Ok guys,
this afternoon I got cancelled a date and so I decided quickly to spend my time otherwise.
I thought I wanted to join the club of the DIY tire changers earlier this year.
So I started with the front wheel. I expected it to be a very easy one, but surprisingly it wasn´t in parts.
The first step was to push back the brake caliper and the pads apart a bit. Easy.
Second step I opened the wheel nut, removed the axle and took out the wheel. Easy.
So I felt confident for the rest of it too. But....
... one shouldn´t praise the day before the evening.
Being curious I took the whole old wheel (rim plus tire) on a wheel balancer stand, to find out, how much the Kendas were out of balance and out of round all the time and over the last 10.000km. I was surprised twice by two results I didn´t expect that way.
The Kenda tire and the rim weren´t out of round at all, perfect run. Neither radially nor laterally out of round. Wow!
But the hole package turned pretty quickly towards the heaviest spot near the valve stem. Well, the heaviest spot is at the valve stem most of the time, so I didn´t question it at first. But then I tried to balance it temporarily to get a weight number. I ended up sticking a 14mm socket of 2oz(!)/56grams(!) on the opposite side of the valve stem.
I was puzzled a bit, because that probably couldn´t result only from the tire...
So I released the air, cut the old valve off and put towels and some old papers on the floor and started to break the bead. At first I thought with a little windex and some thumb pressure I might get these tires easily off the rim. But no way! No chance with thumbs alone. So I used 2 medium c-clamps. But still no chance. Only with the additional help of the rubberized ends of a pipe wrench I got it plopped down. Same thing on the other side. At this time I already felt warm a bit.
Then I lubed the tire and bead a bit with tire mounting paste and tried to get that tire completely off the rim. But that was a real bitch and it made me sweat. While the first side was tolerable difficult, the other side was almost undoable. Not with the rim protectors I extra ordered. Because they were too thick. So I took something else (much thinner plastic) and worked my way along with the tire mounting irons and the pipe wrench. After a pretty long and tough fight I finally got that damn Nylon Kenda off the rim. Puhhh.
So I for sure woudn´t want to do that every day without a proper machine.
At this time I was a bit discouraged. because when the removal was that tough, how tough would an installation of a reinforced new tire be...
In my imaginations I already saw myself bringing the rim and the tire to the dealer for installation on Monday.
That all looked on youtube videos much easier.
Then I put the naked rim alone and without valve stem onto the balancer stand and let it turn. Almost same results as before with tire and valve stem!
Conclusion: This Kenda quality pass checked rim is out of balance by about 50grams or almost 2oz at the valve stem hole! Should I now stick wheel weights at first onto the inside of the rim where they can´t be seen? Or better not. No idea...maybe better not sticking things to the inside of the rim
that might come loose. At that time I felt unsure a bit. Installation of the new 90° valve stem then followed and some pliers were needed with some force again.
Anyway I didn´t give up, lubed the new tire and the rim bead with mounting paste and put on the first side on the rim. Also not totally easy, but achievable with acceptable effort. Same thing with second side of the tire. Kneeling on that sidewall with both knees and working my way around with the irons was pretty ok then. In fact I felt this installing process in the end much easier and less breathtaking than the removal of the old tire. Although it was a reinforced tire!
Lubed bothes sides of the tire and bead again with mounting paste, aligned the red dot to the valve stem and then filled it quickly with my new portable Stanley10bar/5Liter compressor. The sidewalls popped soon and I put 3 bar on it for propper first seat and reduced pressure soon after to 1,8 bar.
Then I put the new wheel/tire combination onto the balancer stand to see how much weight I must add. I ended up putting 35grams onto the rim, not really happy with that much weight (was hopeing to not exeed 20grams) and doesn´t look too good, but what else could I have done? 20-30grams inside the rim?
New tire turned totally round and evenly on the rim also, so job was almost done successfully.
Remounting the wheel back into the fork was a bit of a bitch again, because I could have had one or two hands more for help, but in the end after a while of trial and error, I got it installed. And before doing that, I of course regreased the axle, the collar and the speedometer drive unit with multipurpose grease. Wheel bearing are still good and they turn smoothly and easily.
I also add some pictures,so that you can see some of my tools and my new tire. It´s a Heidenau K58 mod. made in 3rd week of 2017.
Not sure, if I will be happy with that tire, because as a reinforced front tire it feels very stiff, even with lower tire pressure. Could be harsh rides in the future. But I will see soon. Otherwise I like the open thread design of the tire. Forest- and Gravelroads may now come.
This story is to be continued with the hopefully also successful rear tire change report (maybe soon the next couple of days). But I need to get some high temperature black spray paint for the muffler first on Monday. So stay tuned patiently and have a beer or two in the meantime.
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