Nice sunny day & one lesson learned last time is the midday sun is better for warming up both the old and new tires than basement fluorescent lighting after dark. So once the wheel was off, I had it & the new tire out on the bricks of the parking pad to get some sun & pick up some warmth from the stones while I gathered up all the rest of the crap I needed from downstairs to do the job. Note the weeds coming up between the bricks because all I do is work on this bike in my spare time - drives my honey nuts, but she's pretty good about it :-)
Another lesson was give the tire & rim a good thorough wash in warm soapy water before doing anything further - not only did it help warm it up, but I'm much less filthy and grime covered than I was last time.
A minor mishap when a lever sprang at my hand after I inadvertently let go of it with the other hand - may have dented the first metacarpal a bit - getting a golf ball sorta thing there tonight as I type this, but otherwise, after a bit of sweat, I had the old Conti Attack off the rim with no major incidents & not too much cursing - more like in the YouTube movies than my last adventure was. Once again, I used the handy 1940's vintage wooden vice in the basement to break the bead - worked like a charm.
Once you've got the bead broken & you're levering up the old rubber, it's important to be sure that you keep the wall of the tire in the well in the centre of the rim & away from the bead area at the edge; otherwise, you don't have enough tire available to get it over the lip of the rim. I managed this by keeping the tire under pressure of my knees opposite from the side I was working the levers on - it has a tendency to want to go back to the bead & you have to beat that out of it.
I don't know all the physics of how tubeless tires work, but I have to say, they are pretty cool. Like why, when we GRAB A HANDFUL of brakes or crack the throttle, does the tire not just slide around the rim instead of holding as tight as it does? Maybe the weight of the machine creates sufficient friction to prevent any slippage... but doesn't it get hot enough that the rubber might melt so it would slide anyway? Why will a tire skid and screech obscenely on rough pavement before it will slip against slippery aluminum? What keeps the air inside the damned things so well? Are two tiny valve cores all that stand between me & disaster on any given day? How come over 1/4 ton of lateral force in a hard corner won't pull a tire off the bead, but a few pounds with a bead breaker will? Whoa! Anyways, back to work...
Here's a pic after the tire is off.
Note the homemade frame to protect the wheel & brake discs while cleaning, etc. When you take a wheel off the bike for a tire refresh, you need to get the right side of the wheel back on the right side of the bike, the tire pointing the right way (rotation arrows that you can see in some of the later pics have to point the right way), and if you have the brake discs off like I did, you have to get them back on exactly the way they were before, right side on the right side & same fasteners to the same threaded wells. I decided to make it easy on myself by tying a bit of leather lace to one spoke of the wheel and one each to each brake disc where it aligned with that spoke. I tied the knots on the outside of each disk so I'd be sure to get them right, but I also did not disassemble the disc hardware or the ABS rotor. I carefully kept all together so the refitting would merely mean aligning things, carefully bringing them together & tightening the fasteners. Wheel orientation is easy since the cast aluminum wheel has BMW info on the right side only (at least on my bike - YMBD).
That orange mat by the way - some builders/renovators might recognize it as the stuff that goes under a self-levelling indoor concrete floor. It's great because it keeps oil off the drive, but the dimples also mean that if a fastener or something drops down a wheel well, it's likely to be trapped by the mat instead of rolling off under the car or into a bush. And small stuff shows up on it cuz of the bright orange colour.
A valve core remover and a valve core.
Essential to speed up the process of letting the air out (or keeping it in) & also to open the valve stem to put Dyna Beads in to help keep the wheel balanced. I used to wonder what a core looked like before doing the rear tire - I'd never seen one before, so thought some of you might like to see it too.
Just about to seat the beads here.
Before you re-seat the bead is the time to get a dry cloth inside the wheel to mop up any cleaning fluid or lube that's left in there if you plan to use Dyna Beads. You want it dry as possible for those. When the tire is on, but with beads not yet set, you can still get a few fingers into the middle of it to wipe up.
Most folks use a powered compressed air source to get the tire edges over the beads. I'm old-fashioned... I've only got this old red bicycle pump… but you're only supposed to go to 40 psi anyways, so not that big a deal, and the pump has a built-in gauge to make that easy - it's no different than pumping an installed tire up from flat. A few bounces and a bit of Windex on the stubborn parts once we were up to 40 psi & both sides popped into place (more like a "ping" sound) within a second or two of each other. Don't get your finger in there while you do this - that sucker pops on TIGHT.
A wheel is a beautiful thing.
And brake discs have about a 5 micrometre (or some crazy small amount) tolerance to be considered in true. So we sit the wheel on a wooden frame to be sure those discs don't touch a thing as we mate them back up with the wheel, and we assiduously follow BMW's recommended tightening sequence and torque method/values (which are different depending if your R was made before or after Sept 2007 - see the Haynes manual for details). Taking the discs off was definitely a good move - not only were they out of harm's way, but there was more room for working with the tire irons. Unless you have a tire machine for removing/mounting rubber, I'd recommend this approach.
The Marc Parnes balancer in action.
What a fine and well-made tool this is - hats off to Marc! Too bad it's only needed so infrequently. The wood blocks were required because without them, the axle of the balancer was rubbing the edge of the garden chairs. I needed to add 2 grams of lead to settle the wheel - the only thing I forgot this time was to be sure I got the light spot of the tire lined up with the valve stem - and I'm not sure I did that right on the rear either, as there is no obvious mark on the Michelin Pilot Roads, at least not that I'm aware of. Oh, well. Between the rim weights & the dyna beads, should be OK. The rear didn't need any weights.
Done at last, ready for test ride.
Lots of final air pressure checks to be sure she's holding before I climb aboard. Then a stationary brake check, then one at slow speed in the alley. Some gentle riding… Ah, she's like a bed with clean, pressed sheets again, a clean visor, a Saturday morning - no more cliff to fall off when tilting her into the deep of a corner as I roll off the flat spot in the middle of the old tire... and soft - like a ripe avocado again - so much so I at first thought the pressure was going down & stopped to check it once more - nope, all good!! I realize that even with a fair amount of tread left, the old tires were toast from heat cycling having turned the rubber into something between wood & concrete. Also a reminder not to press your bike too hard on old (and especially cold) rubber.
I may or may not ever do tires myself again, but tonight I feel good about having survived the ordeal and having a bike in shape for the road before the weekend is over.
So this year I've replaced both tires, installed the Mudsling and Denali D2 lights, changed the final drive & engine oil twice, changed the transmission oil once, put in the air filter the guys at the factory evidently forgot, and refreshed the brake pads. One last thing before I salt her for winter is to put a second switch in for the Denali's so I can run them on high or low setting. They're on full high now, which at night is too blinding for oncoming traffic.
Special thanks to the folks who offered advice & suggestions in a previous thread - helpful stuff!
Gin & tonic, here I come...
