During my lunch yesterday, before I even got off the motorcycle, I was told by the local inspection station that I needed new tires, a license plate light, and a more visible location for my license plate. Apparently I have been riding dirty for a while now. “Oopsy! You caught me!” I won’t lie though, I was aware of all of this, and figured somebody would call me out on it eventually. As it turns out, that time was yesterday. Ah well, at least once I fix it all I won’t have to cross my fingers, toes, and bring a lucky rabbit’s foot to the inspection station each year. What a relief.
Since I was replacing my tires this year whether I had an inspection sticker or not, I ordered them about a week ago. Now, I have never had new tires on my bike, so I had no idea that shops charge anywhere from $25 – 50 per tire for mounting and balancing. Surprise! Yea, no. I am way too cheap, and I tend to stress out when people touch my vehicles. I have trust issues I suppose. Anyway, when I got home yesterday, my fresh new tires were waiting for me, and “operation tire swap” was about to commence. I had swapped car tires without machines before, but never motorcycle tires, but how different could it be?
I began by hanging my bike from my garage rafters and popping the rear wheel off. I laid it on a piece of cardboard, and pulled the schrader valve out of the valve stem to let all of the pressure out.
With my fingers crossed and happy thoughts in my head, I broke the bead loose on the old tire with a shovel. Read More