Holy fuck, that was rough. The guides and the videos show the uppers and lowers pulling apart easily. I had to clamp the lowers in the vice and use the uppers as a slide hammer and repeat the bang bang bang process for 5-10 minutes, with the seal moving almost imperceptibly as it walked it’s way out.
Putting the upper bushing back in took a trick, it is a split ring, and is expanded too big to fit in the recess unless you compress it. I found that I could take some brake bleeding hose and cut off about 4" of it, and hammer it in with a punch between the bushing and the lowers. This worked to compress the bushing, and I could then place the washer over it and hammer it down about halfway, and then pulled the washer and hose out and then drive it home.
Tomorrow I get to get back at it and tackle changing the rear tire.
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The rim protectors included in my tire lever kit tore straight through and resulted in a scratched rim.
While that has some to do with technique; I have better luck using 3"x4" strips cut out of milk jug or oil/antifreeze bottle. It’s usually HDPE and tougher than the rim protectors that come with spoons. Scratches are going to happen mounting tires by hand, that’s what touch up pens are for.
How are you balancing them?
Haven’t balanced them. They are Michelins, which claim to not need balancing, or at least don’t have a heavy spot. I had planned to rig up a basic rig, I do have a pack of stick on weights, but ran out of time and had to get the bike back together. If I notice any weirdness after doing the rear tomorrow I’ll need to figure something out. There are no shops available locally who can balance them.
Oh I would definitely still balance them. There’s weights on your wheel already. Are they there because the last tire was out of balance, or the wheel itself? No way to know. It’s worth the time and cost of building a simple stand out of 2x4’s. I’ve had good luck with the balancing sealants like Ride-On once it’s pretty close. And it helps with small punctures.
Is that the Road 5? I have the Road 4’s on my Z1000 and have loved them, best tire I’ve ran so far. Almost replacement time, so it’s probably getting the 6’s for next spring.
I really do want to balance them, just didn’t have an easy way today. If there was a shop available to mount and balance, I’d absolutely have taken it there. The weights are opposite the valve stem, so I’m hoping that I get lucky, we’ll see.
Yeah, putting on the Road 5s, Revzilla had them for a good bit less than the Road 6.
Do you live near a harbor freight? They have a static balancer for 50ish bucks. I have one and it seems good enough for a few tires a year.
No harm in trying it out. If you can’t feel anything at speed, send it.
Impressive tires tho. Second biggest improvement after installing Racetech gold valve emulators and proper rate springs.
Try dyna beads or any other brand dynamic balance beads. You pour them into the tire through the valve stem and that’s it. When the wheel is turning they naturally move around to the light spot and balance the wheel. I’ve used them in many bikes and they work great until you get to track day speed (120+ mph).
I thought about this, seems to be some mixed opinions about using them online.
I changed my tires once. And said fuck that to doing it again. It’s too bad a local shop isn’t an option. I would take the wheels off and take them to the shop to get new treads, then bring them home and install. After that first change I never regretted the extra $$ to have the shop do it.
Not sure what bike you are working on. But if you have charged forks you can take the snap ring out and then pop them apart with compressed air instead of the side hammer. I have actually added schrader valves to the fork caps on bikes just to do this.
Interesting. Based on the amount of force required to pop them apart, I think I’d have ended up with the uppers firing themselves through the wall. Bike is a Honda CB500F. The area where the snap ring and seal sits was corroded and rusty, effectively locking in the seals.
Yeah the rust in there can be a killer. It really shouldn’t take more than 10 or 20 psi to pop them apart. More than that the slide Hammer is probably the better idea. I have had a few pop apart by hand. All that matters is you got them apart. Never done it but probably a little lithium grease under the dust seal should keep the rust away.
Yeah, I packed the dust seal with grease when reinstalling.
