Where is the basic "How to" of installing CTs?

I did a quick view of this site. Just wanted a quick HOW TO of installing a CT on my 2004 spirit.

What tires will work, what is involved, things to look out for, etc.

Thanks for your help.

Steve-O,

Well things are busy right now at work, so this will be brief. Look up on the 1300 tech section of this forum and you will see what I did to mount the 205 on my 1300. The same thing will apply to your Shadow. Except right now the guys have only mounted a 165/80/15 VW tires to their Shadows. It's a mod and if you choose to do this, their are risk if you use a tire that someone has NOT tried yet, that it will not work. It does takes some determination any way for the ones that do work...hehehehe

I hope others will come on here and give you more advice. I gotta go, but will be back later to see what every one else had written.

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

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Steve-O,

I replied on some of your other posts regarding the sizes etc.... I'd be happy to pass on any help I can to you. I need to pass on what TtexasTim did for me. Plus, I have the equipment to change the tire, etc... so if you need help there we can probably get it done for you.

I have a lift, tire removal equipments, etc..... The lift is the best thing I ever bought so far !! for working on the bike. $60 at HF.


Welcome to the site... Hope to see you on the Darkside soon and then you could be #3 on our list here of Shadow Spirits gone to the Darkside...


by the way, this is David or Eagle-Eye for the "Other Honda" board

Steve-O,

If you search the other Hondashadow site, search for topics started by me. You should see a few that I titled on seating the tire, and other stuff. The topics will be clearly marked car tire.

What the hell, I just searched and found it for you.

Here is me being curious:
http://www.hondashadow.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=53499&highlight=

Here is me seating the tire myself (I gave Eagle_Eye/Darkside Shadow/David a better write up of this)
http://www.hondashadow.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=55158&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

Here are my first thoughts after riding:
http://www.hondashadow.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=55335&highlight=

Wow. That's my whole darkside life story so far. Pretty sweet!

Thanks guys! My back tire was installed at 9.5k. It's 14.2 now, so any day. I"m considering going to the dark side..... I just like seeing a "recipe" if yoiu will. Seems like there was a gentlemand in Ennis or somewhere fairly close that had done it on a 1100 spirit. I was going to ride down to see what he had done.

I'll be putting some miles on this bike and don't really want to spend $2-400 a year on tires if I don't need to.

Wondering what happens if I take the bike into the shop with the car tire on???? And if they will remove a CT to put a MCT back on.

Plenty of time to gather information and figure out what to do.

Just to add a suggestion, it seems like there ought to be a FAQ on installing a CT that is a sticky - something that covers picking a tire to installing, balancing, and replacing it. I'll check some of Tim's links and see what I can put together.

Thanks again ya'll!

Tim: I'm not that far from Greenville. I may pop by sometime to check out what you did. IN fact, I was in Greenville two weeks ago on my way to Little Rock. froze my butt off on the way up!

David: thanks for the replies on the other site. I may take you up on the tire change offer. Ennis is not that far away and would be a good excuse for a road trip.

If you have a dealer that sells a tire my size and a place to balance them, I'd be willing to ride down and "document" the whole procedure with you. take pictures and write it up. I'd pay for everything of course. let me know if you are willing.

Thanks again.

I am willing!

I might do the change over to a wider CT just for the heck of it! considering a 195 and a 205 Douglas from Walmart.

Steve-O,

Read the post on the 1300 wideside mod under the 1300 tech thread. The most thing you need to know is the cooking oil trick and do not stand or lean over the beading of the tire when seating the bead. It usually take a lot higher pressure to seat the bead. We have seen one blow up because of operator error. (He was NOT from this board or the other one we belong to, I only seen the thread and them PM'ed the guys and got the scoop) The tire shop mechanic never lined the tire up on the rim before he tried to seat the bead and caused it to roll over and ripped it because of the twist in the tire.

I hope this helps.......................bobby


.

Let me know when this party goes down and I'll come over as well!! Always looking for a reason for a road trip and Ennis sounds like a good destination.

DarkSide-Shadow wrote:I am willing!
I might do the change over to a wider CT just for the heck of it! considering a 195 and a 205 Douglas from Walmart.

I'm going to keep my tire till it's worn out, but should not be too much longer. I see the tire you got at Discount tire for $65. I was planning a trip to Itasca to see an old friend in late Feb or early Mar. Might be able to combine the two trips. We can swap your tire out at the same time if you like. I could bring my tire with me or buy it there. If you shop for a 205, see if they have that 165 kumho in stock. We can firm a date later so Tim can join us.

there is not a 205 that will fit our Shadow's or at least one that I'm finding or willing to try. All of the ones I found or looked at have rim width requirements greater than 5.5 or more.....

So, it will have to be a 195 or a 185 for my stock rim.... don't have the $$ to change to a different rim at this time, and besides I am so happy with the 165 Kumho right now I might not change at all unless when I goto Walmart or my local "other" tire shop and find one that I'm comfortable mounting on our rims.


I've found some really cool 195 and 185 tires but I'm still concerned about rim width requirements. The 165 Kumho just works so good!! And, in my opinion we're doing this mod for feasibility and longevity, not for looks. However, I really really like what our VTX brothers are being able to do with the 205's. really sweet stuff.

So, what is the Stock rim width on a VTX 1300 and 1800?? They must be more than 4.5".

Thanks!

DarkSide-Shadow wrote:there is not a 205 that will fit our Shadow's or at least one that I'm finding or willing to try. All of the ones I found or looked at have rim width requirements greater than 5.5 or more.....

So, it will have to be a 195 or a 185 for my stock rim.... don't have the $$ to change to a different rim at this time, and besides I am so happy with the 165 Kumho right now I might not change at all unless when I goto Walmart or my local "other" tire shop and find one that I'm comfortable mounting on our rims.


I've found some really cool 195 and 185 tires but I'm still concerned about rim width requirements. The 165 Kumho just works so good!! And, in my opinion we're doing this mod for feasibility and longevity, not for looks. However, I really really like what our VTX brothers are being able to do with the 205's. really sweet stuff.

So, what is the Stock rim width on a VTX 1300 and 1800?? They must be more than 4.5".

Thanks!

Our stock 1300's are 4" rim width's..........Now what you do have to take into account is the side wall heights of the 185's and 195's....if they are /65/ side walls they will be shorter by a good bit than the 165/80....just so you know. That's why I went with a 205/65, because the 195/65 was going to be shorter than my 165/80. I hope this is news you can use!

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

For instances...your 165/80/15 is 165mm's wide, and the 80 is 80% of the width. So, that's ( 165 X .80 = 132mm's ) in sidewall height and then times 2 because of two sidewalls= ( 264mm's ).

A 185/65/15 is ( 185 X .65 = 120.25 X 2 = 240.5mm's ), so it is shorter than the 165 tire by 23.5mm's.

My 205 is ( 205 X .65 = 133.25 X 2 = 266.5mm's ), so my 205 is 2.5mm's taller than the 165.


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

.

Our stock 1300's are 4" rim width's..........Now what you do have to take into account is the side wall heights of the 185's and 195's....if they are /65/ side walls they will be shorter by a good bit than the 165/80....just so you know. That's why I went with a 205/65, because the 195/65 was going to be shorter than my 165/80. I hope this is news you can use!

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

For instances...your 165/80/15 is 165mm's wide, and the 80 is 80% of the width. So, the( 165 X .80 = 132mm's ) in sidewall height and then times 2 because of two sidewalls= ( 264mm's ).

A 185/65/15 is ( 185 X .65 = 120.25 X 2 = 240.5mm's ), so it is shorter than the 165 tire by 23.5mm's.

My 205 is ( 205 X .65 = 133.25 X 2 = 266.5mm's ), so my 205 is 2.5mm's taller than the 165.


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

.
.

Heck ya that is news to me.... So, I guess I need to read and see which tire you guys are using on the 1300's and what the rim widths are...

Guess it's back to the drawing board for me.....

thanks again Bobby!!


David

DarkSide-Shadow wrote:

Our stock 1300's are 4" rim width's..........Now what you do have to take into account is the side wall heights of the 185's and 195's....if they are /65/ side walls they will be shorter by a good bit than the 165/80....just so you know. That's why I went with a 205/65, because the 195/65 was going to be shorter than my 165/80. I hope this is news you can use!

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

For instances...your 165/80/15 is 165mm's wide, and the 80 is 80% of the width. So, the( 165 X .80 = 132mm's ) in sidewall height and then times 2 because of two sidewalls= ( 264mm's ).

A 185/65/15 is ( 185 X .65 = 120.25 X 2 = 240.5mm's ), so it is shorter than the 165 tire by 23.5mm's.

My 205 is ( 205 X .65 = 133.25 X 2 = 266.5mm's ), so my 205 is 2.5mm's taller than the 165.


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

.
.

Heck ya that is news to me.... So, I guess I need to read and see which tire you guys are using on the 1300's and what the rim widths are...

Guess it's back to the drawing board for me.....

thanks again Bobby!!


David

David,

I realized that when I was reading your posts and the tires you were looking at, that it appeared like you weren't taking all the data to choose a tire. I tried to write it as to not offend you, if you already knew the data.

So, it takes a little more than just width of rim to decide what you need or just outside diameter. I didn't want you to spend the money and then have this small diameter tire that looked cool, but your motor was screeming it's guts out going down the highway at 65 mph....... :cherry: waiting to blow the motor up! Then you would be blaming us...hehehehehehe

Just want you guys to be educated to the ways of the Darkside...(said like YODA!) hehehehehe This is why the guys on here have NOT just jumped and put on just any old tire and the wideside mod is got guys waiting for others to find the brand that works.

Glad I could help! Be sure you ask some of us about your choices and any thing else you might have a question on. If this was easy to do .......girl scouts would do it. Check out all the hating on the other forums to the darkside ways....because it don't make sense to a lot of guys because they don't understand tires or how to rate them either.

*************************************************************************************************************************
Don't dismiss the 165. It is a bad to the bone car tire and works un-believeably well and will do anything a M/T will do only 10 times better. Plus it's about 2-3 lbs. lighter than a M/T, so it has great acceleration characteristics, especially for your 1100. Now the 205's are about 8-10 lbs. heavier and will take some a acceleration out of your ride. It will look cool, but make it not be as quick. (More NEWS that you can USE!)

**************************************************************************************************************************


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


.

David,

I realized that when I was reading your posts and the tires you were looking at, that it appeared like you weren't taking all the data to choose a tire. I tried to write it as to not offend you, if you already knew the data.

So, it takes a little more than just width of rim to decide what you need or just outside diameter. I didn't want you to spend the money and then have this small diameter tire that looked cool, but your motor was screeming it's guts out going down the highway at 65 mph....... :cherry: waiting to blow the motor up! Then you would be blaming us...hehehehehehe

Just want you guys to be educated to the ways of the Darkside...(said like YODA!) hehehehehe This is why the guys on here have NOT just jumped and put on just any old tire and the wideside mod is got guys waiting for others to find the brand that works.

Glad I could help! Be sure you ask some of us about your choices and any thing else you might have a question on. If this was easy to do .......girl scouts would do it. Check out all the hating on the other forums to the darkside ways....because it don't make sense to a lot of guys because they don't understand tires or how to rate them either.

*************************************************************************************************************************
Don't dismiss the 165. It is a bad to the bone car tire and works un-believeably well and will do anything a M/T will do only 10 times better. Plus it's about 2-3 lbs. lighter than a M/T, so it has great acceleration characteristics, especially for your 1100. Now the 205's are about 8-10 lbs. heavier and will take some a acceleration out of your ride. It will look cool, but make it not be as quick. (More NEWS that you can USE!)

**************************************************************************************************************************

NONE taken at all.. I can always use help. I have however taken all the sized into consideration as far as the sidewall width, circumference, etc... and YES I love the 165.

I'll report what i find and what I do here I promise.


Thanks for all the help and again it is VERY refreshing to not get bashed here!

David

Darkside-Shadow,


Then tell all your friends that you know the place to hang out...Darksides or NOT! We don't discriminate, we appreciate!!!!!!!


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


.

Bobby,

more questions:

1. On your 205 mods? your using them on a 4" rim? If so, did you notice that the section width got larger or smaller than the spec. of the tire?

I found a kumho 205 as well as a 195 that I am considering. They are very similar to the 165's that are so GREAT.

I'm wondering if the tire section width get's smaller or larger if mounted on the 4" rim. The tire that I'm looking at has is a 205/70/r15 and a rim measurement range of 5-7" but the section width is showing 8.7" which is WAY to wide for my swing arm clearance.

and then the 195/65/r15 is 5-7" and a section width of 7.9" this might just work.

the reason I ask this question is that they have another column in the specs for the mounted tire rim width for these dimension and both of these are showing these dimension mounted on a 6" rim width wheel.

Hope these aren't repetitive questions and that I'm not over thinking this?

thanks for your help.

David

David,

You are doing fine! Better to ask a question then to go on and make a costly mistake! I would be interested in hearing how wide the VTX swing arms are apart just to compare with our shadows. Bobby, can you measure yours for us? (I appologize if you already have and posted it and I"m just not thinking straight. It's been a long day!)

Ain't the internet great!! I think I just answered my own question, thanks to Tire Info from Tirerack.com.

according to this data:

So, just as a guess. if the tire in question has a "designed rim width" of 6" and said section width is to be 7.9" at that size and then said tire is mounted on a 4.5" rim, according to there 2/10" rule it would measure 1.5" or (3) x 2/10" = .6" (a little over a 1/2") skinnier so it would maybe have a section width when not under a load of 7.3" ??


Wow is that deep or what??

Am i reading this right?? and would it even be mountable on a 4.5" rim???? Sounds like yes?? as your 205 surely has a rim width range similar to 5.5 - 7" ??

Thanks again for listening and helping out.

David

This is starting to sound great!!!

Alright gentlemen,

Here's the data on the width between the swing arms......8 1/4" is the best I can measure it......I measured were my swing arm was at the widest part of the tire (at the side wall is the widest part of the tire, the thread has smaller measurement), plus as the swing arm gets closer to the motor the distance between the swing arms gets narrower.



This is where I measured the swing arm.


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

.

Tim and Bobby and anyone else interested;

I just went and measured my 2005 VT1100C Shadow Spirit Swing Arm clearance again at the point where Bobby Measured his and it appears our is the same as the 1300 VTX's at 8.25" compared to where i measure it before where it tapers like you said toward the engine at 7.75". SO......... maybe a darn 205/70/r15 Grabber would fit our shadow's too!


That would be Sweeeeet!


David

That's great news Darkside Shadow about the swing arm measurements!!!!!

Just so you know...I tried some tires that are made for some wider rims than our 4" rims and all they would do is roll over the sidewall till it touched the rim and then wouldn't allow the tire to seat the bead. I bought 3 tires and all different brands and sizes and NONE of them would seat the bead! So, remember you buy these at your own risk.


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

.

Happy Valentines Day to us!!! Woo Hoo. Thanks for the measurement Bobby and thanks for looking into it David!

Just checked my tire. Rear one has 5k miles on it and looks to have a lot of miles left on it. I don't have to change it any time soon, but thought I might go ahead and change it out for a 165 now and keep the old tire. Then, if I sold it later on, I can slap the mc tire back on it......

I'm probably going to opt to try out the 165 and see how it works. Unless I can find a 175 or 185. With my limited riding history, I'm not sure I could add much to any discussion about if CTs are better than MTs. But I could check out the fit and function.

In checking out tires, it appears that there is one 165 available, a lot of 195s, but not any of 175, 185s. I have just checked walmart and discount tire, but seems odious that there were NO 175 or 185s. Going to a 195 at this time might not be a prudent thing to do.....

David: Let me know if/when you will be changing out your tire. We can do ours at the same time.