Thursday, 25 May 2023 [18,262 miles]
Somehow I managed to do nothing with my 790 Adventure since August of 2021 except fill it with gas as needed and ride. Alas, because COVID the number of miles weren’t all that many.
New tire
I bought this rear tire about a month ago but have been waiting to install it as there was still some life left in the tire on the bike. I might have wated even longer, but Xfinity broke the internet in my neighborhood today. Might as well put a tire on the bike. The old tire is 13,500 miles and over 3 years old. It’s time. Also, yesterday the bike went to the dealer for an 18K service. They noted the rear was pretty much worn.
old tire
tire stand
Almost worn. There is still rubber at the sides. But the center is pretty much at the wear bars. I dusted off the cobwebs from my tire changing stand and chased some spiders who had made the stand their home out of the garage.
Nut and adjuster removed
Chain removed from sprocket
Axle removed
The wheel came off easy. A couple of block of wood turned out to be the right height to support the tire/wheel when the bike is on my rear stand.
Tire half off
Clean wheel
Clean here, too
I got the tire off without adding too many new scratches to the wheel. Once off I got the wheel as clean as it is going to get until the next tire change. As long as I was cleaning I wiped down the inside of the swing arm and scraped away the grunge on the chain side with a piece of wood.
35 PSI
Cush rubbers look good
Balanced
The bead popped into place at about 15 PSI. I use Murphy’s Oil Soap as a bead lubricant. I’m still using the bottle I bought 25 years ago and have plenty left. When I removed the wheel from the stand the sprocket did not come with it. Good time to check out the cust rubbers. They are fine. I attached the sprocket/cush assembly to the wheel and put it on my balancer.
When mounting the tire the dot was on the bottom. I used my phone to find it so I could aligt it with the valve stem. Except I wasn’t paying enough attention and aligned some other tire marking with the stem, not the red dot. Oh well. Still got the tire balanced. The existing weights were the right amount, but not in the right place. I moved them.
Aligned
Ready to ride
The wheel went back on the bike almost as easy as it came off. I got the chain tensioned and aligned. It was about this time that my wife told me the internet was working again. I’ve yet to receive the promised status update text that Xfininty said they’d send.