Saturday, Jan 26 2019 [42,804 miles]

The rear tire I ordered after discovering a flat arrived when I was out riding Thursday. Some replacement parts used to mount my left pannier arrived, too. Both are going on the bike today.

These are the latch/cams used to hold the panniers to the upper part of the pannier frame. The existing latches were bent (along with the pannier frame) during a minor mishap a couple of years ago. I brazed the latches back together and they’v e been holding, but because of the bends the pannier was slightly rattling on the rack.

It only took a few minutes to replace the existing latches. The left pannier doesn’t have the free play it had. Now I won’t have to remember to replace the tape I’ve been wrapping around the old latches due to pannier play.

I removed the rear wheel and put it on the stand to remove the tire. I must be getting better at this job – it didn’t take that long. With the tire off I cleaned the rim.

I didn’t remember if I’d balanced this wheel before. I had. The wheel stayed in place whereever I stopped it on the balance stand. Because the wheel is balanced it really doesn’t make any difference where the red dot on the tire is placed. I still placed it next to the valve stem.

The second picture shows some lead wrapped around a few spokes. That was needed to balance the wheel with the tire installed.

The wheel is back on the bike. It’s ready to ride. Tomorrow will be the first time in a long while since I’ve ridden the GS with new rubber front and rear. I’m looking forward to it.