The Tire Made it to Kalispell... I Made It Two hours later...

And just as promised... the deal got done.

I'd taken off just after lunch time and headed up route 83 from our camp ten miles north of Seeley lake. I'd not gone too awful far when I rolled up on an opportunity I couldn't pass up...

*My Favorite Forms of Horsepower*

A small band of horses was pastured along the highway, so I swung around and caught a photo of the two modes of transportation that have had the biggest impact on this old busters life. Most of 'em had run off down to a river bottom below... these few hung around for a portrait.

From four feet to two wheels... A motorcycle always struck me as the right sort of vehicle for a horseman.

I kinda like the picture, even if the front wheel IS on backwards! :)

Then it was spin 'er around again and twist the throttle for Kalispell. I'd been advised that since I had a near to gone tire anyway (at least half way through the wear bars) I should keep it under a hundred. I obliged and rarely broke 80. :)

I wonder why they do call 'em wear bars? They sure don't slow down the wear rate any when you get to 'em!

Well... I got to Penco Motorsports in Kalispell about an hour before the appointed time, and reported in. I was surprised when they went right to work on it and had the new tire on before I was even supposed to be there!

How often do you get THAT sort of service?

Before you ask... yes, THIS time I checked to make sure the tire was turning the right direction before I climbed back on...

 I got a lil' closer and checked some more...

I even got down on my knees and checked it for sure and for certain...

Yep... everything is just like it's supposed to be... well... except for all the road gouges I've picked up on that one time polished aluminum wheel... Damned Ol' thing is starting to get as many dings as I carry around...

Now... just to say it... Apache Yamaha down on Camelback in Phoenix... has declined to even respond to my attempts to contact them over the past week about their Installing the wheel backwards when their shop mounted the tires for me.

So considering their lack of care for their reputation... I'd take your tires to Ridenow... or some other shop, since Apache doesn't seem to be too awful concerned about the safety of their customers... At least not enough to even open a conversation once the customers card has been debited. :)

That's ok... I got better things to do with my time than worry about the faults of another company that'll one day seal its own fate.

I needed to make a "quick" run across Kalispell to run some errands...and guess what? As small as Kalispell might be... it's still not a town your gonna do a "quick" run in at rush hour. ;) But I finally made the run both directions... got out of town and headed south...

... right into another rush hour... this one of the wildlife variety. The service manager at Penco had warned me to be watchful running that road at sunset... the deer on it he claimed were BAD.

and I gotta agree with him... rolling along at 80 or so...there were quite a few! Along with three turkeys. :) But I have a technique... if you go fast enough... you're past 'em before they even have the time to get out on the pavement! :)

*Hwy 83 between Seeley Lake and Kalispell Montana*

That's a nice road... not so many straight runs, and lots of nice sweeping bends under a Wide Montana Sky... with the Mountains, lakes, horses and meadows all along the ride.

Well, I was curious how the thing would handle with the tire on there right. It had been an improvement over the Metzler when it was new... but as the tread got thinner... it started really losing its grip... 

It's a lot nicer running home... with a tire that isn't handling "funny"... As my confidence grew, and the manufacturing scum got scrubbed off... my momentum picked up... and life was good again. :)

The new tire with the tread running the right direction :)

Here's the old tire with the tread going the wrong direction...


I failed to find the angle to catch a good picture and this one really doesn't show it well... but the tread over the center is mostly gone.

Only there enough to be visible. Not especially a shiny condition for guys that tend to ride ( in spite of wild claims of quiet and sensible cruising) at rates of locomotion that can capture the attention of certain motorized members of soh-sigh-uh-tees rule enforcement division...

You can see in a spot or two the shadow on the tire where it was badly cupping on that left side... and just flat wearing "odd"...

Oh well... lesson learned... Check all work... no matter how Pro you think the guy who did the work might be.

Now... I'll be curious to see if the mileage on this tire changes with it spinning correctly...

In the meantime... I'm hoping to get back to racking up more miles in the next year than what I spun off in the last... I kinda let life get in the way of LIVING... and that's not a real tolerable sitchy-ashun...

Grab Your Handles and Ride
Brian

Keeping Scooters Shod in the Sticks

They promised it only takes 4 days to order a tire in. It was ordered last Tuesday... Today is Next Tuesday. hmmm... lets see... tues, wed, thurs, fri, sat, sun, mon, tues...that's four days right? ;)

It's only taken a full week and a day for a fresh front tire to get to the motorcycle shop in Kalispell. Of course, when I talked to the shop yesterday afternoon, it wasn't actually there yet. It was sitting on a truck in Missoula... So I'm hoping the tire beats me to Kalispell. 'cause if I ride up there and it ain't there... I'm going to be looking at the air in this old tire on the ride home without it!

But... where's the adventure in waiting until you KNOW things are juuuuust right... Right? :)

It's easy to forget that though I might ride a Yamaha, there still aren't a whole lot of Roadstar Raiders around. My Raider may be an awesome machine, but they haven't yet flooded the market. 'bout all you ever see is one or two sitting in a showroom.

The tire sizes it's shod with keep 'em from being carried in stock with a lot of options... if at all. So ordering in when your scooter needs retiring is the name of the game. NOT a good thing when you're a dyed in the wool procrastinator...

That's why, when I rode to Alaska, knowing I was going to need fresh rubber mid ride, I had 'em pre-ordered and waiting when I got to Anchorage. (one of the few times I've actually defeated my procrastination faults.)

I made some half hearted attempts the past bit of this circle across eastern Washington... but since I wasn't in the mood to lay up there it didn't happen. North Idaho had lakes and woods and huckleberries ... but was devoid of Yamaha Raider Tires...

By the time I got to western Montana... the ugliness of that Avon up front was not to be denied any longer... I found the place to order and sat down to wait...

If the freight outfit does its job as promised I'll be rolling into the scooter shop in Kalispell at four this afternoon to get fresh rubber mounted on the front end... if Not... I'll be rolling in to find out I get to test the endurance of a dying Avon tire... on the 90 mile ride home. :)

I'm curious to see how a new tire performs... turning the right direction this time. Maybe I'll even make more sustainable progress... if my tire ain't going in reverse! :)

Grab Your Handles and Ride
Brian

I Don't CARE if They ARE Pro-Feshunals... CHECK Their Work!

That, combined with a baaaaaad case of rapidly advancing Old Timers Syndrome contributed to a story that's... there's no other way to say it... The fable of the Invincibility of Experience.

Been there, done that, have the T-shirt so... I know what I'm talkin' 'Bout! .... Right?

Ha ha! Not so fast Grasshopper!

Some time ago, while still wintering in Arizona... nearly 9000 miles by Motorcycle Tire time, I had a pair of Fine Avon Cobra Tires installed. I thought; Take it to a pro shop and save myself the hassle of swapping the tires on my beast.

Well, I did that and... WhooooooWHeeee! They performed SO much better than the Metzler tires I'd been running.

But... as time wore on... an unusual thing was noticed... the front tire was wearing unusually fast. A Raider with its 113 cubic inches of Bad Attitude has a reputation for stripping the rubber off a BACK tire.

I've routinely gone through ONE back tire for every TWO up front.

On this pair that routine is being reversed... Weird. At right on 9000 miles on the tires, the back has several thousand more miles easily left in her... the front is already down into the Wear Bars. Crap.

So... I'm out looking at the wheel to make sure I have the tire size and model number wrote down right...

Looks pretty normal... don't it?

Yeah? Well... Look again... Here's a pic of a Factory Raider to compare it to...

Do you see anything "ODD" ??? ... keep looking... I'll Wait....

Don't see it? Look again... Look for DETAIL...

Can't find it?

Give up?

Look at the SPOKES on the front wheels... Of MY bike... and then the Factory Raider pic...

Uh HUH! 9000 miles or so ago I had those tires mounted at a YAMAHA Dealer... and they mounted the TIRE exactly right... and then... and THEN... and THEN!!! put the WHEEL on BASS AKWARDS!!!

The things that come into play there are these;

1. The Tires Tread is designed by the engineers who do such things to shed water optimally. If you run the thing backwards... OPTIMAL performance is unlikely...

2. When they build tires... the TREAD, is initially in a long flat strip, which as I understand it is then applied to the carcass of the tire. Where the two ends are joined they cut those ends at an angle, rather than just a straight cut, to increase the bonding area of the splice. Now... they point that splice in a specific direction related to rotation so that on the back tire, the force of acceleration pushes the splice together rather than pulling it apart.

On the FRONT tire, they reverse that, so that under heavy braking (the front tire does as much as 85% of braking) the same thing happens. The splice is compressed together not pulled apart...

SO... the Rotational direction of a tire installation is a lil bit important...

I'm still uninformed of what affect it can have on tread wear itself. It seems reasonable to expect a rather increased rate of rubber going on vacation when it's running opposite to the design rotation.

So.. if you have a lil' bit of an inclination toward Old Timers Induced Observational Retardation of Important details... commonly referred to as being a DUMB ASS... Like a certain fella I have intimate knowledge of... I'd suggest taking a few extra minutes when you pick up your machine when somebody has worked on it... and double check that things are right and correct.

... or... when YOU have worked on it... and make for certain sure that the worker bee wasn't laboring under the burden of severe Cranial Inversion... otherwise known as suffering from the odoriferous affliction of placing ones Head in Rectal Defilade...

Now... I have some emails to write to Motorcycle Dealerships and Tire manufacturers to get myself educated a mite more...

Grab Your Handles and Ride
Brian

A Gypsy Biker finds the Occassional Not-So-Good-Camp for a Road BIke ;)

I live on the road... whoever has read this blog or the site itself for any time pretty much knows that. Most of our camps have been pretty good compromises.

Far enough back for the solitude and privacy I admire... yet close enough to let the Raider roll with ease.

Parked up in Montana it was a short run from our boondock camp to the asphalt to make a few runs over Lost Trail pass...I rode the pass to go get a cup of coffee! ;)

In Utah we enjoyed Zion and were parked close to highway twelve up on the Escalante... and farther north I was close to the asphalt when we rode Arches National Park. Up in Wyoming we were parked smack in the middle of Yellowstone...

I rode Goin' to the Sun road when we stayed up in Glacier...

Perfect camps to day trip from

This summer has seen more times like now. Back in the early summer we found ourselves near ten miles of backroad from the nearest asphalt. The camp we found here near Steamboat is also nearly ten miles of rough road from the asphalt. I stick the truck in 4by just to handle the washboarded grades better, and it's still 2nd gear in a lot of places.

If I rode a dual sport it wouldn't be much of an issue. These guys rolling past below my camp this afternoon didn't appear to be having any issue with the dirt and the rocks. I suspect they came here Looking for bad roads to challenge their skills.

The Raider on the other hand is not a machine known for its abilities in the rough and rugged backwoods. :) Put her on a ribbon of asphalt and she gets with the program... out here... she's a mite out of her element... and I got a guy that wants me to ride with him clear to Prudhoe next summer.

Ah... I hate wussin' on a deal like that...but three hundred miles or so of rocky, tire slashin', butt thumpin' mud and potholes?... ooofffff... Not sure my Ol' butt has the ambition for that. The Yukon and Alaska again? You bet! but... fightin' mud on a ROAD burner? Even a rider with all the loose screws I enjoy is havin' some trouble seein' the fun in that! :)

*Watchin' the Dual Sports Roll by*

I don't mind the weather mind you... I actually smile when it's raining. On a road where I can figure on a bit of traction, I actually enjoy bad weather rides.

But... a road that throws up a challenge to even the dirt bikes with their skinny, knobby, rubber ( that would climb a tree if you twisted the throttle hard enough ) and has 'em wallowin' around in the gooey clay... is pure agony on the wide floatin' ski on the back of my Raider!

*Raider watchin' another storm rolling in*

I picked this camp 'cause I needed a good Free Boondock camp to setup for a while and work. To support my gypsy biker lifestyle I was needful of completing the work on my third western novel. That's done now; it's been published and In a few more days we'll pack up and be moving on.

I believe I'll see if I can't find something a mite closer to the pavement for my next camp so the Raider can show those Dual Sports what a road bike can do. ;)

Though this camp isn't the best for a Road Bike... it has been good for hiking and one unexpected thing...

I discovered something after this afternoons storm passed... it ain't gold at the end of a Rainbow...

*The Treasure at the end of the Rainbow ain't gold!*

It's a Yamaha Raider! :)

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

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An Update on the Avon Tires on My Raider

I've got a couple hundred miles on my Avon Cobra tires now... and have to say I'm still happy with 'em.

We did a hundred and fifty miles or so, two up today, winding through the Arizona hills in the Tonto Basin, under the Mogollon Rim of Arizona.

I'm the first to admit that when you dump a few hundred bucks on something you tend to try and find a way to describe it in ways that makes your decision sound smart. :) That said, I'm as sure as ever that changing from Metzler tires and the stock 210 on the Back to Avon Cobra's and a 240 on the back was the right thing to do.

The first thing I noticed was a change in handling. Now... there wasn't a band playing and fireworks and such... but there was still this certain sure feeling that... something ... was different.

I remember running through fast sweeper corners on the Metzlers and thinking; "I must be getting old". It seemed like I was multiple "apexing" way too much.

The difference with these Avon's that I'm still seeing is that the bike rolls from one side to the other smoother and more fluidly... there doesn't seem to be anywhere near the volume of small "inputs" required to hold the line I want that was required with the Metzler tires.

Thinking about that I remember how the Metzler was crowned in the center. That and the radius of the tread seems to vary across the profile of the tire. Then, when you've put a few miles on it that crown wears into a flat spot around the center of the tire...

I wonder if, as you leaned into a corner, the bike goes through those varying tread radius and then on top of that hits that "Edge" of the worn flat crown area and kind of "pops" over into the area with a new "radius"?

Not sure I've described the sensation clearly... but... it always seemed like the "input" was changing... constantly having to adjust... I thought it was me. Thought I must be getting old (which I am!) but, it's turning out to have been, at least to a great degree, the tires...

The Avon Motorcycle Tires on the Raider now are feeling smoother, more fluid in their handling and though it never felt insecure with the Metzler tires on it... I'm noticing a more solid, confident feeling with the handling of the bike.

It's going to take time to see how the mileage wears... but if the rubber compound is anything close to that of the Metzler, with the tremendous increase in tread depth, I should come back with a shiny report on that!

The only other thing I can't report about is their handling in the rain... I ain't got rained on... and pardon me if I don't care if that review don't happen real soon either! :)

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

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Another Lesson Learned... A Motorcycle Mechanic...

I ain't!

Started jacking the bike up... and one thing after another, fed my frustration. To start with, I don't and never have enjoyed wrenching on machinery. Just something that never appealed to me.

The only time I have is when I simply couldn't afford to pay it done. That was the only real motivation I had in thinking I'd take on the Tire work on my Raider... to save a few bucks of which I have few.

But then I jacked the scooter up on that Harbor Freight Motorcycle Jack...

and discovered, rather unpleasantly that the thing was not what you might call Rock Steady... and Yamaha really doesn't reveal all in their manual for the bike.


So... with the bike in the air I laid down and looked up in there... and discovered pretty plain... that to get to the curb side of the rear axle... the pipes are in the way... and with the pipes there... how am I gonna get in there to SEE anything to make sure the dang wheel is aligned properly when I put it back on?

Even once I got the wheels off... I still was gonna have to haul 'em in and pay 40 bucks for mounting and balancing...

If I just take the whole dang bike in the price for the labor with tax and all was gonna be $140 bucks... so in the end I'm saving a hundred stinkin' bucks... ahhhhhhhh.... at least, if nothing goes bad on me while I am trying to save dinero...

I'm laying there thinking, if I'd just already took the bike in and let a guy who has the tools, the experience and the insurance if something goes bad :) do the job... I'd be out RIDING right now... instead of laying here with all the visions of all the things that can go wrong rattling through my head! :)

... and then my intimate relationship with Murphy's Law occurred to me... the picture of trying to load an 800 lb bike... with no wheels... into a truck if I got to where my ego couldn't override my common sense any more floated through my tiny lil' pea brain.

Well... I started having difficulty convincing myself that doing what I don't enjoy... for the sake of saving a few dollars made any sense.

I guess it's no surprise that right about then I quit the idea and rode the bike down to a shop nearby... and paid 'em to swap my tires for me! :)

Yeah... some bikes it's a simple chore... but the Raider those pipes cover over the stuff you've gotta get to... and makes it a real PITA! ... I'm not about to tackle that out on the side of the road... so why bother with it at "Home"?

Some guys really enjoy wrenching on the their bikes...and that's well and good. I Don't... nor my trucks or cars for that matter. Outside of bolting on a few customize bits here and there... the heavy duty wrenching on a bike, truck or car... has never tickled my imagination...

Now some say if you ride 'em you should wrench on 'em. "It's part of the Motorcycle Lifestyle"...

I say... "Nope. The Motorcycle Lifestyle I adhere to is; Ride what you want, Ride where you want, when you want... and have your gol' darn tires changed by whoever you choose!" :)

The Important thing is to... Put it in the Wind!

I'm gonna just continue to drive 'em... or RIDE 'em, like I always have!  That's a reality I'm not gonna forget in the future... and is why I have a really nice Towing Service that will cover my Truck, My Fifth Wheel... any cars I might own... AND... my Raider Motorcycle! :)

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

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Avons Versus Metzler Tires... I'm Changing to Avon

Fed Ex finally got the tires to me... one Avon Cobra for the front end and the other for the rear. Imagine that!

Ara had recommended Motorcycle Maniac to me so I thought I'd give 'em a try. They were the best price I found and free shipping to boot... Sweet!

*Harbor Freight Motorcycle lift and Avon Tires*

 The standard 120 X 21" front tire and I chose to move up to the 240 Avon on the back end.

Along with the Motorcycle Jack I picked up last week at Harbor Freight I'm ready to start pullin' wheels... Only problem is, I don't have time here! :) We have to leave this camp in the morning.

So... I'll do the tire swappin' up in Phoenix.

I've decided I will just take on the wheel removal and reinstall this time. I'll see about all the tire swappin' in the future. For now I'll leave the tire pulling and balancing to a shop. Truth is? That big, stiff back tire kinda bullied me.

Which brings up one lil' thing. One of the complaints about the Metzlers is the reversed tread on the rear tire... well... according to the directional arrows on the Avon tires... they sure look opposite of each other to me as well! Maybe I'm crosseyed... but I looked at those arrows several times... Weird.

Combine that with the fact that the front tires, Metzler and Avon, for the Raider are bias tires... and the rear tires are radial... and I've always been taught to NOT mix the two types... tells me there's more goin' on with Motorcycle tires than my puny lil' brain can get a hold of. So... if Metzler and Avon don't know anything 'bout building tires... I'm sure not gonna set 'em straight! :)

Guess I'll quit worryin' which direction the tread is goin'... and just pay attention to which way the bike is headed! :)

I'll just get these Avon Tires put on and hope they perform with better reliability and trust than I was coming to have with the Metzlers.

As I get the tires off so I can do a proper photo of that back tire I can show the tread and the bad section... so you can see what my displeasure is about... 

Another bit of education I've been getting the past year or so is Harbor Freight. I never was a great fan of Harbor Freight. The few things I saw from there were real junk... but I gotta admit, the past few years they seem to have upgraded a lot of what they sell. The fit and finish of the jack I got there seems pretty decent to me. Time will tell how well it endures, but at this point, I'm pretty happy with the last few things I've bought there.

One thing about those Avon tires I'm kinda happy about is the tread depth. It must be nigh on to double what a Metzler has. I'm told the Avon is a softer compound. With the extra rubber I expect I'll be at least even to the Metzler for mileage.

I've talked to some that saw a significant improvement when they swapped out to the Avon Cobras. I'm hoping to see that myself! :)

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

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My Raider Motorcycle Doesn't Have Reverse... But...

The truth is... I decided I needed to back up a bit. Just a step or two.

The tires on my Raider have proven to be the only, uh, point I have of any friction with this machine. Now, that ain't the bikes fault... but... when you call a shop in a Local area you're in, and are needful of a new tire... and you get one of two responses, as a routine thing, you know there's some sort of issue.

Response #1, when I've Called YAMAHA dealers in Western Arizona, Northern Utah... and a couple other places was... What's a Raider? ... Seriously??? my answer; A motorcycle? Question by the Yamaha parts guy on the phone; Who makes it? ... uhhhh... YOU do? ... Seriously!

I know there aren't a lot of these awesome machines around after several years of production... which I truly don't understand, since A Star Raider is an attention getting, awesome machine... but... still being pretty unique out there is really pretty cool! But still, you work for Yamaha... and you get around so little within your own company that you haven't even heard of it?

Response #2, when I've called different Local "Non Make-specific" shops looking for a tire. My question; "Do you have any 210/40 R 18 tires? Their answer; That's a Weird size!

Sheesh! Some shops must exist in the dark ages I guess. Maybe they don't have the market to make it worthwhile stocking that size... but to not even have hardly heard of it? and you're in the Motorcycle Service business?

So... with my recent difficulty with this Metzler tire... and the grumblings about possible... Issues... with Metzler quality/consistency, especially it seems with the tires coming from their Brazil plant, as well as running across way too many places that seem to have a shortage of Motorcycle Education... I got to wanting to take a lil' more control of my tire situation.

With that in mind I started hunting around to acquire the tools and equipment to do my own Motorcycle Tire servicing myself. I came pretty close to pulling the trigger on all of it too...

... but... some little voice in the back of my head kept whispering to me to hold off... a bit.

So... along with the standard oil/air filter maintenance routine I will be doing the wheel dismounting and remounting chores myself... but... for the time being I've chosen to leave the tire dismounting/mounting and balancing chores to a local shop in the area I happen to be in.

The fact that I live on the road in a Fifth Wheel had a big impact on that decision. Maybe if I still had a big shop where I was living I'd just go ahead and put in the equipment... but... my rig is already stuffed to busting with all the bits and pieces of living. I already still have to find a location to store that motorcycle jack I've added to allow me to lift the bike and pull the wheels.

... Not sure where I could hide a Motorcycle Tire Changer and a Wheel balancing stand in the sucker! :)

Maybe... as I get a lil' more comfortable going back to doing all my own maintenance... and not paying a shop to do it - I've gotten lazy the past few years ;)  - I may revisit this...

That and winning the lottery to allow me to move up to a LOT bigger rig with the storage space to carry all the needful tools! ;)

In the mean time... My new motorcycle jack is sitting out there waiting while I wait on the arrival of a pair of Avon Cobra tires I mail ordered, since there was nothing available in the city of Tucson ... at least at an outfit I was willing to do business with.

I've found a shop here in Tucson that will mount the tires on the wheels and spin balance them for me at a reasonable price...

The back tire alone was $40 cheaper plus free shipping than any tire I've ever bought for it... and add on the elimination of the labor $$$ for removing and re-installing the wheels... and even without doing the tire swap work myself I'm quite a few dollars ahead... So maybe not reverse... just a bit behind where I was thinking I'd go. ;)

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

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Bad Cowboy! Do Your Own Maintenance!

The way I ride my Raider, I'm always in places where even if there is a Yamaha Dealer Of Sorts... When I ride up they want to know Who Makes It? !!! uhhhh.... You do?  ;)

... and finding 210 or 240 tires in the Yukon... or even, western Arizona has been something of a treasure hunt.

And of course, when you DO find a tire and a shop, they get full boat for the tires and then maybe another $80 bucks to work on that back wheel alone.

A couple guys kinda Poked me a lil' bit. Paul, The Wanderer, and Ara...

Now, don't get me wrong here, they were Polite 'bout it :) But they were still basically prodding me a bit... why wasn't I doin' my own work? My only response... if I'm Honest 'bout it... can be ... LAZY! ;) ah... poor excuse right?

And look... I already went back to changing my oil and filter... it just takes old pussguts a bit of time to be willing to admit they've been doing things a lil' bit wrong!

I mean... I get that if you're gonna be in love with a machine... and expect it to carry you for thousands of miles through all sorts of weather and difficulty... the least you can do is take care of her... Yourself!... Right? ;)

So... I got to looking around a bit and when this guy reminded me how easy it is to do your own motorcycle maintenance... if you have a few of the proper tools... which for the load we'd put on 'em with one guy working on his own motorcycle, the tools available at Harbor Freight will do the job and just aren't that expensive...



Fact is... A motorcycle lift/jack so I can get the wheels off for little hassle... costs less than the labor charge for changing out a single set of tires! The next set would pay for the tire changer at Harbor Freight! and that doesn't even count in the fact that Ara also sent me a link to a place where an Avon tire of the size in Question is $215 bucks... while the same tire at a shop is $260 or so... and MSRP a lot higher than that...

So... if dollars is an issue... and how many bikers is it not?... Doing your own maintenance is gonna keep more dinero in your pocket for gas and beer! :)

When I commented to Ara that I would change my own tires... except I'd still need to haul it in to town to get balanced (more excuses!) he came back with; "There is a solution to every problem... You!" :) ...  The guy has a way of tipping over that tall stack of carefully piled BS. ;)

Then he told me he had an easy method for balancing tires that he uses  all the time...

Well... I got a lil' more curious and did a quick search. I found another option that I believe I'm going to try... Dyna Beads. Little ceramic beads that "Float" in the tire and balance it Dynamically for the life of the tire? Seems too easy to be true... Almost seems like Magic...

but... what the hell... I'm game right now for a lil' experimentation... So...

My next set of Motorcycle tires is going to be Mail ordered, Mounted and Balanced by me... and I can go down the road with the sure and certain knowledge that if my Scooter is screwed up... I know JUST where to find the Bozo that done the deed! :)

As well as... the sure and certain knowledge... that if I break down, anywhere on the road... no matter the conditions... if I've got a screw driver, some duct tape, a pliers and some windex... I will have the ability to discover that I'm in WAY over my head! :)

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

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Putting a Great Motorcycle in the Wind on Bad Tires

There's only one thing that displeases me 'bout my Raider... and actually, it ain't the bike... It's the tires.

Well, not tires really... just one... the 210 on the back end. At roughly $350 bucks for the damn things... They really don't perform very well...

My Old V-Star got maybe 14,000 miles on the tire on that end of the bike. Sometimes more if I was a good boy. But this Raider, I have to work hard to squeeze 9 or 10 thousand miles out of it... I read where a whole lot of riders only get three or four thousand...

You know... I pay about $175 for the tires on my truck and those suckers roll for 50,000 miles... I have just a lil' bit of difficulty believing that there's such a difference in cost to build the damn things... I mean let's face it, there's what, Four times as much material in the truck tire? Come on... something stinks in this deal...

Sometimes when I'm gettin' a Motorcycle tire put on... I start worryin' 'bout STD's and feel like I oughta walk out of the shop... PREGNANT!

So... Yesterday we took a ride, two up 'bout 165 miles or so. Rode from Bouse on up to Wickenburg for a late lunch, a lil' walkin' 'round and then the roll "home".

When we got home we were treated to a nice sunset...

*Arizona Sunset in our Boondock camp... after a day on the Raider*

While we were enjoying the sunset... I happened to spot this lil' bit of joy...

Now... you can see there's a hell of a lot of tread left on that tire. That tire actually only has something just under 4,000 miles on it. I've never locked it up. No burnouts... no real hot doggin'... just Cruising...

For $350 bucks? are you kidding me? WTF Metzler?!!!!!

... and with all that tread left.. there SHOULDN'T be a hole like that through to the steel belt!!!

Now... I know some folks don't like Metzlers. Till now, they've always done me well... but this... arrrrrrggggggghhhhh!

My problem is I've read that Avons, and Dunlops and some of the others are stickier. That generally means softer rubber and even poorer mileage...

 Considering the condition of my piggy bank... this didn't come at a real shiny time.

So... grrrrrrrr..... Today I'm NOT a happy biker.

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

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