Friday, Oct 30 2020 [5,587 miles]
I’m at the wear bars of the Avon front tire that came on my 790. I ordered a Shinko 705 to replace it. I’m happy with the way the 705 handles for my riding style and they are cheap. The front on 90/90-21 size is less than $60.
Time for a new front tire
Chock disassembled
Brake calipers removed
I put the bike on the rear stand and used a scissor jack to raise the front enough to disassemble the wheel chock to get access to the front wheel. Brake calipers were moved out of the way and I pulled the front spindle after loosening the pinch screws. Note to self: there are pinch screws on both forks.
Removing the spindle turned out to be much harder than I expected. Perhaps I had too much weight on the front wheel. Or not enough. Eventually I got the spindle out without damaging any portion of the bike. I’ll count that as a victory.
Wheel removed
At the wear bars
More, tomorrow
Look at the cute O-ring. I assume that is protection in case the front suspension bottoms out. Anyway, I got the wheel off. I’ll do the rest of the job, tomorrow.
Saturday, Oct 31 2020 [5,592 miles]
Bead breaking
New scratches
I set up my tire changing stand in the garage and remove the old tire. The bead was very easy to break. I managed to put a few small scratches in the rim with the tire irons. That happened because I was too lazy to grab the leather swatches I usually use to protect the rims.
Needs weight
Abount an ounce
I don’t think I added any scratches mounting the new tire. I did check the wheel balance without a tire. It balanced quite well with no weights. The tire was marked with a red dot. Sure enough the heave spot was opposite the dot. I needed about an ounce of weight for decent balance.
Ready for test ride
The wheel went back on the bike easier than it came off. I set the tire in place then lowered the scissor jack until the fork clamps came into alignment with the wheel hub. A few find tweaks of the jack got it so the spindle slid into place pretty easily.
No problems observed on the test ride. The bike handle well. I only had one issue…
Busted glasses
This happened. I removed my glasses to wipe some sweat off my head and half stayed in my hand and the other half fell to the floor. Good thing I kept the glasses that this pair replaced. I can see well enough, but will need to make an appointment with the eye doctor.