Motorcycles BS Thread 2.0

After almost a month of waiting, I finally got my Rabaconda Street bike tire changer!



There's definitely a learning curve to it, and I think one of the parts I got was made incorrectly, but overall I'm pretty happy with it (as long as I can get that part exchanged). tomorrow I will try balancing it on the static stand and see how that goes.

 

Static balancing is what I do. I have a Marc Parnes balancer and that thing has bearings that are so smooth I have to shut my garage door when I use it because any little breeze with spin the tire.

How do you like the Rabaconda so far? I seriously considered it when I bought my Nomar.

 

So far it's OK, I really struggled with getting the bead to pop off. Maybe it was the temperature? Most reviews also say that popping the bead is the hardest part. Once I was able to get that off the rest was fairly easy. The changer breaks down and stores into a bag very easily, which was one of the biggest factors for me going with this setup.

I bought the Harbor Freight stand. I figure it should be good enough for my use. With the constant rain I'm not in any rush to get this tire back on the bike, as much as I'd like to ride.

I still haven't even ridden the bike with the windshield extension yet. I've just been sneaking out on the Navi when I can.

 

All the trauma I see is in the field lmao it’s a different environment but the training stays with you in the moment. You ask me anything about trauma and I’m not the most confident in answering, but when it comes time to do work I don’t even think about it. I’m sure @BuzzardsGottaEat can relate to that! Lmao

 

Maybe im cheap, but I use 2 2x4's, a long one as a lever and a shorter one cut at a 45 as my bead breaker under the slider of my truck with the wheel on the ground (placed on a piece of wood with wood blocks as spacers on the rim) works great. Then just some spoons to get tires on and off, dirtbike street etc dont matter.

THE ONLY TIRE I ever struggle with is the mufu#$%#$%#$()%# grom tires.... the lil 12in rim and a bead size the same as full size tires make the % of stretch needed insane

Also get a jug of this for a lifetime of personal tire changes, put it in a squirt bottle
https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/BK_7651338

I have a static balancer and it does the job no issue, but have recently started using counteract tire balancing beads for the dynamic balancing properties and no guessing.

 

New pair of Michelin PR4 GT tires were waiting for me when I got home from work. Just ordered them Saturday morning from Rocky Mountain ATV. Opened up my email and they had the rebate form ready for me to complete and they submit it on my behalf. Can't get much easier than that! Figure by summer I'll be putting these on. Front tire has a manufacturing date of 3021 and rear tire is 4021. I can live with that.

 

Quadlock handlebar mount came in today. They much such nice stuff.

 

That typo is epic.

 

Winter conspires to delay my trading of the SxS for the motorcycle. Trailer is completely drifted in. About had a heart attack trying to dig it out, and made very little progress. Now it's snowing again and I'm on nights for the next 7 days.

 

Rough day at work so I took the long way home and gave it some sauce a few times aaaaaaaaand my clutch is slipping. I readjusted my rekluse a few weeks ago because it had started slipping then and now it's back. I'll readjust and see, but it looks like I'll be clutch shopping soon, yay. Thinking of ditching the rekluse and going back to a standard clutch. Pretty sure all my tooling around town at low RPM's meant it just wasn't locking up and slipping and causing pre-mature wear. Only have 9,500 miles on it, not exactly a long life for a clutch pack

 

I’m leaving it.

 

But it's an opportunity for more video documentation of the process.

 

I quoted it mostly so it would live forever. It was not a dig at all, and that is saying something because I generally am that guy.

 

Haha you're not wrong. Some of my highest view count videos are how-to's on the F800GS.

I'm also curious if I switch to a more aggressive spring on the rekluse disc if that'd help it lock at lower RPM and reduce the wear and slip. I'll probably open it up this weekend and look.

 

Yeah, I'm no mechanic, so that is all beyond me.

 

The BMW isn't that bad to do a clutch. Tip it on it's side, undo the clutch cable, take out about a dozen hex cap bolts to release the cover, and then six bolts holding the clutch face to the basket, if I'm remembering it right. Maybe remove a lever.. I don't think I even had to take off my crash bars. Last time I did it it was under an hour start to finish and that was in a parking lot at night haha

 

Might I suggest an old phone on the handlebars, fancy new phone safe in your backpack with a hotspot / bluetooth tethering on for the old phone to do its thing for nav.

 

Never ran a recluse, never had to replace a clutch pack. 650-700 hrs of 50/50 track and trail riding on an 04 CRF250X, 30k miles on the 919 canyon blasting, 10k miles on the grom, 175 hrs on the wr450 trail/single track riding.

Recluses have their place and can definitely be tuned, I think you hit the nail on the head with needing it to lockup quicker as well as dont get lazy and downshift (been out riding in the dirt with guys with recluses and they end up overheating cus they cook their clutch in the tight stuff as they just stick it in 2nd or 3rd n turn the throttle)

 

It is an old phone, cost me $100. It’s sole purpose is bike nav

 

Www.bajanopinch.com

Long video, but guess i need that purple adapter for my bike..

https://youtu.be/u5eJn_dgZDE