Motorcycles BS Thread 2.0

i will prob buy something like that for dirt tires eventually thou so i can not spend as much but that will be a later thing when i have more then one bike lol

 

Yeah, I'll just buy the stuff and do it myself from here on out.

I don't own anything with street tires.......right now

 

Meant to ask… did you tag a tree at the 53 second mark? I could hear you say something. Haha looks like a good time, too.

 

MV isn't a bad area. I grew up in Conway (7miles south of MV), my parents are out on the west side of MV, and my sister is in Stanhood, I mean Stanwood.

 

That's crazy! I don't like riding on dirt (hot take, I know), but I can definitely respect what that guy has done. I'm a pavement princess only.

I do hope I can rack up the miles on the S10, though! I'm hoping I can do a few Iron Butts with it.

I would call and ask for an OTD price, and let them know to not include any DMV/sales tax fees as you'll be taking it to another state. I've seen some dealerships add on some BS fees though, like a "reconditioning fee" of a couple hundred dollars to check over 1-2 year old bikes, which I thought was BS.

If any of them are local to the Bay Area, let me know and I can check them out in person.

As others have said, get a DIY mounter and static balance it yourself. I paid $700+ for my Rabaconda, but have used it on so many bikes now that it's probably paid for itself. Plus my friends have kicked some money back towards me for helping. I'm planning on making a video with the Rabaconda soon if there's any interest. Not only is it so much cheaper, but it's faster as well, as you don't have to drop off the wheels or the bike and wait around or have to come back for it later.

Around here Cycle Gear will do it for $25/tire if you buy the tire from them and take the wheels off the bike. Another store will do it for free with the wheels off the bike if you buy from them. Wheels on the bike will always cost $100+ per tire here.

 

Gotcha.

 

haha true dirt tires thou i do not want to mess with those forks again! i hated that so damn much!

 

yuuuup

 

Also of note with the rabaconda (at least the street version) and fancier versions of the no-mar is that they actually help you mount the tire, not just break the bead. The cheap HF tire changing stands are really just bead breakers and stands and you're still spooning tires on by hand. Someday I'll buy one. I keep telling myself that changing tires on my hands and knees on the ground is good practice for if I ever pop a tire on the road damn tubes

 

Yep! It's got a duck head like a "real" tire machine.

I changed the tires on my friend's R1250GS and as payment he bought me the BMW specific tools for the single sided swingarm wheel as well.

 

Yeah smacked my shoulder into it haha. It happens at least once or twice every ride at least

 

I just looked up the Rabaconda. It's only 2 tire changes I should be good for a bit, so I can really look into what I want/need and go from there.

 

Thought so. Figured I’d ask.

I had a friend years ago trying to split some small saplings. When going through them, the bars grabbed both trees and he went slowly over the bars. When I say slowly, I’m talking slow motion, slow. It was funny as hell.

 

I helped a FJR forum member install a HeliBar bridge back in January to bring his handlebars up and back and we retorqued his neck bearings while we were at it. he gifted me the Yamaha neck bearing spanner tool for helping him out. Always nice to add tools without losing money....

 

+1 to doing them yourself. 15 years ago my one shop was $30 a tire with the wheels off for street bikes but not sure if the prices have changed since. I'm finally getting faster at slinging the dirt tires with my setup.

Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr
Untitled by Michael Halat, on Flickr

This one took me 40 mins. I'd like to get under 15.

 

We've had this happen going into deep mud we didn't expect was deep. Also equally hilarious.

 

Yeah get OTD price quotes only with no taxes cus you are out of state. That stated, im betting they are trying to get rid of them as people traded em in on new fancy things not many want them cus there isnt love for the super tenere, and they take up tons of room. Post up the links, im curious as to what you are finding, cus I went OUT of CA for mine but that was back over a year ago.

I find street tires (full size 17+in) WAAAY easier than dirt tires. Dirt tires have quite hard sidewalls and skinny rims.

 

thats probably true on that lol the 21" skinny on my klx is just awful to deal with... last time i smashed my fingers up pretty good so i dont wanna do it again lmao

 

I considered the Rabaconda when I bought my Nomar. Main reason the Nomar won out is all my bikes are strictly street bikes and a friend has a Nomar that I'd gotten some experience on already. Nomar put on a pretty big sale around July 4th during Covid in 2020 so that sealed the deal. I figured if I was paying $50 per tire it was only going to take 10 tires and I would be at a break even point. I've done more than that just for myself.
No matter what you buy there is a bit of a learning curve but there are lots of decent YouTube videos and Nomar even puts up their own so learning the proper techniques isn't too awful. You really want to make sure the tires are as warm as possible first so they're more pliable and easy to work with. I've considered buying some tire warmers but I don't mount enough to justify the expense.

 

Sorry, I'm a little confused - what was the issue with the Rabaconda and street bikes? All my bikes are strictly street as well.

Definitely agree with you on the learning curve! I had the Rabaconda videos on repeat the first few times. I've also been putting off mounting the tires because it's so wet outside and I don't want to go for a ride in the rain and then have to work on the bike immediately after.