I started out pretty ambitious but all I managed to do is remove the wheel and attempt to remove the tire. The easiest way to remove the rear wheel is to first remove the front wheel. Both calipers must first be removed and supported so they aren't hanging by the flexible brake lines. The yellow ratchet strap is used to hold the center stand in position so it doesn't collapse when the bike is tipped forward onto the forks.
Then it is a simple task to remove the rear caliper and pull the axle and remove the rear wheel and tire from the drive spline. In this photo, it is really greasy from the grease the Honda dealer put into the hub in an attempt to be helpful when I bought a new tire in OR. The final drive spines are also in good shape and are normally lubed with the same mixture I mentioned in my last post and should also be re-lubed on a regular basis.
Now that I had the wheel and tire off, I attempted to remove the rear tire using the modest set of tire levers in the stock tool kit. I couldn't even get the tire bead loose. The rims are cast but are not designed for tubeless tires so there is no shoulder inside of the rim. I don't want to just resort to the dealer as I want to be able to patch a tube along the road...
Posted with Blogsy
Dear Richard M:
ReplyDeleteNow you didn't say what the temperature was in the garage. Or did you move the bike into the house? Here's what I envisioned:
Day 146 of total darkness
Temperature -56 (F)
Madness level: High
I moved the bike into the house tonight. This required leaving the door open for three minutes. Boiling water in the teapot froze after 30 seconds and melted seal blubber became as hard as Kevlar.
I removed the wheel from the bike with unfeeling hands, working by the light of a smudge pot. This ancient Inuit form of illumination is more smudge than light however, and all the time I spent working on the machine this summer while blindfolded really paid off.
I rubbed part of the tire with caribou entrails, and left it on the porch. An hour later, a passing wolverine's powerful jaws broke the bead of the tire. The frozen rubber was impervious to the teeth of the wolverine. I then drove the enraged animal off by playing an accordion.
This is what I have envisioned.
Fondest regaerds,
Jack Reep
Twisted Roads
Yep, that's exactly how it happened. It's almost like you were here. It's great to hear from you again!
DeleteWhile Jack's methods might work, I suggest the following as you seem to lack a dedicated tire bead breaker:
ReplyDeleteSmall portion of a 2x4, maybe 8-12 inches in length, a complete 8 ft long 2x4, position tire by your car, small block positioned over the tire bead next to rim, position the long 2x4 with one end under side of car, over the top of the small wood block.....carefully press down on free end of 2x4 and it should exert pressure on the small block enough to break the bead.....repeat precarious balancing procedure all the way around the tire until bead is fully loose. Mind the fingers, and if it fails, there's always Jack's method.
I thought about this method last night but both cars that happened to be in the garage had plastic rocker panels and bumpers. I was going to pick up a sturdy gate hinge from Home Depot and fasten the 8' 2x4 to a post on the wall and try this technique later in the week.
DeleteThank you for clarifying it as I only had a rough idea how it would work.
Have you got an extra pair of hands and a bench mounted vice? You can squeeze the tire in the vice to break the bead....
ReplyDeleteOr make a tool out of a couple of chunks of 2x4. Google "no-scufftiretool" for lots of DIY tire chaging info.
Unfortunately, my bench vice is too small. We tried some wood clamps but they couldn't get enough force to unseat the bead. I'm trying to figure out what I would use on the side of the road..
DeleteHave a few friends jump up and down on the tire while it is balanced on a milk crate and while they are holding a beer. I have seen this method used. And to my surprise it worked.
ReplyDeleteActually tried a variation of this yesterday. My son tried jumping on the tire but it wouldn't budge. I think I'll stick with Dom's suggestion, at least for now. ;-)
DeleteThat seems like a lot of lubricant on the rear hub!! Should there be that much? Plus one for Dom's suggestion. For the road, might want to scour ADV. With the hack you have some carrying space and this tire plier looked interesting.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=504573
Sorry I cant find the other one, but it was designed more like a stand, so you could take a tire off. But with the hack, you would just need to leverage the weight of the machine onto the bead.
Yep, way too much. When I had my tire replaced on OR at the local Honda dealer, the mechanic put a bunch of grease in the hub in an attempt to be helpful. I wiped a lot out but there was still too much of the wrong grease. This is the result.
DeleteI saw a variety of plier and C-clamp type of tools on Google but most vendors wouldn't ship "out of the country". I've even had major vendors tell me that it was against postal regs to ship motorcycle tires across the border. As if AK was a different country.
Richard, another method I'd read about was using the bike's side stand.....position over bead and then lean the bike onto the stand, thereby putting pressure on the bead. Tricky though as you could drop the bike! This method I haven't tried myself.
ReplyDeleteAre these the tires that the dealer had a heck of a time putting on?
I've heard of the side stand trick before but assumed that it would only work if you had another bike laying around. Right now mine is sitting on the center stand and the front forks.
DeleteThe dealer had a really hard time with the Heidenau K60s which I still have on the front. This is a Shinko street tire as it was the only thing I could find in stock in Corvallis last summer.