Easing over to the DARKSIDE.. 1300R.. Here's my ongoing story.. pics

Ok... so here's my lengthy ongoing story...

I've been reading the forums until I'm sick of scrolling. I decided to pull the trigger and buy the Grabber. While I was at it, I decided to replace my stock front Dunflop as well. The tire has just over 5K on it, but was showing strong signs of left side wear and was 4 years old so I decided it needed to go as well.

I ordered my Grabber 205/70 R15 from the Tire Rack two weeks ago Sunday. $81.93 shipped. Showed up the NEXT day!!! Wow! I also ordered a Metzeler ME880 140/80 front from the Motorcycle Superstore for $132.99 shipped. It showed up on Friday. While I was at it, I also ordered 5oz of Dynabeads from Direct Line parts for $24.50 I think. It took better than a week for those to show up.

In the meantime, I began looking for a way to change my tires. The local tire shop doesn't do motorcycles. What to do?? So I started asking around.. A friend happened to have a motorcycle lift and has changed many 1300 tires before. Bingo!! We have a plan!

I also needed some of the Moly Lube, so we started looking for it locally. No beans there.Ends up, my friend had to special order some of the Loctite 65% moly through a local auto parts store (he wanted some and he figured one tube would be enough for him, me, and anyone else that needed some). It seems to have the same consistency as NeverSieze, and you can paint a house with one can of that!

The moly lube was supposed to show up any day, and we had forecast for rain all week, so we started on changing my tires. I took my bike over to his shop and the process began!! Whooo Hoooo!!

Front tire first... He knew several tricks and tactics that I would have had to learn on my own... the hard way! Front tire off and now we had to break the bead. Several 2x4's, a short strap, some blocks of wood, a rubber mallet, and a lot of sweat and we had one bead broke. Whew. Same process on the second side. We then cleaned the inner area of the rim with some scotchbrite. Now to mount the Metzeler.... Leather pads, soap, several big screwdrivers, elbow grease, and a little concern and we had the new tire on the rim!!! Ok... time to seat the bead... lubed the tire with some soap being careful not to get too much on it.. (didn't want to screw up my beads) and aired that sucker up. One side seated at about 45 lbs and the other wouldn't seat. Whooped on it with a mallet, bounced it all around and ended up leaving it for the night at 75lbs. Next morning.. all is OK!! Tire looks great.

Now for the rear tire. Word of caution.. Taking it off carefully without a lift would seem to be next to impossible. Any how, we got the tire off the bike and using the same process as the front tire.. it came off the rim with greater ease. I'm not saying it was easy, (not by any means.. my knees are still sore from kneeling on the tire and concrete), it was just easier than the front tire. The rubber on the front was not as pliable as the rear.

Here's my before pic of the rear tire on the bike...



Here's a picture of my bike on the lift...



Now on to putting on the grabber. My friend has his doubts... about mounting the ct and about using it. I will be the first in my area on the DARKSIDE I cleaned and polished the inside of the rim very good, removing any residue. I had decided to use cooking oil as my lube for mounting the tire, so I put a light coating of Canola oil (It's all she had) on the rim. I then lightly lubed the tire as well. Now the mounting.... The first side went on fairly easily using our same techniques but the second side was much more difficult. Breaking it over that last little bit seemed impossible. Nevertheless, we got it done!! Only a couple small scratches on the rim from the screwdrivers..
But no harm, I will polish them later.

Here's the comparison between the stock and the grabber..



Ok, now the mounting test!!!! How will it seat????? I made sure I had enough Canola oil on the side walls and we started airing her up. The first side popped on at 50 or so pounds and the second at about 80 lbs!!! Woo Hooo!!!!! Sweet looking I say!!!!

Now, since the Moly Paste isn't supposed to come in till Monday.... I can't mount my rear tire, so I decided to mount neither on the bike, and go clean and polish the rims. I haven't put the beads in yet either. Once I polish the front, we will probably go ahead and put it back on, so all we are waiting on is the Moly Paste.... Monday night hopefully!!!

Here's a picture of both the front and rear before I do my cleanup... I'll do that today or Sunday.



This is as far as I have gotten, and I've learned a lot. I will keep y'all updated as I continue down my path to the DARKSIDE!!!!

Good progress photos. You love it when you get done. I just maidened my 1300S on the Darkside today.

Bill "AKACully"

Garman,

I'm about to order up the Grabber. Did you just take off the rotor and mount the tire...or did you also take off the drive hub as well? Did you mount it yourself or do you have a machine that mounts it up?

My plan was to take off the rotor so the shop I take it to doesn't bend it up. If I can possibly avoid taking it to a shop and doing it myself I'd like to. Plan is also to get some Dynabeads. Thanks for the info!

Awesome write up! Keep it coming!

I went to Wal-Mart and bought one of those Mother's Mini Balls (I think that is what it was called.. I already threw away the package) that you hook to your drill and use for polishing. I also bought the polish, some Soft Scrub and some Scotch Brite pads. I am not the type of person that will spend 8 hours getting that perfect chrome shine... it just isn't that important to me. But I did want to get rid of the oxidation and clean up the rims while I had them off.

I worked harder than I wanted, took about 2 hours. I probably won't be doing anything to the wheels other than washing them for a long while so it it probably OK. Here is the after picture.... not perfect, but good enough for me.



Now I'm going to go put my beads in the front wheel and get it mounted on the bike... either this afternoon or tomorrow. Then I get to work on putting my new rear tire back on the sled!!!

MadTownVTX,

I did not take off the rotor, but I did remove the hub to keep from getting the moly paste all over everything. We mounted the tire ourselves, but it wasn't easy. We used screwdrivers and elbow grease. My buddy had done it several times before so he knew how to do it. But even with that experience, my rim got some small scratches that I had to sand out. I wouldn't recommend it to a first timer... Dang near impossible to do it alone. When I have to do it again, I will probably take the wheels somewhere if I can find a reasonable price.. $20 or $30 each.

If I was taking it somewhere other than a place that does motorcycle tires, I would take the rotor off. A motorcycle shop should be able to handle it with the rotor on.

Getting the rear tire out without using a lift and not damaging the plastic that surrounds the drive train splines would be a feat. We used the jack to lift the bike and let gravity pull the tire out as I maneuvered the wheel to keep it from damaging the plastic lip. I don't know how I could have easily done it otherwise.

Good luck... I'll pass on any info that I learn.

We put the front tire back on the bike Sunday and the rear tire on Monday night. Here's what the hold up had been... finally delivered late Monday evening... Moly Paste!!!



Heres a pic of the splines just as we we trying to mount everything back on the bike. Zero room to play with.




We ended up having to remove the muffler mounting bracket to get the wheel in. Once we removed the bracket, we had a bout a half inch to play with!! Thank goodness for a hydraulic lift!!!

Here's the before and after pics for reference!!!





I have only ridden it about 2 miles (no explosions or anything yet), but I am now officially a MEMBER OF THE DARKSIDE!!!! It rode great! I do notice that I sit just a tad higher, but that's about it. I'm going to take it very easy for about two gas tanks, then I will be a bit more aggressive and see how it does!!!

Oh... let me add this... MANY MANY thanks to my friend 'Phideaux' (over on VTXOA). I couldn't have done this without his knowledge, labor, assistance, lift, and shop. Thanks!!!!! By the way, he's not a member of the Darkside... yet!

What do you think???

I'll be crossing over this Friday. Most likely I will use the General Altimax. Have 2 shops that will do it. The 1 that I've dealt with before for other things suggested the other if I had to be riding on Friday. He has 2 motors that he is rebuilding.

I LOVE THAT GRABBER! Nice looking tread pattern!!!

Great work! You're gonna love it! Now it's your job to burn off that mold-release.

Smart thinking about running a couple of tanks of fuel through it before riding it hard. It might not even take that much. You will be able to tell when the mold release is gone. Dont ask me how but you can tell.

Ride it like you stole it.
Moon

Congrats on your darkside! You are going to love it. Very nice looking bike with the car tire!



...............................twin

.

After about 300 miles, you will love even more, yes, it does get better.

Go ride. Leaving on mine in about ten minutes. Hope to be gone the whole day.

Moon

Finally, I am happy to welcome to the Darkside. Yours was a long process, but you'll be happy with the results.

Bill "AKACully"

GarMan, where in Arkansas are you? If you were close I'd have lent a hand.

Looks good though. Welcome sir.
Now to go find that same jar of moly here in my work place...we've got a couple jars here.

Thanks to everyone!! I am still excited about my new tire!! I have put just over 50 miles on the tire so far and I really like it. One of my buddies drove it and will be going to a CT when he changes his rear tire.

Toasted_311,
I live in L.A. ... (Lower Arkansas) Crossett to be exact...

I also like my new front tire. Before the change, at about 45-50mph, if I let go of the bars I would get the dreaded shimmy. I had plans on installing new steering bearings... but with the new tire... no more shimmy!! I can ride with no hands!!

I really hate to say it, but the wobble will probley come back, alot of guys replace the tires and about 5k later, its back , Sorry.

Yea, I figured so, but I can wait a little while now. I will probably replace the bearings and put progressive springs in at the same time. Still working on getting miles on the tires around town. Hope to put several miles on it this weekend if she is willing to go with me!

Took a picture of my tire today... I thought I would share with everyone. You can see the mold release as it it wearing on the edge. I've been swerving to wear it off the sides ... but not dragging the floorboards yet. Had to fill up today... one tankful down, two to go!!

I put the Grabber on the bike, rolled it 5 ft. from the garage door, smooth floor,did 3 burn outs, done. Well I was still careful but felt alot better about it.

Well... I finally got over 350 miles on the Grabber. I LOVE it!!! I haven't had any issues and have nothing but good things to say about it. I love the way it handles and the way it looks. I haven't been able to take any rides and it is only 3 miles to work, so getting the mileage on it took a while.

Garman, I've been hoping you could take a longer ride and put the tire through its paces. I think you did a great write up, and enjoyed reading your follow ups. Did you get the beads in the rear tire yet? Keep us informed on how is working. Good to have you here.

Jerry

congrats welcome to the darkside. enjoyed the story of your adventure. I am sure you are going to love it. Of course your tire is on now and it should be a long time before you have to change it again. but when you do it would probably be worth a small investment in motorcycle tire spoons. you can find them on e-bay. They dont look like much but they work extremly well. and they will keep you from hurting your rim or your tire. they make tire changing alot easyer. good luck and keep us posted on your darkside adventures. Griz