Rear brake wear.. and a new tire..

[deilenberger]

Started out tonight at a friends shop putting a new Conti Road Attack on the back. After almost 8,000 miles - the old one STILL had 1/8" of tread left, but was rather badly squared off and sort of made the bike flop into corners. Since I'm taking a week to go ride in West Virginia for my birthday (June 22-27th if anyone wants to join us..) I thought a round tire on the back would be a good thing.

Getting the old tire off was no problem. Getting the new one on was a PITA - even with a professional air/electric tire machine. There is almost no "drop" in the center of the rear rim - so it's very hard to get the last bit of the bead stretched over the rim. It basically took brute force - and at that - put a few small scratches in the edge of the rim (touched up already..)

I took a belt-sander with 80 grit paper to the new tire to remove the mold-release compound (with the bike in 1st gear idling on the centerstand) - and the tire felt wonderful. Smooth transitions are a very nice thing. Given how West Virginia doesn't have a straight road in it - I expect to get the corners worn in quite well on it.

Anyway - I had been watching my rear brake pads for a while now. As best I could see they still had some pad left on them - but not much. With the wheel off - it became very obvious, one was less than 1/16" thick - the other about double that. New pads have about 1/4" thick pad material.

Luckily - my friend had some R12 rear pads in stock (ones from Beemerboneyard - made in Italy - sintered) - so it got a set while the wheel was off.. So just a warning - if you're nearing 15,000 miles and are planning on a longer trip - it might be worthwhile checking the thickness of your rear brake pads. My fronts are fine - wear is much less on them than the rear pads.

[deilenberger]

One other note - I had treated this tire with "Ride-On" tire sealant when I had it put on, and was curious to see how the stuff looked when the old tire came off.

I can report - none of the Ride-On was sticking to the rim - and there was no sign of corrosion or any attack on the rim by the RideOn material. ALL the RideOn appeared to be in a ring/band completely around the inside of the tire carcass - a band about 2.5" wide right in the center, opposite the center of the tire tread. It was about 1/8" thick, and when the tire was set upright, despite still being a semi-liquid - it pretty much stayed in place.

It was not an issue on removing the tire - no additional mess, and if I'd felt ambitious, I probably could have spooned it out of the old tire and put it in the new tire. Instead - I'm putting some brand new stuff in the new tire.

What I didn't do - had intended to - was purposely puncture the old tire to see how well and quickly it seals the tire. Have to try to remember that next time. I also should'a taken a picture..

http://www.ride-on.com/

Good stuff I think..

[Lost Rider]

Thanks for sharing the ride on stuff, I'm going to order a couple bottles.
It would have been very useful to have it in my tire on my cross country trip last year when I had a few flats....

[deilenberger]

Joe - I originally got turned on to it with my first Conti rear tire - which had a mystery leak right through solid rubber.. would loose 1-2 PSI a day. A local shop was going to plug it - but he couldn't bring himself to drive a spiked plug through what looked like perfectly good rubber, so he gave me the RideOn to try. It stopped the leak in about 5 minutes, and it never lost air again. It was fine until I got Conti to warranty it (about 2,000 miles later..) The warranty one got the RideOn right after installation, as did my new front tire last month.

Question - you changed your tires yourself IIRC - did you have problems getting the bead on with the rear tire?

[Lost Rider]

The only time I really had any problem with changing it with irons was taking off the z6's on a local members bike. The Scorpion Syncs are silicon based and are MUCH lighter,and way more flexible than any other tire I've worked on - therefore easier to take on and off. Really they are pretty easy to change, adding to my love of the Syncs.
I'm leaving on a long trip West in about a week, and I'm going to try to get the Ride-On installed for the ride, though I won't be doing much if any off road riding due to my fresh injury. I'm also trying to plan a ride to Central America in January, and I will definitely have it for that trip..... just another small piece of insurance.
I've had flats from sharp rocks puncturing the tires off road in Colorado.... I'd rather not be bothered by plugging a tire, and for $30 I'll give it a try.
The thing with Ride On, is that if you're not deliberlately testing it you won't know if it's working unless you see a nail or something sticking in the tire - which I didn't when I've had flats in the past.
I've seen something like this over on ADV, but it wasn't a DIY thing, and was too expensive so this is perfect, thanks again for sharing.

-Joe

[ShinySideUp]

I too changed my rear Conti Road Attack tire myself and swore I'd never do it again. The front was easy, but the rear took everything I had, everything the Harbor Freight rig had, and I still bunged up a rim a bit. So I'm pleased to read of Joe's experience with the Scorpion Syncs. I guess I know what my next tire will be.

I'm looking at getting a SmartTire pressure monitoring system and they specifically warn against using their transmitter in a tire that's been treated with any kind of stop-leak material. But it sounds from your report, Don, that, since all the goo is on the tire, that it wouldn't harm the transmitter strapped into the center of the rim. I'd sure like to have both!

[deilenberger]

I too changed my rear Conti Road Attack tire myself and swore I'd never do it again. The front was easy, but the rear took everything I had, everything the Harbor Freight rig had, and I still bunged up a rim a bit. So I'm pleased to read of Joe's experience with the Scorpion Syncs. I guess I know what my next tire will be.

I'm looking at getting a SmartTire pressure monitoring system and they specifically warn against using their transmitter in a tire that's been treated with any kind of stop-leak material. But it sounds from your report, Don, that, since all the goo is on the tire, that it wouldn't harm the transmitter strapped into the center of the rim. I'd sure like to have both!

I don't think the goo would harm the transmitter - but I wouldn't use one where the transmitter is inside the rim on the back tire since there is no drop in the rim to tuck it into. It would be near impossible to change a tire on the rear with the transmitter in there.

There is another TPM a local club member is trying out - that has the transmitters replacing the valve caps (they lock on with allen screws so no one can unscrew them and so they won't loosen and leak). This one is simplicity to install. Screw on transmitters, connect one wire to 12V power for the display - and it's off and working. Looks very nice actually. Will be considering it since I gave up on the Kisan one after the install problems my friend had (same friend with the new system).

I think I'm heading off to the dealer (only a 140 mile round trip..) to see what they have for fat-heads day..

[Bill Stevenson]

Thanks for this report Don. I wonder why BMW can't figure out how to dial in the integrated rear brake on their motorcycles better than this. My 2002 R1150R did the same thing only the pads needed replacement every 10,000 miles. So your experience does demonstrate improvement. My BMW car wears the front discs and rotors out ahead of the rears, just like you'd expect.

A tire question. Mine came with Bridgestones, which work fine, but they are wearing quite fast. I was thinking of replacing them with Metzlers when the time comes. Should I be considering Continentals instead?

Bill

[deilenberger]

Thanks for this report Don. I wonder why BMW can't figure out how to dial in the integrated rear brake on their motorcycles better than this. My 2002 R1150R did the same thing only the pads needed replacement every 10,000 miles. So your experience does demonstrate improvement. My BMW car wears the front discs and rotors out ahead of the rears, just like you'd expect.

A tire question. Mine came with Bridgestones, which work fine, but they are wearing quite fast. I was thinking of replacing them with Metzlers when the time comes. Should I be considering Continentals instead?

Bill

I think the tiny size of the rear pads has a lot to do with it.. plus it's a sliding caliper design, which seems to wear one side faster than the other. If I could rotate the pads I would - but they're not symetrical..

Dunno on the Conti's - I have no complaints with them aside from the PITA to change the rear one. They seem to be long lasting, and good wet or dry - more traction than I'll ever use. I got 14k from my front, and about 8k from the last rear - which wasn't worn out, but was squared off enough I wanted to change it before I went to West Virginia where I'd be running on the corners. If it wasn't for the WV ride - I'd guess pretty easy to get 10k out of the rear. The ones for BMW's are "special" - they're the "C" variant. I have been told they have one additional belt in them to make them meet the GVW capacity for what BMW claims... dunno for sure since I don't have a non-C to compare to.

[Graf]

There is another TPM a local club member is trying out - that has the transmitters replacing the valve caps (they lock on with allen screws so no one can unscrew them and so they won't loosen and leak). This one is simplicity to install. Screw on transmitters, connect one wire to 12V power for the display - and it's off and working. Looks very nice actually. Will be considering it since I gave up on the Kisan one after the install problems my friend had (same friend with the new system).

I think I'm heading off to the dealer (only a 140 mile round trip..) to see what they have for fat-heads day..

hi Don......can you please provide more info on TPM you are talking about above?.....make, price, link, etc....

Thx,
Alex

[deilenberger]

hi Don......can you please provide more info on TPM you are talking about above?.....make, price, link, etc....

Thx,
Alex

Alex - sure.. as soon as I find the link again..

Found it: http://www.doranmfg.com/motorcycle-tire ... ystems.htm - which is actually a Chinese product I belive (surprise eh?).. the senders simply attach to the valve stems. Dunno how that will work with the side-mount stem on the front wheel.. the senders are a bit large (probably 3/4" x 3/4")

I'll know how it works out soon from the friend who installed it...

[Graf]

thank you Don!.....looking forward to hear more about your friends TPM.....

[celticus]

"I had treated this tire with "Ride-On" tire sealant" I have just ordered some for my new Pirelli Scorpions. They seem to be good tires and I'm glad I took Joe's advice.
Mark