I'm a shadow guy, and need HELP

So I'm trying to go to the darkside on my 1990 VT1100C Honda Shadow. I've read many forums on this, and want to try it out.

I bought a Kuhmo 165/80/15. I took it to my local shop today to mount it, and he can't mount it. He's put 60 pounds in it and it won't seat. I read another post here where y'all have stated that it takes upwards of 100 pounds to seat the tire. Do any of you know if that is the same for me?

The guy said he refuses to put more then 60 pounds in it for safety, so I'm stuck. I could take the tire as is, and just put the air in it myself, but I'd hate to hurt myself because of ignorance. Or, I can have him put my old tire back on.

Anyone have any advice? I'm anxious to see how my 1100 handles this. I'd hate to admit defeat and fork over $100 for a tire that will only last me 6K miles.

BTW ... Nice forum. I look foreward to chatting with y'all.

Welcome to our 100th member


I assume you have a 15 in wheel and your stock rear tire is the same as the x.
If all the above is true I would take the tire as is and air it up myself. But I tend to be a bit of a rebel. And do what I want when I want the way I want to do it.
If I wanted a car tire mounted no shop jock would stop me. It took about 90 psi to seat mine some have been as high as 110 I have heard of. If the tire does blow a sidewall you did not want that weak junk on your ride anyway. JMHO Make sure the wheel is centered in the tire and well soaped. Air it up and seat it. Again this is just my opinion and the way I would do it. Not saying you should or shouldn't. But I would of had the air in it and been riding. Just saying.

Again welcome to your new funhouse..

Smokey

texastim, (100th member).....Woooooohooooooo! Congrats on finding us.

First you need to wash the rim with a water hose and get ALL the old soap off from previous mounting. The rubber is so soft on the 165 car tire that any drag will grip the bead and not let it seat properly.

Second thing is to.....make sure you put good slathering of soap on rim and tire...(Just can't do the one swipe tire guy soap job). Some guys used a silicone spray (I am sorry, I forgot the brand) to put theirs on.

Thirdly....make sure the tire is centered as close as you can beginning to try to seat the bead.

Fourthly....If you have to do it yourself and a lot of guys on here did. Tie your rim to the table and add air that you can be controlled from a distance...(like the tire guys got, clip on air chuck)

Once, I did all the above items......mine went on at 85 psi which when done correctly most of them go on at that psi....some have went to 100 psi.

Remember, you do this at your own risk. Any thing can happen. So take all the precautions that you can. Make sure you can release the pressure away from the tire if it doesn't bead, so you can try it again. Don't try to release the air at the tire.

ps....one more thing, there should be a dot on the tire for you put pointed at the stem. This will help with balancing. Some times a small yellow dot or circle.

..................bobby

.

Oh, I did forget one thing. When you have it beaded. Let the pressure out to manufactured recommended air pressure. Should be around 40 psi to 45 psi. Any of these numbers should work great.

After that it takes a little longer to get the mold release off....so it might feel a little funny. Some guys reported this, but mine didn't. It was good from the git go. Some of it is a mental thing, so take you time with it till you are comfortable.


Then.............Enjoy the darkside.


.

Thanks guys!!

I think I will just do try to seat it myself. I've never done this, and would hate to blow my face off from ignorance (even though my wife may think that would be an improvement! bwahahaha).

I'll let y'all know how it goes.

How do y'all balance the tire? This Kuhmo has a yellow circle, and a red circle on it. Which one goes with the stem? How are y'all balancing your tires?

I checked the specs on bikebandit.com and the VTX tire is the same size as mine. I hope I have the same results as y'all!

Thanks for the quick responses. What a great site.

When I worked in auto dealership I sometimes had to use bead sealer to stop leaks at a bead. I have found regular grease also works for this purpose, but also works to let the bead seat easier and at lower pressures. I have used grease (wheel bearing grease is my preference ) on many of the tires I have mounted myself. I usually mount my own tires this way, just put a good thin coating on the bead area of the tire and a thin coat on the rim, use a clip on air chuck and watch the tire come up to the rim. This usually seats without the load pop as the bead seats, so watch closely as not to overfill. The tire should slowly slide as the pressure is increased, watch for flying grease if the coating is too thick. I hope this helps, just be cautious till you are comfortable doing these.

texatim,

Smokey used balancing beads. I hope he comes and post the site he got his from.

Mine was so close it didn't take any weights. He put it on the machine when he finished it and Oila! It was perfect.

But, I would take it back to the guy to have him put it on the machine and see how good it is, since you don't have any balancing beads.

Good luck and keep us posted.

...............bobby

.

draino wrote:When I worked in auto dealership I sometimes had to use bead sealer to stop leaks at a bead. I have found regular grease also works for this purpose, but also works to let the bead seat easier and at lower pressures. I have used grease (wheel bearing grease is my preference ) on many of the tires I have mounted myself. I usually mount my own tires this way, just put a good thin coating on the bead area of the tire and a thin coat on the rim, use a clip on air chuck and watch the tire come up to the rim. This usually seats without the load pop as the bead seats, so watch closely as not to overfill. The tire should slowly slide as the pressure is increased, watch for flying grease if the coating is too thick. I hope this helps, just be cautious till you are comfortable doing these.

Thanks draino.

It always good to here a better way of doing it, rather than soap....it is sticky some times when it starts to dry. I might use grease next time i do mine, if this car tire ever wears out.

...............bobby

.

+1 on what Twin and Smokey said. Never heard of the grease idea...but i see it working too.

Mine took right at a 100psi...for safety sake I rolled it outside the shop, with a quick disconnect on the air hose inside with me. Once I heard two pops I yanked the disconnect and quickly lowered the PSI to 44.

Now, the mold releasing agent...want to get rid of that fast?? Do a nice smokey burn out once it's all mounted up.

Oh...balancing...i'd take it back to your shop guy and let him balance it. Mine spun true without any weights at all. I liked that.

Welcome too...100th member in under 14 days. WOOT WOOT!

So what do y'all think of using WD-40 instead of grease or soap. A friend that does all his own tires says that he found that to work great. Do any of you use it?

DO NOT USE grease or wd40 on your tires. to get them to seat. the petrolium in the grease and wd-40 will cause the rubber in the tire to distort. It will lead to premature tire failure. Oil and Rubber do not work well together. That is why Tire shops do not used Grease. they use soap that is not petrolum baised. please heed this warning. I have seen what oil and grease can do to a tire. 22 years in the USAF as a vehicle mechanic. I have seen it all.. Griz

grizak wrote:DO NOT USE grease or wd40 on your tires. to get them to seat. the petrolium in the grease and wd-40 will cause the rubber in the tire to distort. It will lead to premature tire failure. Oil and Rubber do not work well together. That is why Tire shops do not used Grease. they use soap that is not petrolum baised. please heed this warning. I have seen what oil and grease can do to a tire. 22 years in the USAF as a vehicle mechanic. I have seen it all.. Griz

+1 on what "griz" said, WD-40 will soften rubber. We have used it to soften our karting tires to race with if they get too hard. I don't recommend the WD.


....................bobby

.

I agree that grease will soften rubber compounds, I however have always used a thin layer (partially to stop the flying grease problem) with no ill effects. I do not burn tires or run excessive speeds, I do however have a history of high mileage on my bikes. I had 43K on the last darkside tire I took off and around 20k on the front dunlops I have used up. I did not state earlier that I use wheel bearing grease that is the molly stuff. I am by nature fairly caustious and would not want anyone to have a problem with tires, however, I personally have done this trick since 1978.

ttexastim, HOWDY nieghbor

If you don't have the right equipment to mount your tire I did find ONE shop in the DFW area that would do so with little to no trouble. Over off of 121 in Haltom City....Hondatown is the place to get it done. It's better if you just take the tire and wheel down to have them do it then to ride on down there, but you can spend an arm and a leg like I did when I switched over. A new Front tire (since a WW front and Darkside rear didn't look right for me) and the labor of mounting the ct cost me around $308.00 That's why I strongly suggest you just take the tire and the wheel if the front tire's in good shape.

I used dyna beads to balance my tire. You can get them here http://www.innovativebalancing.com/

I found a local shop off their sight to pick some up at.

Myself I would stick with soap not a petroleum product to seat the tire. Not that I have had any trouble with grease on a tire but just that the petro on a tire does soften the rubber which could lead to a problem.

Good luck

Smokey

draino wrote:I agree that grease will soften rubber compounds, I however have always used a thin layer (partially to stop the flying grease problem) with no ill effects. I do not burn tires or run excessive speeds, I do however have a history of high mileage on my bikes. I had 43K on the last darkside tire I took off and around 20k on the front dunlops I have used up. I did not state earlier that I use wheel bearing grease that is the molly stuff. I am by nature fairly caustious and would not want anyone to have a problem with tires, however, I personally have done this trick since 1978.

First let me apoliagize. I did not mean to Dis anyone on this fourm. If you have used a specific grease sucsessfuly to seat your tires with no problems. then by all means continue. After all we are running car tires on our motorcycles. which is not supposed to work either. I have however, seen rubber failure due to grease on the tire. and I just wanted to make everyone aware that there could be a problem using petrolium products to seat the bead. I would not want to be labled as a Nay-sayer or a troll. I have been known to be quite a rebel my self from time to time.

Damn Griz All the negativity, I aint feelin the luv here. Bad mojo all around. Ahhhhhh hell who am I kidding. That's just the way I feel doing another double at work.

Ya'll have a great weekend.

Smokey

So here's what worked for me.

I tried using only soap. I was applying dish soap directly to the rim and tire. I inflated the tire multiple times to 105 (as high as my pancake compressor would take it) and it still had 6 inches or so that would just not seat. So I washed the soap all down, got it nice and wet, and tried again. Still nothing. So I took a paper towel, and dried off the area that would not seat, and applied wheel bearing grease to that section only, on both sides of the tire. Then I started inflating it.

My 2 friends sat behind their truck, while I was crouched down, with my hand a few feet away from the tire inflating it. I was at nearly 100 psi, when the bottom side seated. I jumped backwards like dynamite had just gone off. My friends had also hit the dirt. We sat there laughing, with adrenaline pumping. As we laughed, the top side suddenly popped on it's own, without any more air. So I quickly ran over and released the air.

SUCCESS!!!! I will take the tire to the shop tomorrow and get it balanced. Then I'll be an install away from taking my first ride on the dark side. I'm so stoked!!

I forgot to express my thanks from those of you who helped me get this far. I'll try to repay by chiming in when I have knowledge!! Thanks again!

No, texastim......thank you for the play by play and what you found to work. Can't beat knowledge. You are on your way to the Darkside wisdom by just having the gonads to go to the darkside.

After you have some miles.....let you know what you think.


.................bobby

ps....draino, thanks for your advice.

.

Congrats and welcome to our world. Like the play by play.

Smokey

I have found the tire slides on easier with more of the diameter greased. I usually get a slow progression of the bead seating when the entire diameter is coated, and with much less pressure. I run 205/65/16 and usually seat at 35 to 40 psi. I promise guys, some day I'll learn to use those emoticon thingies so you'll know the intent of a joke or when I am serious It may however take a while to get used to.

draino wrote:I have found the tire slides on easier with more of the diameter greased. I usually get a slow progression of the bead seating when the entire diameter is coated, and with much less pressure. I run 205/65/16 and usually seat at 35 to 40 psi. I promise guys, some day I'll learn to use those emoticon thingies so you'll know the intent of a joke or when I am serious It may however take a while to get used to.

You did good with your advice...... Thanks!

..............bobby

.