Saturday, Mar 22 2014 [7644 miles]
The rear tire on the GSW is getting toward the wear bars. I was going to replace it with the same, an Anakee III. They are in short supply right now, back ordered most places and expensive in the places that say they have one. What to do.
New rubber wrapped in plastic
Karoo 3, front and rear
As long as I’m going to spend more money I may as well get more tire. That’s the theory, anyway. I ordered a set of Keroo 3 tires and will put them on the bike this afternoon. I hope that I didn’t let looks seduce me into a repeat of my Heidenau fiasco [I hate the K60]. Time will tell.
Jack the front of the bike up
Chock in the way
Chock no longer in the way
The bike was parked in the chock on the stand. I jacked the bike up far enough to deply the center stand. That got the front wheel up in the air (and the scissor jack makes sure it stays up in the air. A minute or two later the condor stand was disassembled from around the wheel. Now it’s ready to remove from the bike.
Old tire
New tire, cleanish wheel
Balanced w/original weights
There was still some life left in the front tire, but I don’t think it would make it to Death Valley and back in 3 weeks. Also, this is the tire that I’d been riding plugged, having picked up a flat 6 weeks after getting bike. I did not remove the factory weights as they were opposite the valve stem, a sometime indicator of an out of balance wheel. I check the balance after mounting the new tire and found it to be acceptable. I might have made it perfect with 4 or 5 grams of extra weight… it will change more than that with tire wear.
Wheel spacer
Remove the rear wheel
Needed this much weight
That first picture is the spacer for the left side of the front wheel. It is needed to properly install the wheel. When you leave it off things won’t look quite right and you won’t be able to re-install the brake calipers. I found it on the spindle of my tire changing stand when I went looking for it.
Once the front was mounted and torqued I pulled the rear and swapped out tires. The rim didn’t have any weights. I needed to add a few for this tire. I put the wheel back on the bike after balancing and cleaned everything up before taking a test ride.
Woah! I turned left out of my driveway and it felt like I was trying do a quick U-turn to return to the garage. Steering on these tires is very quick. I tried a few gentle weaves going down the hill and they did not feel gentle at all. This feel, if it lasts, will take some getting used to. The rest of the test ride I was more gentle with steering inputs and all was fine.