Alright, you mentioned sacrificial plastic carbonated beverage container material as rim protectors.
What tools did you use ?
Josemoe,
I'll do better than that. Here's all the details. I posted this in another thread to help anyone else who may be contemplating doing this job but may be concerned with how difficult it might be. Below is a cut & paste of that post. I'll add here that I did buy the 14mm and 19mm allen head sockets but, as I mentioned somewhere else, out of curiosity I tried the spark plug socket trick and it worked perfectly. Also, I did use a torque wrench and torqued things to spec. I generally just go by feel but with expensive aluminum parts that can strip, I did it by the book this time.
Sorry for the length of this but sometimes it's the details that help others.
I changed my tires on my R3T yesterday. I ended up going with Avon Cobras front and back although it was a toss-up between those and the Bridgestone Excedra Max "V" tires based on comments here.
Anyway, I thought I'd mention how the job went in case someone else is thinking of changing their own tires on their R3T for the first time but may be concerned based on things they've read about the job. Maybe someone will find something here useful.
The job was surprisingly straight-forward and relatively easy. Maybe that's just because I had read some comments on this and other threads that said it was a really difficult job and some said they would never even think of doing it so I was mentally prepared for a tough job. And maybe it seemed easy because I've always done my own work on everything. But it really wasn't difficult even for this (almost) 68 year-old.
I broke the beads with C-clamps. The pads of the clamps wanted to slip away from the bead because of the Windex I was using as a lube so I inserted a thin piece of hardwood between the bead and the wheel rim when the bead was pushed fairly well down with another C-clamp. I then put the C-clamp on the piece of wood, which was inserted all the way into the rim. It didn't slip and it forced the bead down nicely and broke the bead. Be sure to lube well to help break the bead!
I removed and installed the rear tire using just spoons. It wasn't difficult - at least not as difficult as some say. Just some force and well-placed spoons were necessary. I did have some store-bought rim protectors and also some plastic from large soda bottles. The soda bottle plastic slipped into places where the rim protectors couldn't go and were very effective. In fact, you really don't need store-bought rim protectors at all.
I tried the zip-tie method on the front tire thinking it would help me avoid difficulty getting spoons around the rotors. It probably did make removing the front tire a bit easier but I don't think it helped installation that much. I had to use spoons anyway to get the tire finally popped on so I probably won't use zip ties at all in the future. It would have taken me less time without them but I'm sure they work better with some tires. You do have to work the spoons from sharp angles when you insert them avoid the rotors. That's not a problem with the rear tire because you can work from the side without a rotor.
Zip-ties on the rear tire? Forget it! The tire was so stiff even after sitting out in the sun for hours that there's no way the zip ties could come even close to pulling the beads together. I suppose I could have used C-clamps to force the beads together and then put the zip-ties on but I didn't want to stress the tires with the force it would have taken.
It only took two or three minutes to install each tire once one side of the tire was popped onto the rim which doesn't require any tools at all. Just push it on.
I balanced the tires using a Marc Parnes balancer but I replaced the thumb screws for the balancing cones with set screws because one recess of the rear wheel is deep enough so that the thumb screw on the cone hit the wheel. The wheel weights that I got from Mark kept falling off even after I thoroughly cleaned the place where they would go with alcohol. I ended up using a different brand of weights and cleaned the rim with lacquer thinner instead of alcohol. But after watching the weights fall off repeatedly, I took notes on where the weights were located and how much weight was used and I also took pictures showing exactly where they go for future reference in case they fall off. I keep that info in a file on my PC. If they fall off right away, I won't have to take the wheels off and re-balance.
Safety: Be sure the bike is solidly supported! I used a Harbor Freight motorcycle floor jack which works fine. In fact, I use it to keep the bike off the floor in the winter. But you have to ride the bike up onto a couple boards - one under each tire - to raise it enough for the jack to slip under the bike. It's HF's jack with two support bars. You have to put a thin board on one of the support bars because of the shape of the engine.
I used one very heavy ratchet strap around the waist of the bike (with the seat removed) passing through the floor jack rings made for that purpose. I then ran two more heavy duty ratchet straps - one on each side of the bike - from the frame under the seat to heavy stationary machines in my shop. Finally, I ran two light straps from the forks to machines in my shop to keep the front end centered and steady. The bike was so solidly held in place that you couldn't budge it if you tried except for a slight bit of teeter-tottering from front to back which was actually useful when removing an replacing the wheels. By the way, you don't have to remove both mufflers and the support bar that goes from left to right saddle bag (pannier) supports as the shop manual says. You do have to remove the left muffler but that's super simple - just loosen the front clamp and remove two rear bolts. However, removing the right muffler and the support bar would make getting the rear wheel out and in simpler and you wouldn't have to raise the bike as much if you do remove them.
I only drove the bike a mile or two this morning to my Post Office so I can't judge the tires yet. Also, I was taking it easy because they're new and need to be scuffed up a bit but it seemed like I had a softer ride - in a nice way. Maybe it's just my imagination. It's too soon to really tell. But it seemed to handle bumps more smoothly. I'll know more later this week when I take it on a long ride.
