On Monday evening I started to mount my new front tire, another Heidenau K60 100/90-19. I had such great success with the last one as it has over 14K miles and still has plenty of tread plus great traction on the gravel and dirt roads that are common around here. No problem at all removing the old tire using my 2x4 bead breaker and the 18" long tire levers. If you aren't familiar with the K60, they have an extremely heavy sidewall and can be run at pretty low pressures. I again looked for the paint marks which identify the heaviest part of the tire and lined it up with the lightest part of the wheel, the location of the valve stem. The first bead popped on easily just using soapy water. After inserting the tube, I then struggled to get the second bead onto the rim. After about 30 minutes of frustration, we finally got the tire mounted. "We" being my son, Kyle, and I. The tube was filled with air and I heard that dreaded hissing sound. I had nicked the tube with the tire levers while fighting with the second bead.
The next morning, I picked up a couple of new tubes at the local Harley/BMW/Honda shop and started to look for some tire lube. They had none as well as three other shops and auto part stores. I stopped at an independent motorcycle shop, Thunder Road on College Road, and while they also had none for sale, the owner found a small plastic container and gave me some from their shop. He mentioned where they buy it but it is sold in 5 gallon buckets. A bit more than I needed.
Using the tire lube, the tire bead went on "like butter" after putting in the new tube. This time when the tube was filled, no hissing! I thought I was home free. No such luck. I tried about ten times to seat the bead but the last 10" wouldn't pop out. The actual location moved around the rim so it wasn't anything with the tire or the rim. Dan Armstrong from Adventure Cycleworks mentioned that he had the same issue when he mounted my first K60. I mixed some Dawn dish soap with a little water and put it all around both beads and the rim. This time when adding air, at 50psi (well over the max pressure of 35psi!), the stubborn section started to slowly move into place. I let out all the air and repeated the operation a couple of times until the bead was seated all around the tire. This is evident by a mold line on the tire just visible next to the rim. Since the rim is for a tube type tire, the bead doesn't really "seat".
While riding in this morning, on the subdivision roads it sounds a little like you are driving on bubble wrap. (pop pop pop)
Man, that sounded like a lot of work! Glad to got it done though. Yep, sounds like you're ready.....looking forward to the pics of the rig on snow, with fog all around and big snow flakes flying about.....
ReplyDeleteThere was a lot of effort. The K60 have a reputation of being very difficult to install even if you aren't doing it by hand. The sidewall is very heavy. I suspect that we'll have snow sticking around within a couple of weeks. But once the snow comes, the fog pretty much disappears until it gets down to -40°, then it's ice fog. A really unhealthy version made up of ice crystals around soot.
DeleteRichard:
ReplyDeleteIt's good that you are ready for winter, but not so good for ruining two tubes. Soon you're going to be an expert at changing tires.
getting colder here too. Not down to freezing yet but it feels like it. down to 5°c tonight
bob
Riding the Wet Coast
Since I started riding, I've wanted to tackle the tire changes. I wanted to know that if I had a flat on the road, I'd be able to deal with it. The replacement tubes were cheaper than I expected at the dealer so I picked up an extra. We've been below freezing just about every night for the past week or so but it has been warming up to about 7°C in the middle of the afternoon. These "transition" periods are not my favorite.
DeleteI've learned from my tire changes that lube is your friend. I'm still using the original container of lube that came with my changer. If you google "nomartirechanger.com" they list a pint of lube paste that you can use as is or mix with water in a spray bottle. I use it both ways. I've only tackled tubeless tires, but some day I'll have to swap out the tires on my wr250x and get my feet wet with tubes!
ReplyDeleteI'm learning that but wasn't quite sure where to get the stuff. A friend that mounted my tire last winter had a small bottle and that's what I was looking for in the auto parts stores. I have since found that it is available from Amazon and several large containers of the stuff is labeled as "Amazon Prime" (Free shipping even to AK!).
DeleteAs Erik says, lube is your friend. I have a gallon jug from the auto parts store and use it liberally; it even makes demounting easier. The trick with tubes is to have a few pounds of air in the tube so that it isn't so floppy inside. With a bit of air, it better stays out of the way and pinching is minimized. It often takes me double the highest 'running' pressure to get beads seated, especially with some tire brands. Again, the lube makes seating so much easier. Tires warmed in the sun or in the house just that much better.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with winter riding!
I had the tube partially pumped up but I think with all the difficulty getting the second bead on, I must have jabbed or pinched the tube pretty hard the first time. The second time, I had the step pulled out too far through the hole in the rim. I now have a tool to attach to the valve stem to make it easy to get the valve stem in place.
DeleteWe don't have the warming sun these days! Another rider in Fairbanks picked up tire warming blankets to help with installs.
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