Prince George Vintage Motorcycle Club
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Shep on September 16, 2011, 05:22:41 PM
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I have a flat tire and I can't seem to find the leak.
I called the Yamaha shop and they claim they don't repair tires except to check them to ensure the bead is properly set in the rim. Otherwise they repair by installing a new tire!!!!!! The tubeless tire has 5000 kilometers on it and is a good tire. Is this normal practice now?
Shep
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Liability has scared most dealers from doing repairs. If you can't find it you probably have a bead leak. Dismount the tire and clean bead surface of tire and rim. mark where the valve stem meets the tire. line your mark up on assembly so ya don't have to re-balance.
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Since were on the subject who would be interested in a tire changing workshop? I know some of the guys in the club do there own but how many? Anyone want to learn how?
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I do my own....Always willing to learn some new tricks or tips though....not my favorite chore admittedly
....I'm in.....if I can make it :D - Tire machine might make it more enjoyable though.....
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I certainly don't mind hosting a Tech Night on tires. I would need to buy the correct tools and I am not sure if I should buy or need over the long term a tire changer (I don't even know the cost).
I need (want) my motorcycle back so I think I will inflate it up to 50 psi to see if that seals the bead?? Maximum tire pressure shows 42 psi.
Monday or Wednesday night is available at my house garage as I don't want to interfere with one of the last few rides on Tuesday night.
Shep
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A tech nite on tire changing would be great. I use to do my own tires decades ago but not I guess I got lazy and have the shop do it. I guess the one problem with changing your own tire would be the balancing of it. Can we do that ourselves also?
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The balancing part is no easier or harder than it has ever been; a dynamic spin-balancer is great - except when it's not. I had a BMW wheel come to my place that had been MIS-balanced by about 5 oz (20 standard sticky weights). They didn't get the wheel (an open center single-sided swingarm type) to center-up on the spin-balancer. For most uses, having your wheel suspended by it's original axle between two chairs (or whatever) combined with some patience will result in a quite adequately balanced wheel. No specialized equipment is required to get most assemblies to about 1/4 oz imbalance, and that is close enough for most purposes, excluding Turbo-Hayabusa's running on salt lakes...
Like everything - the more time you are willing to invest in a project, the closer you will get to ideal results. This is where you have the advantage over the guys at the motorcycle shop, yes, they have the equipment to do it quickly, but they HAVE to do it quickly; you have all the time you are willing to spend to achieve the same result.
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I'm up for a tire changing tech night. After my last fiasco with changing tires, I purchased a set of tire irons and watched a dozen YouTube videos. We should drag Wayne (Fast One) out for this because rumour has it that when he was a professional, he found it easiest to change tires by hand.
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I thought we could maybe use Russ' shop on a Tues. after ride nites are done. do one on the machine and a couple by hand. Good time to get your tires swapped free.
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Sure.
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Sounds good to have the tech nite at Rusty's if he is willing to do it. I remember doing tires by hand in the not so recent days. It was not too bad but a little tough on the hands but at least there was no pinching of the tires. Although maybe I my hands were stronger then.
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Thanks for being volunteered Russ!!!
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Russ's "Sure" sound really enthusiastic. A man of many words is suddenly reduced to mono-syllables. What say you Russ?
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Si. ;D
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Why not make it even more interesting, do a tire with rim locks.
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I used to work in a tire shop and have changed every style tire you can imagine- including one from a jet plane. By far the hardest one was a terra flex ( HUGE misnomer) dirt bike rear with 2 rim locks and a tube, 2 of which I pinched. Left about half the skin off my fingers behind for lube. Maybe Stuntman Fubar could bring one?
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That was part of my tire changing disaster. The fellow with the machine who was helping me had never dealt with rim locks before. We simply mounted the tires without them.
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Don't want to sound to ignorant but what are wheel locks. The only ones I have come across have been on cars.
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Tires which are thought to be at-risk of spinning on the rim - usually dirtbike tires run at low pressure, though some '70's streetbikes were fitted with them as well - are fitted with clamps that are tightened with bolts extending through the center of the rim, looking somewhat like multiple valve stems. They mechanically clamp the tire beads to the rim, preventing the rim from turning independantly. These complicate matters for changing (and balancing if there is only one) tires and tubes...
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I read an article about the Suzuki 1000 Superbikes at the Daytona 200 a few years back spinning the rear tire 270? on the rim over the course of a stint and they still held full pressure. The bikes have to come in for gas at half distance and usually get a new set of tires.
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Tubeless tires creep routinely and without incident, especially when they are subject to low pressure and high power (read: at the drags) but the stems on tubes would be less forgiving...which is why tube-type tires at the digs get screwed to the rims with sheet-metal screws, or on big pro-power cars, end up riding on the same sort of bead locks that 4x4 guys and monster trucks use.
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I too have a Sloww leak on the 1200 Kaw.. I noticed it after a high speed run back from Barkerville. The following day it was flat >:(. So I did the soap thing and didn't find any leaks. It might be a bead leak. If i re-fill the tire to spec ( 38 psi) it slowly go's flat in about 2 days :'( . Wouldn't mind checking the beads.
MAC ;D
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I just put a plug in a tire today, but it was my Ford. My summer tires are near done but I picked up a nail. The tire shop said they wouldn't fix the tire because the wear bars are showing, they would however sell me a brand new set....... Winters go on ina few weeks, so doing it DIY was the order of the day. I'll see if there is air in the tire tomorrow morning.
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I've had occasion to put plugs in truck,car and bobcat tires and they work just fine----most of the time. My preferred way is a patch on the inside, but you do what you have to do. There was a time b-4 the CYA at all costs (usually yours) mentality, that service stations--remember them---used to do that as well.
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Ahh.. the good old days of Bud's Texaco! one side was store, the other service station. Now all ya get is gas and slurpees! The Husky on tenth and central was the last to go. Up until a couple years ago they were still an old fashioned station. Now it's nuthin' but rubble. Have you all noticed most gas stations charge for air from there crappy little pumps? Mohawks still don't.
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Service station has taken on a new meaning.......