Amateur hour(s) in the shed

Yesterday I showed the Connie some love by giving her a bath and then changing the oil & filter and the oil in the final drive.  That stuff is easy and as usual I had no issues.  Today I took on something new...

The rear E-07 on the V-Strom has been stuffed for a while and as I'd picked up a replacement the other week I decided to see if I could fit the new one myself instead of paying someone to do it.  I knew it wasn't going to be that easy doing a tubeless tyre with my zero skill and limited tools (I had to borrow a couple of extra levers and a rubber hammer from the old man) but hey, I had the whole afternoon...

After whipping the wheel off and pulling the valve (well, that bit was easy) it was time for the hard bit - breaking the bead.  I had a short and feeble mess around with levers and soapy water and got nowhere so it was time to consult the interweb.

This video showed how to do it with a bit of extra leverage, while this one reckoned you could just use ya spoons and a bit of patience to get the job done.  I started with just trying to use the spoons but found I was getting nowhere so went in search of some "stuff" I could use to copy the procedure in the first video.

Unfortunately I don't have four arms (although I could have used them) so there's no pictures or video of the operation but yes it involved the Subaru and a couple of bits of wood...

I sweated and struggled and got rained on but in the end I finally broke the bead on one side and then the other.  Then it was time for the spoons and I actually had the tyre off pretty quickly.

Then it was time to fit the new one.

Getting the first side of the tyre on over the rim wasn't too hard with the use of soapy water and a big heavy dude standing on the tyre.  Getting half of the other side on was ok too but getting the last of it on was a bit of a wrestle with the spoons and rubber hammer having to come into play.  But we got there in the end!

 

Five minutes later the wheel was back on and the Vee ready to roll again.

Oh, and if I'd paid myself at the same rate I paid the shop last time to so this then I would have made nearly $10 an hour...

Tyre fitted it was time for another job on the Connie - change the air filter.  This is the second time I've done it myself so it wasn't too much of a big deal and I just tore into it.  She has to shed some clothes and some other spag needs to get moved aside but it's a pretty straight forward job - it just takes a bit of time.

Anyway, regardless of the time it took and the frustration with the tyre it was a neat way to spend some time in the shed and give the bikes a little bit of TLC.

Must be time to hit the road again...