The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

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SkooterG

Purveyor of Crooked Facts
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Below is a duplicate of a thread I posted on the EZBoard a couple of years ago. Apparently, it was recently dropped for being too old. Stupid EZBoard! A recent topic sent me looking for it to no avail, and I thought it still had some good info. So here it is, re-posted in it's entirety.

Some of you that have been around here awhile most likely remember Warchild's "The Good, The Bad, and The Coyote Ugly" post. It was most excellent of course. Well, unfortunately, I am not near as entertaining as our beloved Warchild, but here is SkooterG's, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, chronicling my recent tire change:

Da, da da da daaa, Wah, wah, wahhhhhhhh........

[SIZE=24pt]The Good[/SIZE]

I replaced my front Avon AV-45ST tire. It had 16,100 miles on it!!!!! It was most definitely due. Here is a pic of that well worn puppy:

FrontTireChange2-16-05005.jpg


Don't know how well you can see it, but the tire has "cupped" - in that the trailing edges of the center tread patterns have worn down almost to the "valley" portion of the tire. This was not too big a deal until about 500 miles ago when I started experiencing a vibration at 80 mph that got progressively worse as I increased speed. Overall, I have been very happy with the Avons and their longevity.

Here is a pic of the new and old:

FrontTireChange2-16-05011.jpg


During install, I got to try out my new Marc Parnes wheel balancer for the first time. This thing is awesome! Much better than the old rod method. Very sensitive and accurate. Two thumbs up! You can get one from fellow fjr owner Marc at his website - CLICKY HERE

Pic of balancer in action:

FrontTireChange2-16-05017.jpg


Doing one's own tire changes and balancing, you can take the time to do it right and find out interesting stuff. For example, I was able to balance just the wheel, and found out the heavy spot was almost directly opposite the valve, and took 24g to balance. Piccie:

FrontTireChange2-16-05015.jpg


So, now I gotta fresh Avon on the front. Cant wait to put on some miles in the twisties, as I should notice quite a difference from its well-worn predecessor.

[SIZE=24pt]The Bad[/SIZE]

I almost missed this. I should have been thinking about checking this since everything was apart, but I had tunnel vision about tire change and re-installing the front wheel. While re-installing the calipers, I happened to notice the condition of the pads. :eek: OH MY GOD!!!! :eek: Somebody who has some technical knowledge, please tell me WTF is going on:

FrontTireChange2-16-05022.jpg


FrontTireChange2-16-05019.jpg


This is with 29,700 miles, and I consider myself a fairly conservative rider. This is the left-side caliper, and its the inside pad that is almost completely gone. I checked the right side caliper, and its wearing unevenly too, with the inside pad once again wearing more, but NOT near as bad as this. It was like a 2:1 ratio, not like a 6:1 like pictured above.

Anybody else experience this? Why aren't the outside pistons of the caliper moving? What do I do?

Cripes! :angry03:

[SIZE=24pt]The Ugly[/SIZE]

Freakin tire sealant. I had put Ride-On tire sealant in this last front tire for the first time. Don't care what anybody else says, its messy when it comes time to removing the tire, and I can see why shops don't like to deal with it. Is it a huge deal? Maybe not, but its a hassle. Should of taken pics of the wet, oatmeal consistency stuff.

However........

Look what this crap did to my rim: :angry02:

FrontTireChange2-16-05008.jpg


Check out the corrosion for cryin out loud!

FrontTireChange2-16-05009.jpg


FrontTireChange2-16-05010.jpg


In these pics, I had already cleaned the one side, which wasn't as bad. What a freaking ***-pain! It took me about an hour to clean off the hardened sealant, and corrosion with a scotchbrite pad. (Which I am sure a dealer would not waste time doing) Water soluble and corrosion resistant my ***. To each his own, but you will never find any kind of tire sealant in my tires again. Here is a pic of the sealant in the old tire after I had hosed out the bulk of it. Nasty! No thanks.

FrontTireChange2-16-05013.jpg


So, in conclusion.....

Avon = good :thumbsupsmileyanim:

Check those front brakes for abnormal wear.

And just say "no" to tire sealant. :thumbsdownsmileyanim:

Too-da-loo,

Greg

 
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Wow...I've never used sealant, had thought about it...until now. Great information. Excellent updated avatar! Heal, boy, heal..good boy! Hey, get off my leg! (pathetic attempt at humor to help with your pain). Now back to the thread....

 
Good to see you are up to some typing. That arm looks banged up! Been there, and it hurts but gets better. Good to have you back!

Saw a link to this post a while back and good info worth keeping. I'll never use tire inflation crap now. What WAS up with the brake pads?

 
av-118a.jpg

LOL! :lol:
I couldn't help myself yesterday. I figure using my admin powers to make people laugh is probably fair.

...and I consider myself a fairly conservative rider.

Choke! Guffaw! Chortle! Snicker! BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! :rofl:

Holy ****! That one drew snot!
To his defense, he said he copied it from an old thread and his was a more conservative rider back then. It wasn't until.........

Oh....who am I kidding?

******** Skooter! Maybe you were calm the first tank of gas, but somehow I think the intervening 400 tanks you have abused that throttle cable.

 
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I replaced my front Avon AV-45ST tire. It had 16,100 miles on it!!!!! It was most definitely due. Here is a pic of that well worn puppy:
I reeeeeealy don't get how you ( and others ) getting that type of mileage, I'm on my third set of Avons ( plus two sets PR's & stock "Stones ), this time I got 8000 miles out of a set ..which is a personal best so far. :blink:

Maybe if you replaced tires sooner you wouldn't crash so much !! :p

 
Right now I buy tires from Sunnyside, remove the wheels from my bike myself and have the tires mounted and balanced at a harley dealership that seems to do a nice job. They charge me $30.00 a wheel which seems reasonable.

If I wanted to put together all the stuff I would need to do this in my garage does someone have a rough estimate of what I would have to spend and how long it takes to do a wheel?

 
We come across alot of wheels with that corrosion on car tires.. but not alot of oatmeal..

but, a wire brush mounted to a die grinder makes quick work out of that job...

Pain in the ***, but it happens....

My Honda dealer in the local area, when I dropped by unexpectedly with a case of beer, charged me $12

to mount and balance my tire, I threw him a $20 and came back the next day with my rear, and lickity split it was done.... They normally charge $18.50 theres another $20...

but Im in great standing with them for good now...

Beer is your mechanics friend...

:yahoo:

 
It doesn't take much in the way of tools to do a wheel, how much of a PITA it is, is direct correlation to how much you spend on tools IMHO :)

All you really need is :

something to break the bead with (You can make this out of a few pieces of 2x4)

A rim protector (I use cut up 2 liter soda bottles to do this)

Tire spoons (figure 20 bucks)

compressor (not necassary as you can always take it to a gas station with an air pump and do it...but it helps)

1 Ratchet strap (to help seat bead, costs about 10 bucks)

chocks of wood to hold bead below rim line while mounting...

Can of spray lube (Few bucks)

Couple of old wheel bearings and some jackstands to make a makeshift static balancer

Figure total cost of under 50 bucks...

Using the above mentioned tools I've replaced both wheels on my connie in about 3 hours total (including removing and re-installing)

I've done it a few times in this method, takes a lot of wrestling and cussing and helps to have a friend to help...but overall not too bad.

I also have a friend who has one of those 300 dollar harbor frieght tire changers and a mojo lever as well as an expensive balancer... He can pop a tire off and pop a new one on in 5 minutes (not counting the time to pull the wheel) so it's all subjective :)

 
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I love these threads that resurface after seven or eight years........reminds me of what goobers you pups are. :rolleyes:

 
I love these threads that resurface after seven or eight years........reminds me of what goobers you pups are. :rolleyes:
A far better alternative than start a new thread with a link to this old thread....like has been tried recently. This is the lesser of two faux pas.

Meanwhile, we'll let common sense, good-natured ribbing of newbs, and the occasional dogpile straiten 'em out. Remember how it worked wonders with you and me? ;)

 
Meanwhile, we'll let common sense, good-natured ribbing of newbs, and the occasional dogpile straiten 'em out. Remember how it worked wonders with you and me? ;)
Well maybe for you.. I dunno aboot our boy odot :blink: An how do you explain Scooter?

:jester:

 
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