The joy of doing it yourself...not.

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iowabeakster
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The joy of doing it yourself...not.

Post by iowabeakster »

Today, I tried my hand at the last piece of regular maintenance, that so far, I have always avoided. I changed my own tire. It went Okay, I guess. I was hoping that it would go a little smoother. I don't have any special tire changing machines. I just did it with 3 tire Irons, and plastic pieces to protect the rims.

Breaking the bead on the old tire was pretty easy, once I found a good place to lever my 2x4 (under the back porch). Getting the first bead over the rim (removing old tire) went pretty well. It was getting the second bead over the rim that I really struggled with. I must have flipped the tire over each way several times, and started to lever, before I finally figured out the best approach. I was probably being overly cautious to protect the paint on the wheel. And I still managed a couple of scuffs...damn. Had I just attacked the sucker, I probably would have gotten it off much more quickly, avoiding much of the pointless levering. Also, I probably should have been more generous with the lube during the removal process. Next time I'm going to use a paint brush to generously apply the lube. With my bike approaching 7 years old, maybe I shouldn't sweat a couple of small scuffs on the wheels.

Putting the new one on, in comparison, was a piece of cake.

Then, I struggled to get the beads to "pop". It was mostly due the fact that I didn't have the ideal kind of air chuck. I finally wrapped a tapered nozzle with teflon tape on the blow gun, and stuck it in the valve stem. I hit the button and, "POP POP".

I somehow managed to bend the post on the valve core... so off the auto parts store I went.

I also adjusted the engine valves. I skipped it 6000 miles ago. I could have skipped it again. But for anality reasons, I did tweak them. Then, I put in new spark plugs. I'll check the throttle bodies tomorrow.

Right now, I have zero feelings of accomplishment. I am a little sore, and pretty grumpy. I question my tendencies to be cheap. Hopefully, riding a couple hundred miles in the next two days will improve my outlook. ;)
Last edited by iowabeakster on Tue Apr 12, 2011 2:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The joy of doing it yourself...not.

Post by AndyRR »

I changed my own back tire. Once. Had the same grumpy sore PO'd feeling afterwards. The next time I took it to an auto repair shop down the street to see if he could do it. With a little tweaking he made his machine work and got it done in less than 10 minutes. I gave him a $20 and he gave me 10 back. He's no longer down the street from me, but still worth the 30 minute drive. Never balanced a tire and never felt any vibration, even at 100+.
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iowabeakster
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Re: The joy of doing it yourself...not.

Post by iowabeakster »

I did balance it. The valve stem was the heavy point, but just the tiniest bit heavy.

The weights that I had were 7 gs, I used a single one, just opposite the valve stem. Now, the heavy point is the weight... :lol:
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Re: The joy of doing it yourself...not.

Post by Dr. Strangelove »

awwww, man!

Shhhhh! The front is harder because you have more stuff to remove.

You cannot use too much lube. I built a box to rest the tire on, and that helps.

Also, some big-azz C clamps to hold your progress helps, or a burly assistant.

And you did use plastic from a cut up, like 2 liter soft drink or fruit juice bottle to protect things, right?

There are a couple of videos on youtube demonstrating the process.

My rear took one square of weight, whatever that is--7g?-- and the front took four of them.

There is another tire change coming up for me in a couple of weeks; think I'll wait for it to get oppressively hot, maybe increase the mosquito count also.

Oh, and another tip (think I got this from Taosport), put the tires in the sun to heat them up. Makes them more pliable.

Did you do the PR2s or the Z6s? Breaking the bead has been the hardest thing for me. That is a whole lot of force! I suspect you lifted your porch a bit when you brought the "hammer (not)" down.
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iowabeakster
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Re: The joy of doing it yourself...not.

Post by iowabeakster »

Strange,

I went with the PR2. It's my first time trying Michelin. I've got another one waiting in the garage (different size), for Amy's bike. I'm pretty excited about the prospect of getting 10+K out of a rear tire.

Breaking the bead was easier than I thought. I may have gone a little overboard creating mechanical advantage. I used an 8' 2x4 as a lever. The small piece to make the pressure point was only about 1' from the fulcrum end. I just slowly kept adding pressure, and it squished the tire without any fuss. I didn't see the porch lift, I was aware of the possibility. 8-[

The plastic pieces were cut from jugs of soybean oil (35 lb jugs) that we use at work. They should have worked fine. The scuffs were simply the result of poor operator usage. While futzing around with multiple levers and plastic pieces, the stupid tire monkey (aka me) managed to pry without noticing that the plastic had slipped out of place (more than once). Looking at the scuffs today, they really aren't so bad. I don't think I'll even bother touching up the paint.

I got frustrated enough that I stopped and watched youtubes on my phone, before continuing.

I made a friend while riding today... which is cool.

Image
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Re: The joy of doing it yourself...not.

Post by Dr. Strangelove »

yikes
what is that?

I was thinking about your ordeal and it always frightens the hell out of me to see some guys changing tires along the road. Just the possibility of losing a piece in the grass is scary enough, but scrambling around trying to get mechanical advantage while cars and truck zoom past, frightening.
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iowabeakster
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Re: The joy of doing it yourself...not.

Post by iowabeakster »

We call 'em "yellow jackets". They are a big ass bumble bee (very painful stings). When I took off my helmet and riding jacket, Amy says, "Kirk, hold still. You've got a yellow jacket on your collar." So, I snapped a self-portrait and slowly removed the fleece. No yellow jackets were harmed in the procedure.

That reminds me of a story that I meant to share last year...

Last year after a ride, Amy told me that she thought she got hit with a cicada or a small bird in the neck, while riding.

Many hours later she started freaking out at work. I didn't pay any attention. I just thought a bug flew down her shirt. She isn't too squimish, but she was seriously freaking. She had seen a large insect wing when she looked down her shirt. It turns out that she had a massive dragonfly in her bra. It wasn't your typical dragonfly, but some prehistoric monster that had time traveled. It had been in her bra for hours. It was all green and blue and purple... with a wing span bigger than my hand. That was fun.
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duegi
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Re: The joy of doing it yourself...not.

Post by duegi »

Did you two slice it up and use it for a special pizza topping???
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Re: The joy of doing it yourself...not.

Post by angellr »

duegi wrote:Did you two slice it up and use it for a special pizza topping???
Thinking the same thing, or perhaps donating it to the local Museum of Natural History as a prehistoric specimen.
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Xdot
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Re: The joy of doing it yourself...not.

Post by Xdot »

There is no reason, in a modern society, why one should attempt changing of one's own tire manually. NO ONE would try that with their car!

Other tasks that I don't mind paying for:

Stitches
Weaving of cloth
Refining fuel
Synthesizing medications
Embalming the dead
Writing users manuals
Picking food
Making sausage
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angellr
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Re: The joy of doing it yourself...not.

Post by angellr »

Xdot wrote:There is no reason, in a modern society, why one should attempt changing of one's own tire manually. NO ONE would try that with their car!

Other tasks that I don't mind paying for:

Stitches
Weaving of cloth
Refining fuel
Synthesizing medications
Embalming the dead
Writing users manuals
Picking food
Making sausage
Killjoy! Especially stitches w/o anesthesia. :shock:
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iowabeakster
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Re: The joy of doing it yourself...not.

Post by iowabeakster »

I am one of those unfortunates, regarded as a servant, who do a lot of work for those who enjoy that modern lifestyle, for little in exchange. I have to live on a tight budget. Enjoy your comfortable lifestyle.
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Re: The joy of doing it yourself...not.

Post by angellr »

iowabeakster wrote:I am one of those unfortunates, regarded as a servant, who do a lot of work for those who enjoy that modern lifestyle, for little in exchange. I have to live on a tight budget. Enjoy your comfortable lifestyle.
Not only a tight budget, but want to know what to do when/if I need to do side-of-the-road repairs. Never hurts.
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Re: The joy of doing it yourself...not.

Post by Xdot »

iowabeakster wrote:I am one of those unfortunates, regarded as a servant, who do a lot of work for those who enjoy that modern lifestyle, for little in exchange. I have to live on a tight budget. Enjoy your comfortable lifestyle.
Comfortable lifestyle, I wish! I'm a servant too for a boss who denied me a raise and bought himself a new Nissan Armada instead. I'm with you, man. I do just about everything for myself including pouring concrete one damn 80# sack at a time. I have no choice. But there are a few things I WILL NOT do for myself. (See list above.) I'm thinking of removing one of my kidneys with a circular saw and selling it to put my son through college. Know anyone who needs a kidney?
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Re: The joy of doing it yourself...not.

Post by angellr »

Xdot wrote:
iowabeakster wrote:I am one of those unfortunates, regarded as a servant, who do a lot of work for those who enjoy that modern lifestyle, for little in exchange. I have to live on a tight budget. Enjoy your comfortable lifestyle.
Comfortable lifestyle, I wish! I'm a servant too for a boss who denied me a raise and bought himself a new Nissan Armada instead. I'm with you, man. I do just about everything for myself including pouring concrete one damn 80# sack at a time. I have no choice. But there are a few things I WILL NOT do for myself. (See list above.) I'm thinking of removing one of my kidneys with a circular saw and selling it to put my son through college. Know anyone who needs a kidney?
Platelets help once a week. Also am in the process of trying to lose a little weight so that I could dance downtown on the weekends in a skimpy g-string [sorry about the visual]. :oops:

If you use a circular saw for the kidney, make sure the bathtub has plenty of ice so that your organ is viable when it is picked up for the black market sale. An urban legend is coming to mind ... :-k

You know, April is such a cruel month when you would like to be outside on 2-wheels. We have had snow on/off all day long allowing for more time here on the boards ... gotta love Spring along Wasatch Mtns.
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Re: The joy of doing it yourself...not.

Post by Rider Rick »

Beakster, lol, I think I know why you had a hard time with your tire :)...you think a bumblebee is a yellowjacket, so it is entirely possible you could have been thinking a crescent wrench was a tire iron :).

If you think a bumblebee stabs hard, you should have a real yellowjacket come after you :shock: They can fly faster than you can run, and they bring all their kinfolk with 'em! I once stayed underwater for about a minute while those demons actually hovered over where I went in...stuck my head out for air and they saw me and started diving again...(shaking head). All I did was mow over their nest...they are nothing but haters!
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Re: The joy of doing it yourself...not.

Post by Xdot »

Rider Rick wrote:Beakster, lol, I think I know why you had a hard time with your tire :)...you think a bumblebee is a yellowjacket, so it is entirely possible you could have been thinking a crescent wrench was a tire iron :).

If you think a bumblebee stabs hard, you should have a real yellowjacket come after you :shock: They can fly faster than you can run, and they bring all their kinfolk with 'em! I once stayed underwater for about a minute while those demons actually hovered over where I went in...stuck my head out for air and they saw me and started diving again...(shaking head). All I did was mow over their nest...they are nothing but haters!
Uh, Rick, I'll have you not talk about my yellowjacket R that way. She's a tad ornery but always gets papa home.
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Re: The joy of doing it yourself...not.

Post by jfslater98 »

You probably already did this but... when I "helped" during my shadetree tire change, the man in charge left the core out of the valve stem while popping the beads. The airflow is much better. You'll lose some air putting the core back in but it seemed to make sense. Hope that helped you for next time.
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Re: The joy of doing it yourself...not.

Post by Daryl_stamp »

Two thumbs up for self maintenance; just knowing you CAN do it if you WANT to do it is a big deal. Next time; drive something into your old tire, make it leak, fix it, then ride around on it enough to know that you CAN do it if you HAVE to do it....it lends a great sense of confidence to the utility of the tire repair kit (NOT the POS BMW one; the Wally World special w/ a micro-compressor busted out of it's plastic housing)

By the way......not to get too personal or anything w/ your GF or anything but ...
iowabeakster wrote:
Many hours later she started freaking out at work. ... It turns out that she had a massive dragonfly in her bra How big is that bra?. It wasn't your typical dragonfly, but some prehistoric monster that had time traveled. It had been in her bra for hours. Must be a pretty big spacious hiding place to hide in there that long un-noticed It was all green and blue and purple... with a wing span bigger than my hand. That was fun.
I'll bet that's not all that's fun :D :D :D
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Re: The joy of doing it yourself...not.

Post by Dr. Strangelove »

I change my own tires for economy--at the dealer 1.5-2 hr labor--and convenience: the dealer is 75 miles away, have to make an appt, a pita. At home I can more easily do it on my schedule.

so, the past two times I did it myself.

Bumblebee vs yellow jacket. I think the Beakster is right. BUT, in the south we refer to those yellow banded wasps as "yellow jackets." And they do carry a grudge as RR says, and they bring ALL of their friends for a gang-sting, while the bumblebee variety yellow jacket seems more solitary.

Having been stung by both, they both hurt, kind of like a finishing nail hammered into your fleshy parts.

Neither are to be trifled with, I think.

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