| [ Sunday - May 17, 2020 ] Having completed the adventure of replacing the rear brake rotor on the R12GSW, it's time to turn the attention of the F8R (The Scooter). I've been neglecting The Scooter for a while now. The headlight bulb is burned out, the tires needs replacing, and the bike is a total dirty mess. For that fact, I need to wash the GSW also. The last time I attempt to take the rear wheel off the F8R, I couldn't figure out how to get the rear brake caliper so that it would slide back far enough to clear the rear wheel beyond the rear swing arm axle mount. Then I looked at the swing arm and the wheel assembly in the right light. Ho look at that. The rear brake line can't be like that. I need a little slack to allow the rear brake caliper to slide back further. The dealer didn't tell me about that. They just said you have to slide it out and it's tricky. Once I remove the small T25 screw, remove the brake line holder, straighten the brake cable ever so lightly, I was able to slide the caliper back far enough to remove the rear wheel. There you have it. Off the bike and ready to pop the exceedingly worn rear tire off.  The screw to remove the brake line guide is just left of the brake line at the red circle. (man that's one dirty swing arm)  The little brake line holder. Slides in on the top (left) and screws in on the bottom (right). With the read wheel off, it's a matter of doing the dance with the rear tire: remove valve stem, breaking the bead, and popping the rear tire off. Fortunately, it's a warm day. Sun bathing the wheel loosened the rubber. A boat load of WD40 made the tire pop off fairly easily. Yes, I no longer use soapy water because the soapy water is really corrosive. Here, the rim is cleaned while the new Pilot Road 2 is basking in the bright sun getting soft and malleable.  I used the BeadBraker from when I owned the 8GS. The Braker is still tall enough to handle the wider F8R rear wheel.  Cleaned up rear sprocket. In the heat of taking the tire off, I put a couple of scrapes on the rim. I need better tire levers. I learned the WD40 trick from Helge Petersen. It works really well and dries up pretty quickly. There is no residue on the tire once the liquid dries. One side of the rear tire went on without even needing tire levers. Just a push has the one side on the rim. The second side took a bit more effort. Two thirds of the tire slipped on easily. The remaining 1/3 is always a pain and coercion is always needed. 3 levers moving slowly inch by inch until all of a sudden... Whoop, there it goes again! Once I got the tire beyond a certain point, the tire actually slipped on without me doing anything. That was amazing. I never had any tire go onto the rim all by itself before. It's a first for me. The WD40 does wonders. As I go to fill the wheel with air to set the bead, I'm reminded of how much pressure is needed to quickly fill a tubeless tire. I originally had the compressor pressure at maximum 80psi. That might be good enough to inflate a tire, but it wasn't enough to expand and set the bead. I have to crank up the PSI to at least 120 to be able to push enough volume of air in to expand and set the bead. It's been a while since I've done this so I forget. Eventually, the familiar and beautiful bead popping sound happened. Bong! At just 26 PSI the tire is inflated and the bead is set. Next I inflate the tire to 42 PSI, put the valve cap on, and get the wheel ready to be balanced using the Marc Parnes portable balancer. Uh oh... what's this. How come the balancer shaft is too s..h..o..r..t.... OH RATS! This balancer was for the F8GS and the wheel on the 8GS was narrower than the 8R. Drat and double drat. Now I have to either buy a longer balancer shaft or take it to Brown and have them balance the wheel for me. Decision made, I'm getting the Marc Parnes FZB balancer. The shaft is 14" long. The F8R rear wheel with sprocket is 9 1/2" wide. I need to start replacing tires again. Save some money and have it done right. Static balancer is way better than electronic balancer. So I'm done for the day. Replacing the front will happen next weekend. The front wheel is cake that's why I focus on the "harder to work on" rear wheel first. It's bad to work on the rear wheel when you're fatigued.  Current state of the bike. Wheel needs balancing.  The portable JBL speaker to keep tire change to a rhythm. Special water and dirt proof shielding... Ziplock bag. You know, there's something to be said about a sprocket & chained motorcycle. The simplicity and flexibility is kind of nice. While I'm here, I'm also going to swap out the rear 47 teeth sprocket for a 43 teeth sprocket. Give "The Scooter" a little more high end instead of being so torquee (Can't swap out a sprocket on a GSW). The bad about using a 43 teeth sprocket? While on "The Scooter" I can get about 1/4-1/2" at the crotch while standing on two feet with the 47 teeth sprocket. The 43 is going to make "The scooter" ever so slightly shorter. When all is done, it's going to be fun riding this thing again. It's so flickable. Thank god the tires are so sticky otherwise I would low side all of the time. [ Finish - At long last, it's all done! ] |