Never having had even the slightest iota of an issue changing a bicycle tire in my entire life, I naturally believed I could easily graduate up to a motorcycle tire no problem. Oh yeah, I got this. I watched the Youtube video, I got my specialty tools, my new tire... Im going to totally knock this out in under an hour. Maybe even sneak a nap in there somewhere. Never have I been so humbled. If you were ever thinking about mixing things up and leaving your gym or Cross Fit box for a cheaper total body cross-training workout guaranteed to thoroughly break your body and spirit... go manually change a motorcycle tire. If you were thinking it would be kinda cool to change your own motorcycle tire and in the process also save maybe a hundred bucks or so... dont. But if youre stubborn enough to read this warning and do it anyway, make sure you: 1) Get AT LEAST 3 tire irons and 3 rim protectors, despite the fact that many of these kits often coming in sets of 2 (I would seriously advise 4 of each). 2) Check to see if your bike requires a tube even if your tire says tubeless (so you dont NOT get one only to find out you DO need one and have to wait another week for that to arrive). 3) Buy a spare tube (because youre probably going to pinch the first one). 4) Mentally prepare yourself for the inevitable hardware casualty and a trip to a hardware store (in my case, a stripped 1/4-20 set screw-- thankfully I had something similar on hand because Im a massive horder). 5) Ask someone for help to supplement your vastly insufficient number of arms, legs, knees, elbows, chins. 6) Dont bother trying tie-down straps to keep the damn thing from squirming. Trust me, it doesnt help. 7) Buy extra bottles of window cleaner. Start applying sparingly until you realize just how futile that is. Then go nuts with it when you eventually get desperate. 8) Do not kick the bike. It is not the bikes fault that it seems youre trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. 9) Save enough strength to pump and deflate the tire at least 7 times to get the bead to seat properly. 10) Do not attempt steps 4-9 the day before a race because you will in fact feel it. Do not ask me how many total hours of my life I wasted in this endeavor. Lets just say it wasnt an hour as initially quoted and leave it at that.
Posted on: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 06:56:35 +0000
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