Old Dogs and New Tricks

[stevecrout]

Who says you can't teach me anything new??

I bought new skins for my K bike last year but never got around to putting them on. Now I have some extra time so I started in on Monday about 10:00 am.

After spending about 30 minutes breaking the bead on one side on the rear I started to wonder if there wasn't a better way. 

I tossed the wheel on the bench and did a quick "Hail Mary"  then brought out my jigsaw.  (Who says the old tires need to be treated nice???)


then I cut an 8" chunk out of the tire, leaving just the beads.


Then I brought out my trusty angle grinder and put on the cutting blade



then I carefully (and I mean really carefully, cut the wires inside the beads. There was a little more smoke than I anticipated but it all dissipated over the next day or so.

and next thing you know - they just fell off the rims!

Another 15 minutes each to get the new guys on, using lots of soapy water around the outside bits and about 65 lbs of air pressure - pop! They're on!

Check for leaks - nope! Back to proper air pressure.

Lube the splines

11:30 - Out the door for a ride!

[Dennis]

Last summer I replaced all four tires on my wife's quad.  I tried all of the tricks for breaking the bead from the rim and it just wasn't happening.  I ended up doing the same thing; cutting an opening in the sidewall to gain access to the wires in the bead, and cut them with a high speed rotary tool and carbide bit.  The smoke was awful.

Peace & Grease, Dennis

[stevecrout]

It took over 4 hours for the smoke to dissipate in my poor little workshop.  There was no breeze that day so it just hung around like the cigaret smoke in a Montreal bar.