SkooterG
Purveyor of Crooked Facts
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:
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:
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:
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:
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.
OH MY GOD!!!! Somebody who has some technical knowledge, please tell me WTF is going on:
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:
Check out the corrosion for cryin out loud!
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.
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
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:
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:
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:
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:
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.
OH MY GOD!!!! Somebody who has some technical knowledge, please tell me WTF is going on:
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:
Check out the corrosion for cryin out loud!
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.
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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