Thursday, April 26, 2012 [22493 miles]
New Tire Time
About 11 months ago I replaced a perfectly good front tire because I didn’t like the way it handled at all. It was a Heidenau K34 which is OK on the rear (but not a tire I’ll buy again) but unacceptable on the front. Today I put that used tire on the rear of the bike. The original rear K34 is shot at 3500 miles.
Time for a new rear tire
Clean up the rear axle
I pulled the rear wheel and cleaned up the rear axle, especially where it is held by the frame pinch bolt.
Breaking the bead
Cleaned rim
Cleaned brake shoes
This is the first time I tried the bead breaker attachement for my wheel stand. Breaking the bead on a /2 wheel is easy enough to do with tire irons, but I was curious how well the attachment works. Thumbs up.
Once the tire was off I cleaned the rim, the hub, and the brake shoes.
Polish
Balance
Old and new
After mounting the new tire I gave the rim and hub cover a touch of polish before moving the wheel to the balancer. It’s easier to clean up when sitting on the wheel stand.
After checking the balance (it was OK with the existing weights) I mounted the wheel back on the bike and made sure every nut and bolt I touched was appropriately torqued. The bike is ready to ride.
Thursday, June 14, 2012 [22,799 miles]
It is finally time for this service. It is a short service consisting of mainly an oil change.
Service time
Drain plug
Fresh Oil
There was nothing on the magnetic drain plug which is always a pleasant find. I did have one minor gotcha… I filled the bike from a partially used gallon oil jug and over estimated the amount of oil left in the bottle. When I checked the level in the bike with the dip stick I found it above the max mark by a large enough amount that I felt comfortable leaving the bike that much over full. Then, when removing the excess oil I managed to get about half of excess onto the garage floor instead of in the catch basin.
The clutch cable needed a slight adjustement. Clutch and brake linkages were lubed. I put the battery on the charger but it wasn’t really necessary. The “fully charged” light came on within 5 minutes.
The bike is ready to ride for another 1200 miles.