Kawasaki Concours Forum
The C-14, aka Kawasaki Concours-14, the new one :) => The Bike - C14/GTR 1400 => Topic started by: stlheadake on June 06, 2011, 07:41:49 AM
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My brother found this page detailing an 'easy' way to change tires. I wondered if anyone here had tried this? I'm sure it has been sliced and diced many times here. http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=299597 (http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=299597)
I just ordered a set of PR2s and thought I may give this a whirl.
Mod note: URL fixed.
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Cool! I definitely look forward to hearing how this works for your PR2's.
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I'm going to try. Harbor Freight is a mile down the road. The real trick will be un-mounting the tire. I have seriously put a lot of thought into buying the nomar tire changer. It seems pretty straight forward. But that is down the road a bit.
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I've changed a couple tires for myself and my friends using just some cheap tire irons and plastic rim protectors. I do have a small press at work which makes breaking the bead much easier when dismounting the tire. If I didn't have that, I've seen some pics of very simple bead breakers people have made out of a couple 2x4s. I may try cutting the tire off next time.
I've changed 3 tires so far. All of them were PR2s. 1 front and 2 rears. The most recent one was the rear on my FZ1 and it took me a little over an hour from old tire on the bike to new tire mounted and balanced on the bike. It's not fun, but not terrible. I do think dismounting is slightly more difficult than mounting the new one.
My buddy has asked me to help put a new PR2 on his GSXR 600 so I'll probably be doing that in the next week or 2. I'll definitely be interested in trying the strap method if you have good results.
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Shoot, if that works, might be a way to do on road repairs. Add in a c-clamp for bead braking a couple of spoons....If I had a KLR or something similar I would load that up for the "out in the boonies" repair.
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Great recommendation about the Harbor Freight straps for mounting. So now we have the options for dismounting and mounting. How do you balance?
Mark
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Great recommendation about the Harbor Freight straps for mounting. So now we have the options for dismounting and mounting. How do you balance?
Mark
Dynabeads or you could use the harbor freight balancer. I'm on the fence with the beads. I have talked to people that swear by them, and people who say they don't work. I guess I'll have to see for myself. IF I get the nomar changer like I am thinking I will, I'll know soon enough!
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For balancing, I've had success with using a piece of scrap conduit I had lying around, 2 jackstands, and a couple of roller bearings for the conduit pipe to rest in. I ordered some adhesive wheel weights and just hang the wheel on the pipe between the jackstands with the pipe supported by the bearings. Seems to work well enough for my purposes.
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Wouldn't that method be hitting the TPS sensor?
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Wouldn't that method be hitting the TPS sensor?
The dyna beads? or the balancing? I'm a little confused...
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Dynabeads or you could use the harbor freight balancer. I'm on the fence with the beads. I have talked to people that swear by them, and people who say they don't work. I guess I'll have to see for myself. IF I get the nomar changer like I am thinking I will, I'll know soon enough!
Better you than me with that product (http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j180/stevewfl/avatars/headshake.gif)
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Just wanted to mention that I installed a new rear PR2 on my buddy's GSXR today using this method and it worked flawlessly. No tools, no hassle. Very easy, clean and quick way to put on a new tire!
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Just wanted to mention that I installed a new rear PR2 on my buddy's GSXR today using this method and it worked flawlessly. No tools, no hassle. Very easy, clean and quick way to put on a new tire!
(http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb336/jaywilcox/confused1.gif)
A sport touring tire on a Gixxer?? (http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb336/jaywilcox/facepalm.gif) (http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb336/jaywilcox/smiley_smackbottom.gif)
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So to be clear...
1. This would work to install a new tire on an "empty" rim without a tire stand and the process "should not" / "would not" damage the TPS?
2. To remove the old tire you would have to first use a bead breaker then thread the tie downs through the old tire (8 times) and then use lube and tire irons (or your hands) to remove the old tire?
Wow game changing if you do not have to buy a wheel stand to change your own C14 C10 tires.
Thank you for sharing :)
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There are videos of this method being used also and they are pretty slick. That said, it does take a while to prepare the tire to mount this way and I wonder if it is really easier than using tire irons and a bit of lube. Tires really are very easy to lever off of and onto a wheel with or without a tire machine of any kind.
A box made of 2 X 4's works very well to change tires on the floor. Just make sure the box is larger than the rotor so there is no danger of dinging the rotor during the tire iron procedure. Kneel directly onto the tire wall at about the 1/2 point, use the iron to make small bites and move the tire over the rim and follow the whole mess with your knees as you go to keep the tire that was already mounted down into the rim. A competition guy can do this faster than I am describing it and there is little danger of damaging either the wheel or the tire.
I do not know of any way to avoid the TPS sensors without being very careful and aware of where they are when you mount or dismount a tire. A tire changing machine won't lessen the odds of that sensor being damaged in my opinion.
Brian
So to be clear...
1. This would work to install a new tire on an "empty" rim without a tire stand and the process "should not" / "would not" damage the TPS?
2. To remove the old tire you would have to first use a bead breaker then thread the tie downs through the old tire (8 times) and then use lube and tire irons (or your hands) to remove the old tire?
Wow game changing if you do not have to buy a wheel stand to change your own C14 C10 tires.
Thank you for sharing :)
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I did not use the strap method to dismount the old tire. I used tire irons. However next time I'm going to try to find a quick easy way of cutting the old tire off. I have a small bench mounted press that breaks the bead in about 3 seconds.
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I have a NoMar tire changer and is is a very well made item, albeit a bit expensive. However the bar used to actually remove the tire and to mount it is not so hot. I use a Mojolever instead. A cheaper alternative is the HarborFreight motorcycle changer along with the Mojolever and the Mojoblocks. Check out these URL's for descriptions and pictures:
http://www.bmwmoa.org/forum/showthread.php?t=25550 (http://www.bmwmoa.org/forum/showthread.php?t=25550)
http://home.comcast.net/~prestondrake/mojoweb.htm (http://home.comcast.net/~prestondrake/mojoweb.htm)
http://home.comcast.net/~prestondrake/mojoblocks.htm (http://home.comcast.net/~prestondrake/mojoblocks.htm)
I have changed my C14 tires several times and the tires for others with various makes and find the job to be quite easy with no damage of any kind to the various rims I've encountered.
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I am pretty sure I can mount a tire with three tire irons faster than I could put all those straps on. And the tire irons take up less space.
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ive changed tires with the HF tire changer and then used spoons for a while.
Its a dirty sweaty job that I hate ...Scratched my rims up good too.
I hire it out these days.
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Wow! I had an epic battle trying to change the rear tire on my C14 yesterday. Epic! The old Roadsmarts are pretty well shot, so decided to change them out since I had the day off. My son and I changed the tires on his ZX6R a short time ago, and it was a challenge, but since it was my first time doing it myself I figured it didn't go too badly. We just used the 2x4 box and tire irons on those. I'm pretty handy with most things so I thought to myself 'how hard can it be?".
WRONG. For the life of me I couldn't get that %^$# rear tire off the rim! I got it half way off, but after fighting it for 3 hrs. I was getting mad and starting to nick up my rim, so I finally gave up and took it over to Cycle Gear. It was 110 degrees in my garage and I just couldn't git 'er done. I even stopped at one point to go inside and cool off awhile and checked out some Youtube videos on tire removal. They all made it look so easy.
The drop center of this rim doesn't seem to "drop" much, and no matter how much lubing, prying, cussing, and sweating I did, I finally just admitted defeat and threw in the towel. I hate loosing.
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Please don't take this the wrong way but..... the thing that makes tire changing work is technique, not brute force. I think we have all been there, gotten exasperated and tried to use brute force to forge ahead when a tire discount (or a tire mount) started to go badly but that rarely works. A bit of lube and 99% technique will make an easy job of it. It is tough to learn how to do it from the printed word though and having someone help or show you a couple of times is best. The usual mistake is trying to take too big of a bite with the next movement with the tire iron; small steps are best and sometimes the only way it will work. A lot of the time you have to force the tire iron closer to the point where the tire is against the wheel before trying to lever over the next section; the tire is against the wheel with a fair amount of pressure and where it stops the tire iron from moving toward the area already under the lip of the rim is probably not far enough.
Also, bad language does not really help much but it can be extremely satisfying at the moment. Personally I like to combine bad words in new and unusual ways.... :D
Brian
Wow! I had an epic battle trying to change the rear tire on my C14 yesterday. Epic! The old Roadsmarts are pretty well shot, so decided to change them out since I had the day off. My son and I changed the tires on his ZX6R a short time ago, and it was a challenge, but since it was my first time doing it myself I figured it didn't go too badly. We just used the 2x4 box and tire irons on those. I'm pretty handy with most things so I thought to myself 'how hard can it be?".
WRONG. For the life of me I couldn't get that %^$# rear tire off the rim! I got it half way off, but after fighting it for 3 hrs. I was getting mad and starting to nick up my rim, so I finally gave up and took it over to Cycle Gear. It was 110 degrees in my garage and I just couldn't git 'er done. I even stopped at one point to go inside and cool off awhile and checked out some Youtube videos on tire removal. They all made it look so easy.
The drop center of this rim doesn't seem to "drop" much, and no matter how much lubing, prying, cussing, and sweating I did, I finally just admitted defeat and threw in the towel. I hate loosing.
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Oh I agree 100% Brian. I got hot, tired, frustrated, and down right angry, and then nothing good was gonna happen. I got the front done this morning without too much fanfare. I'm just stubborn enough that I'll likely try doing the rear tire again next time ;). Strangely enough, those naughty words yesterday didn't seem to help at all. Maybe I need to learn some new ones ::).
Anyway, now I have shiny new tires to ride on. Incidentally, I decided to try the Shinko 009's this time around. We'll see how they do.
Dave
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Great idea in my opinion- do it again next time you need tires. Really, giving up never accomplished anything. The videos on Youtube may help too. Unfortunately using tire irons seems to be a disappearing skill as most people now tend to use long levers to twist the tire over the lip of the wheel (Coats type, Mojo lever, NoMar, etc.) rather than irons levering them on. I actually think levers are faster and easier most of the time especially when you take into account the time and effort necessary to secure the wheel so it will not turn (much) and is not damaged by the wheel clamps themselves.
The key with bad language is the combinations, especially those using farm animals and mining equipment. ;)
Pass along how those Shinkos perform if you would. Some people are finding them to be a good value and it seems that most people who do try them like them overall.
Brian
Oh I agree 100% Brian. I got hot, tired, frustrated, and down right angry, and then nothing good was gonna happen. I got the front done this morning without too much fanfare. I'm just stubborn enough that I'll likely try doing the rear tire again next time ;). Strangely enough, those naughty words yesterday didn't seem to help at all. Maybe I need to learn some new ones ::).
Anyway, now I have shiny new tires to ride on. Incidentally, I decided to try the Shinko 009's this time around. We'll see how they do.
Dave