 years without balancing and then started taking them in for mount and balance for the past 10 or so.  I know I asked a couple times at first if I should remove the cush drive and was told they balanced with it in place, can't watch them doing it most places.

I really don't know if the wheel/tire will even fit on the spin balance machines  with the cush drive in place.  Maybe  they always R & R it in which case it would be better to leave it safely at home so they can't loose that spacer between wheel and cush bearings.  I remain proof that you're never too old to learn but you can get old enough to become a bit forgetful at times.   

[galahs]

Another good site with lots of information on how to change a tyre yourself.

http://www.clarity.net/~adam/tire-changing.html








I changed my rear tyre today.


I used the my folks caravan's weight controlled by the jockey wheel and a length of wood to break the bead on both sides.

I left the sprocket and disk break attached and supported the wheel of the ground on three lengths of wood.

I used a cut up shampoo bottle as rim savers to stop the tyre levers from scratching the rim.

[ohgood]

Yea me and CndnMax bored out a GS motor and converted it to fuel injection and ran it with a power commander - dyno'd near enough 100hp it was about 97. something or other. The pic of it is what you can see from the top looking down on the cylinders with the power commander fitted.

What he's not telling you is that he had to bore it to 1,100 cc's.

Did you guys write it up ? Are there any good links ? I understand it was 'just for kicks' or whatever, but I want to download it all and save it locally as pdf for future skits and gaggles.

thanks

[Kasumi]

Il have to get in touch with him see about writing some notes up for you, we never intended to document it so there isn't that many picture but il see what i can come up with. Im on holiday from sunday for a week then starting a new job so il try and get round to it sometime after that and post it up for everyone.

[galahs]

Ok the front wheel was more tricky...

I highly recommend unbolting the front brake calliper (C'mon, it's only 2 bolts!!!)

and removing the disk from the wheel. (Use a long bar extension on your Allan key)


DON"T LET ANYONE PULL THE FRONT BRAKE LEVER!!!!!!





I broke the bead using the weight of the caravan again.

Removed the front tyre fairly easily, but getting the new tyre on was very difficult.

The front tyre was so much tighter, and stiffer than the rear. Really required a lot of muscle on the tyre levers (plus lots of patience, lube and home made rim protectors) to get it to seat.

The next problem was I didn't have access to an air compressor that could put a large volume of air into the tyre fast enough to cause it to seat the bead.

Ended up going to a car tyre place and asking if they could use their compressor to seat the bead. Even they had to use their biggest air compressor to get it to seat, I saw pressures of 100Psi on the gauge before "Pop Pop!" the tyre seated.


All in all, after my first ever tyre fitting experiment, I know how to do it now... but I'm not sure if its worth the effort and heart ache to do it yourself.




Oh, I also read "windex" (or other alcohol based window cleaner) is a better lube to use to help your tyre slide on and off the rim, because if evaporates when it dries unlike detergent, which leaves a film that will become slippery again next time it gets wet. You don't want your tyre spinning on your rim as you ride in the rain next time do you 






Hint:
Lube up the rim and bead with soapy water and apply air.  Removing the valve core will increase the air flow if you have a small leak.
Barring that, put a ratchet strap around the outside of the tire and chinch it down a little until it pushes the bead against the rim.  Air it up and go.