My front tire is shot with over 30,000 miles on it. This is the second one I've put on. My first was changed at about the 22,000 mile mark. I ordered the tire from American Motorcycle Warehouse last week for about $86 plus shipping.
Figured I would do a how-to for those of you that might want to do it yourself. It's not a difficult operation. You need some tire changing tools and that's about it.
First thing I did was had the local shop order me some wheel bearings. Got tired of waiting on them (12 days so far) so yesterday went down to my local NAPA. Thought by chance they might have a bearing that would work and they did. I took with me the old bearings for the last change. Exact match!! :2thumbs:
Note: These bearings did not fit so don't get them. Just order from your dealer.
I also ordered and recieved very quickly some Dyno beads from Jake!
This was my second order since the tire was so badly worn that it vibrated the front end very badly. So, for my Redwood trip I ordered the Dyno beads and it smoothed out my front end way more than I thought possible. So, I'm a firm believer now!! 
First thing I did was remove the pinch bolts and axle bolt. Then gently tapped out the axle. It was in great shape with no rust considering I've done a lot of riding in the rain. Those outer seals work pretty good.
Then gently slide the wheel out and remove the spacers and place them back on the axle or in the proper place so that you know which side they go back on as they are different sizes.
Now remove the rotor/disc. This allows access to the 5 hub bolts that need to be removed to change out your bearings.
To remove the hubs you will need a long hex socket. My Snapon wasn't long enough but my MAC socket was.
When you open it up you will see the bearing/axle spacer and the two hubs come apart.
Next I popped out the outer seal from each hub with my tire iron.
Here is the bike with the front wheel parts all a part.
Moving on to the wheel and tire. I first removed the cap and valve core.
Then using a small vise I broke the bead of the tire. I was able to step on the tire with my feet on the last tire I did but this one was stuck so had to use the vise.
Then using the tire irons and rim protectors I popped off one side of the tire. You can spray the tire beads with WD-40 and it will help. Notice the Dyna Beads all over. Also some of them turn black.
Then you can pull the rest of the tire off the wheel.
New and old!!!
Here is the rim stamp. My wheel was produced in September of 04 and I bought my bike in October of 04. I have the 29th Chopper produced.
Here is the bar coded work order label inside the rim.
Starting to polish things up. This is a good time to get them real shiny. Especially for me since (sense for GM) I don't get to much polishing time in between tire changes!
Here is a pic of the brake. I put the Z-Pads in a few years ago and they are wearing great. The are also a lot quieter than the stock pads.
Now I need to go get the bearings pressed out and the new ones pressed in so will finish this up tomorrow.
Well I learned a valuable lesson today. I got my hubs back from the local shop that popped out the old bearings and put in the new ones for a 12 pack.
Got home and started to put everything together and though to my self. "You know I should check those bearings" so I grabbed my axle and stuck it in the bearings and it was sloppy loose!!!
Turns out the NAPA bearings are 40 thousants off. So called my dealer and they have them in stock and sending them to me. We only have one dealer in Washington and it's a 6 hr trip for me. My local shop still hasn't get them in so the hell with them.
Anyway, I got to polishing and got the tire installed. :2thumbs:
Have a very shiny wheel now with some polishing tools and a little elbow grease. Wheel and hubs are worn bad from gravel, sand, bugs and whatever else I've ran through over the past 4 years.
Next I took some wheel cleaner and a scotch pad and gave the inside of the wheel a good scrubbing. Since I didn't use tire soap last time is was pretty easy but if yours was installed with tire soap then it will be a pain to remove. You need a good clean surface for a tight seal. Here they are all cleaned up.
No that you have them all cleaned up it time to put the tire on. First thing I did was remove the shipping label and then took it outside and sprayed the bead/rim of the tire with WD-40. I learned this watching Russell from his Exile Cycles show he had.
Ensure you have the wheel and tire lined up so they move in the right direction. I placed the tire over the wheel then put the bottom bead of the tire deep in the wheel and pushed the tire right on with just my hands.
For the top bead I sprayed the top of the wheel rim with WD-40. Then pushed the top tire bead into the wheel and worked my way around. When you get half way go back to the beginning and squeeze both beads of the tire and push then into the deep middle part of the wheel. Now continue working the tire around the wheel and with your knee push the final bead on with a little pressure. No tools just some WD-40 and your hands!
And here it is all done. Just wipe up all the WD-40 and your ready to blow it up!!!
Now we just blow it up till we hear two pops as the beads seat on the shoulder of the rim. I took it up to about 70 lbs.
And here it all is all pretty and complete. I let the air out then pumped it back up to 42 lbs. Give it a good clean up then its ready to install the hubs and rotor.
Looks like we will have a pt 3 now that I have to wait for more bearings.
Should be all done in a couple days now.
:2thumbs:
Well after my week long attempts at getting bearings I finally just called my dealer who is 6 hrs away and had them ship me stock BDM bearings. Believe it or not they were on my front porch the next day. Great customer service!
Finishing up now with the bearings:
Here are the old ones. I guess this is why they require we replace them every 10,000 or at least thats what the 05 manual states. The one on the right is the brake side:
After getting the stock bearings from my dealer I had NAPA Auto press them in. They also refunded me on the wrong bearings they gave me last week. Just for the hell of it I decided to pull the seals on the new bearings and this is what I got!!! Not much grease in them:
So I pulled out my tube of good quality grease and re-packed them:
Here I am chasing all the threads. I pulled out my tap and die set and cleaned all the threads using a little cutting oil. This is something you need to be carefull with cause if you cross thread you can ruin your hub. I also did the bolts. Then after cleaning them up with brake cleaner I blew them dry with compressed air. Here they are all clean and ready for re-assembly:
Next is lining up the hubs to the wheel by determining which side is the brake side.
Now with the wheel on your work bench and the hubs lines up with the center spacer/axle sleeve between them I slipped the axle in to align the sleeve before you bolt down the hubs. The bearings bear down on this so if it's not lined up it will be hard to move later. You can see it in the next pick not lined up. So before torquing down the hubs I just slip the axle in till you get the bolts hand tight. Then you can remove it to make room for your torque wrench.
I add loctite to all the bolts here. The manual states to use red but for the large bolts I used 242 and used 271 red on the rotor chrome bolts:
You may remember in a previous thead we talked about "Torque" values on these bolts. I posted where my manual states 50 ft lbs! Well I about ruined the chrome rotor bolts cause you can't get 50 lbs on those hex head cap bolts with out stipping the hex head. Now I will have to order another set of chrome bolts. Dogvet posted in the same thread that they were something like 25 lbs so that is what I used along with the stronger red loctite.
Our own Dogvet recommend this trick I did here. I filled the seals up with grease as an added measure of ensuring water don't get inside the bearings:
I then pulled the valve core again and added a couple oz's of Dyna Beads I had got from Jake then pumped it back up to 42 lbs. I put the gauge on it before I pulled the core and it was still 42 lbs from last week so she's holding air!
The rest was a reversal of the dis-assembly. I lined the wheel up to the forks after I used my tire iron to press the brake pads out a little. Then inserted the spacers and slide the wheel in place. Then I carefully lower the bike till the fork lined up with the hubs so I could slide the axle in. I greased down the axle for good measure then put the axle bolt in and torqued it to 45 lbs then 12 lbs for the two pinch bolts. Then I jacked it up again and spun the wheel and listened for anything that may not sound right. Everything seems fine so I dropped it off the lift and took her for a ride.
Night and day difference. :2thumbs: :2thumbs: :2thumbs:
Figured I would do a how-to for those of you that might want to do it yourself. It's not a difficult operation. You need some tire changing tools and that's about it.
First thing I did was had the local shop order me some wheel bearings. Got tired of waiting on them (12 days so far) so yesterday went down to my local NAPA. Thought by chance they might have a bearing that would work and they did. I took with me the old bearings for the last change. Exact match!! :2thumbs:
Note: These bearings did not fit so don't get them. Just order from your dealer.
I also ordered and recieved very quickly some Dyno beads from Jake!
This was my second order since the tire was so badly worn that it vibrated the front end very badly. So, for my Redwood trip I ordered the Dyno beads and it smoothed out my front end way more than I thought possible. So, I'm a firm believer now!! First thing I did was remove the pinch bolts and axle bolt. Then gently tapped out the axle. It was in great shape with no rust considering I've done a lot of riding in the rain. Those outer seals work pretty good.
Then gently slide the wheel out and remove the spacers and place them back on the axle or in the proper place so that you know which side they go back on as they are different sizes.
Now remove the rotor/disc. This allows access to the 5 hub bolts that need to be removed to change out your bearings.
To remove the hubs you will need a long hex socket. My Snapon wasn't long enough but my MAC socket was.
When you open it up you will see the bearing/axle spacer and the two hubs come apart.
Next I popped out the outer seal from each hub with my tire iron.
Here is the bike with the front wheel parts all a part.
Moving on to the wheel and tire. I first removed the cap and valve core.
Then using a small vise I broke the bead of the tire. I was able to step on the tire with my feet on the last tire I did but this one was stuck so had to use the vise.
Then using the tire irons and rim protectors I popped off one side of the tire. You can spray the tire beads with WD-40 and it will help. Notice the Dyna Beads all over. Also some of them turn black.
Then you can pull the rest of the tire off the wheel.
New and old!!!
Here is the rim stamp. My wheel was produced in September of 04 and I bought my bike in October of 04. I have the 29th Chopper produced.
Here is the bar coded work order label inside the rim.
Starting to polish things up. This is a good time to get them real shiny. Especially for me since (sense for GM) I don't get to much polishing time in between tire changes!
Here is a pic of the brake. I put the Z-Pads in a few years ago and they are wearing great. The are also a lot quieter than the stock pads.
Now I need to go get the bearings pressed out and the new ones pressed in so will finish this up tomorrow.
Well I learned a valuable lesson today. I got my hubs back from the local shop that popped out the old bearings and put in the new ones for a 12 pack.
Got home and started to put everything together and though to my self. "You know I should check those bearings" so I grabbed my axle and stuck it in the bearings and it was sloppy loose!!!
Turns out the NAPA bearings are 40 thousants off. So called my dealer and they have them in stock and sending them to me. We only have one dealer in Washington and it's a 6 hr trip for me. My local shop still hasn't get them in so the hell with them.
Anyway, I got to polishing and got the tire installed. :2thumbs:
Have a very shiny wheel now with some polishing tools and a little elbow grease. Wheel and hubs are worn bad from gravel, sand, bugs and whatever else I've ran through over the past 4 years.
Next I took some wheel cleaner and a scotch pad and gave the inside of the wheel a good scrubbing. Since I didn't use tire soap last time is was pretty easy but if yours was installed with tire soap then it will be a pain to remove. You need a good clean surface for a tight seal. Here they are all cleaned up.
No that you have them all cleaned up it time to put the tire on. First thing I did was remove the shipping label and then took it outside and sprayed the bead/rim of the tire with WD-40. I learned this watching Russell from his Exile Cycles show he had.
Ensure you have the wheel and tire lined up so they move in the right direction. I placed the tire over the wheel then put the bottom bead of the tire deep in the wheel and pushed the tire right on with just my hands.
For the top bead I sprayed the top of the wheel rim with WD-40. Then pushed the top tire bead into the wheel and worked my way around. When you get half way go back to the beginning and squeeze both beads of the tire and push then into the deep middle part of the wheel. Now continue working the tire around the wheel and with your knee push the final bead on with a little pressure. No tools just some WD-40 and your hands!
And here it is all done. Just wipe up all the WD-40 and your ready to blow it up!!!
Now we just blow it up till we hear two pops as the beads seat on the shoulder of the rim. I took it up to about 70 lbs.
And here it all is all pretty and complete. I let the air out then pumped it back up to 42 lbs. Give it a good clean up then its ready to install the hubs and rotor.
Looks like we will have a pt 3 now that I have to wait for more bearings.
Should be all done in a couple days now.
:2thumbs:
Well after my week long attempts at getting bearings I finally just called my dealer who is 6 hrs away and had them ship me stock BDM bearings. Believe it or not they were on my front porch the next day. Great customer service!
Finishing up now with the bearings:
Here are the old ones. I guess this is why they require we replace them every 10,000 or at least thats what the 05 manual states. The one on the right is the brake side:
After getting the stock bearings from my dealer I had NAPA Auto press them in. They also refunded me on the wrong bearings they gave me last week. Just for the hell of it I decided to pull the seals on the new bearings and this is what I got!!!
Not much grease in them:
So I pulled out my tube of good quality grease and re-packed them:
Here I am chasing all the threads. I pulled out my tap and die set and cleaned all the threads using a little cutting oil. This is something you need to be carefull with cause if you cross thread you can ruin your hub. I also did the bolts. Then after cleaning them up with brake cleaner I blew them dry with compressed air. Here they are all clean and ready for re-assembly:
Next is lining up the hubs to the wheel by determining which side is the brake side.
Now with the wheel on your work bench and the hubs lines up with the center spacer/axle sleeve between them I slipped the axle in to align the sleeve before you bolt down the hubs. The bearings bear down on this so if it's not lined up it will be hard to move later. You can see it in the next pick not lined up. So before torquing down the hubs I just slip the axle in till you get the bolts hand tight. Then you can remove it to make room for your torque wrench.
I add loctite to all the bolts here. The manual states to use red but for the large bolts I used 242 and used 271 red on the rotor chrome bolts:
You may remember in a previous thead we talked about "Torque" values on these bolts. I posted where my manual states 50 ft lbs! Well I about ruined the chrome rotor bolts cause you can't get 50 lbs on those hex head cap bolts with out stipping the hex head. Now I will have to order another set of chrome bolts. Dogvet posted in the same thread that they were something like 25 lbs so that is what I used along with the stronger red loctite.
Our own Dogvet recommend this trick I did here. I filled the seals up with grease as an added measure of ensuring water don't get inside the bearings:
I then pulled the valve core again and added a couple oz's of Dyna Beads I had got from Jake then pumped it back up to 42 lbs. I put the gauge on it before I pulled the core and it was still 42 lbs from last week so she's holding air!
The rest was a reversal of the dis-assembly. I lined the wheel up to the forks after I used my tire iron to press the brake pads out a little. Then inserted the spacers and slide the wheel in place. Then I carefully lower the bike till the fork lined up with the hubs so I could slide the axle in. I greased down the axle for good measure then put the axle bolt in and torqued it to 45 lbs then 12 lbs for the two pinch bolts. Then I jacked it up again and spun the wheel and listened for anything that may not sound right. Everything seems fine so I dropped it off the lift and took her for a ride.
Night and day difference. :2thumbs: :2thumbs: :2thumbs:
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