Tire time

"shop-teacher" (shop-teacher) 01/20/2020 at 17:40 • Filed to: two wheels good

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The front tire of the little Kymco I bought this summer for a C-note was original to the scoot. Date code was fr 2005. As you can imagine, it was in rough shape. It’s worse than it looks in the picture. It's  completely dry rotted all around the bead.

Rather than pay a shop $30 to change just this one, I decided to spend $18 on a set of tire spoons, and give it a go myself.

Got it off without too much trouble, and put the new one half on. My fingers were pretty frozen by then, so the rest will have to wait.

It felt good to use a new tool, and learn something new.

MonkeePuzzle > shop-teacher 01/20/2020 at 17:54

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frozen hands may indicate part issue in the struggle, always harder to play with rubber in the cold than when it’s pleasantly warm and marginally more malleable .

benjrblant > shop-teacher 01/20/2020 at 18:06

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Are you going to balance it yourself?

Chariotoflove > benjrblant 01/20/2020 at 18:16

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Balance?  Where’s the fun in that?

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > benjrblant 01/20/2020 at 18:24

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benjrblant > Chariotoflove 01/20/2020 at 18:54

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You’re right. My bad.

shop-teacher > MonkeePuzzle 01/20/2020 at 19:20

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Yeah, I don't know why the hell it didn't occur to me to bring this into the house to warm up. I have a perfectly good basement workbench I could do this on. I'll be sure to do that to finish the job.

bob and john > shop-teacher 01/20/2020 at 19:23

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i LOATHE doing tires without a machine. FUUUCCKKKK that, not worth the headache

shop-teacher > benjrblant 01/20/2020 at 19:31

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I’m aligning the light spot on the tire (marked with a yellow dot), with the valve stem  on the wheel. Theoretically that’s the heaviest part of the wheel. This scooter tops out at 37mph, so I'm thinking that'll be good enough. If not, I'll take it into a shop to get it balanced.

shop-teacher > bob and john 01/20/2020 at 20:00

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Spoken like a man who I'm guessing has access to a machine ;)

RacinBob > shop-teacher 01/20/2020 at 20:07

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Significance of Yellow Spot.... Something I had not known....

shop-teacher > RacinBob 01/20/2020 at 20:08

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You Tube FTW. I just learned it myself.

bob and john > shop-teacher 01/20/2020 at 20:40

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nope.

I end up taking the wheels off, take them to work, get a tech to swap skins, and then balance them myself. 

shop-teacher > bob and john 01/20/2020 at 20:44

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Close enough. I’m guessing you’re not spending $30-50 a pop for a mo unt and balance.

Including the new tire and carb, I only have $150 into this scoot.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > shop-teacher 01/20/2020 at 20:44

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I was thinking this seemed like a house activity.  Maybe not on the dining room table if you're being supervised, but certainly something you could sit on the dog couch and do.

bob and john > shop-teacher 01/20/2020 at 21:14

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I was getting charged $20 to mount/un mount both.

so it was literally not worth my time to fight it myself.

I know HOW to do it. but fuck doing it. 

shop-teacher > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com 01/20/2020 at 21:16

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I definitely want a hard surface to work on, but I'm a friggin idiot for not just bringing it into the basement.

shop-teacher > bob and john 01/20/2020 at 21:20

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Yeah, for that price, I definitely agree it’s not worth the trouble to do it yourself. I don’t have that inside line. Granted, I could by a cheap motorcycle mounting machine from Harbor Freight for like $40, but I won't be doing enough of this to have that big of a piece of equipment taking up space.

bob and john > shop-teacher 01/20/2020 at 21:25

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even the $40 ones are horrid.

though, keep in mind i’m dealing with sport bikes tires in 120/70/17 and 180/55/17. SILLY stiff carcasses and beads. Dam near impossible to do with levers,. 

shop-teacher > bob and john 01/20/2020 at 21:32

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Yeah, I imagine those are much tougher to work with than my little scoo ter tires.