Being a pack rat is good and my thoughts on changing your own tires.

[zore]

So I had taken today off to take my daughter to see some Top Fuel qualifying but figured I'd take the xz to my dental appointment, come home and slap some tires on it that have been in the garage for 2 months.  The tires on it were Yokahama Speed line II's.  Knowing they were mounted in 1989, I expected a struggle and some mess.  I have done 2 dozen tires with my cheapy tire machine and cursing and throwing things is just part of the process.  I figured breaking the bead on these things would take me a good while but this was not to be.

I took the air out and the darn things practically broke off the bead themselves.   Removing the tire off the wheel was a 15 second process.  This could have easily been done with some tire spoons with out even breaking a sweat.  Mounting the tasty new BT45's was even easier, they almost fell on.  I have never had such an easy time mounting tires on any of the newer 17 inch wheels I have.

No for the pack rat bit.  Upon receiving my vision, I had noticed that the breaks simply sucked.  Even after replacing the line with steel unit, it still wasn't up too what I felt it should be.  I bought new pads and installed them, but kept the old ones which only had 3000 miles on them and it would appear that the previous owner was heavily biased with the rear brake, so the old pads still looked like new.

While changing the tires today, I noticed that the new pads I just installed last year were just about gone.  I'm thinking 100-300 miles and they would have been metal on metal.  Thankfully, I kept the old set and on they went.  I took it for a ride and all is well now.

The lesson here is, check your pads more often than not specially if generally just use front brakes.

[kiawrench]

i can agree with the need to be a pack rat, i kept the old rear brake parts from my wrecked vision(the brake cam and springs were needed), and a lot of the parts that came off it that didnt end up looking like grated cheese, most have found a home on the project bike .
  i used a few old connectors from a car as power and ground access  for my add ons ,, even used one as a feed point for my battery tender, (mine only came with one, which is on my rider .) so i made a adapter for the tender that slips onto the project bike battery feed.

[inanecathode]

I always keep old stuff. Problem is finding it, it always ends up "i remember putting it in a cardboard box... yes... brown cardboard box."

[kiwibum]

Is it really this easy to change the tires on the XZ? I'm going to have to do mine soon and was going to take it do a bike shop. Would much rather do it myself if they pop on/off that easily. Do others change their own tires?

Yip I join the pack rat crowd. Just organised my garage so I can use it as a real workshop for working on the bike. Make that bikes, just bought two more (found a poor condition 550 to get the bigger engine and another ZX400 with full factory fairing:-), making 5 XZ's in my stable for now. One I'm currently riding has to go once the fairing one is operational. Hence I have a few spare sets of tires all be it old ones:-(.

[zore]

My worry was how long the old yokahama's had been on the wheel, but they fell right off.  I guess bias ply's are much softer than the radials i had been used too.  I didn't even balance the tires.  Just lined up the mark on the tire with the valve stem and went for it.  I own a balancer but after doing one tire with it, I decided to give the next few a shot with just lining up the tires and so far, so good.

I bought one of those cheap chinese tire machines with the motorcycle tire addon.  I use it mostly to hold the wheel while i spoon on the tire.  Get a decent set of tire irons and you'll be good to go.

[h2olawyer]

I've done three sets of V tires.  They were all easy.  I also did a set of radials on a GTS1000.  Those were a bear in comparison - but still not that difficult.  I use the cheap Chinese tire machine as well.  The radials required lots of leverage (long irons).  The V does fine with a pair of 12 inch irons.

Cut up a couple plastic bottles (like those used for dish soap) and use them for rim protectors.  I used to have some links for making your own bead breakers.  May be able to find them again.  You can use large "C" clamps to break the bead as well.

Another item that helps things go smoother is some tire mounting lubricant.  Soapy water works OK, but the soap residue can remain and never really stops being slick.  This may cause the tire to rotate on the rim - very rare, but not unheard of.  If you have a go-kart track & supplier nearby, you should be able to find some tire mount lube there.  I use stuff called "Tire Snot".  Green slime stuff.  When it dries, it isn't slick at all.

H₂O

[supervision]

  It's a 100 here, don't feel like riding, started taking  v apart to fix the starter clutch.   17's ARE abitch to change, as is the 16 front on our Intercepter     I'm a recovering pack-rat, I need to get rid of a few things, it's bad to give up space to stuff you will probably never do anything with.    That was such fun in Co.  !!!!, perfect weather, people, place, garage, town, time of the year

[motoracer8]

I have a coats tire machine for newer bikes with wide rims. But what I use most for the older machines like the british stuff, and older Japenese, is a 16gal gear oil barrel, with a piece of rubber hose cut lenth ways whitch goes over the bead around the top of the barrel to protect the spokes,or alum wheel, It puts the wheel at the rite level for levers and a knee if needed. A 5 gal steel pail will work, but you have to bend over, and they are not as stable. Honda has some nice plastic rim protecters, they come in packages of three, are cheap and work well. I don't know the part number, but they are in the Honda service materal, The service guys will know what they are if the parts guys don't.

  Ken G.

[jasonm.]

It surely sounds like a dragging/sticky caliper. With that low miles...it's likely there is corrosion in the bore. "Sticking things". 

[zore]

10000 miles is low on a front brake?  I don't think so.  Considering I only use the front brake, I think that's pretty good mileage.

[kiwibum]

Will putting the tire in a vice do to pop them off the rim? I've just got and mounted a nice big 6 inch engineering vice, figure I can sit the wheel in it and just do the vice up (with something on the jaws to protect the rims).

[George R. Young]

Will putting the tire in a vice do to pop them off the rim? I've just got and mounted a nice big 6 inch engineering vice, figure I can sit the wheel in it and just do the vice up (with something on the jaws to protect the rims).

Another similar idea, I use a 5" C-clamp to break the bead.

[Dan Byers]

Use Pledge for lube to install the tires...works great and no residue.