Tire Changing

Holy crap, who new this was going to be so hard. I'm not sure if it was because the tires that were on there had gotten stiff with age, but they were impossible to get off. I ended up, after hours of wrestling, cutting off the back one with a saws-all and an angle grinder. And don't get me started about those bead lock devices in the rear tire. I forgot to take a picture of those, sorry.

Here are some pics of the process. As you will see, the first thing that I had to do was construct some devices to help hold the bike upright while I tried to lift one end. Coming up with a proper lifting scheme took some time. At one point I had the bike tied to the ceiling of the garage until a rope broke and it nearly fell over.

As there was no way to put anything wide and flat under the frame (the exhaust being the lowest part), I was left jacking the bike up by a single point at the bottom of the engine. This meant that I needed another way of keeping the bike upright. This contraption above is what I came up with. The pic below shows the bike on the jack, help upright with my rig, with the front wheel removed.

The wheels were rusty inside, underneath the tires. Before I put the new tires on I cleaned them up a bit with a sanding screen and wire brush. I then painted on some rust converter. I also added new rim strips (there was no rim strip in the rear). I modified the rear rim strip, adding extra holes for the two rim lock devices (not pictured). I considered omitting these devices since they were difficult to install and probably unnecessary for street riding. But I got them in eventually.

And here is the rig on the front with the back wheel removed. It was far more precarious this way since the front wheel can turn.

Here is the tube that came out of the back wheel. It had 8 patches on it! I guess Gary must be an expert at changing tires.

And here it is with the new tires on, finally.