The trouble with the rear is behind me...

The trouble with the rear is behind me...

or

DIY tire changes in the driveway.

So I watched this British stunter change his rear tire using this method, and as the Bandit is no great beauty, thought I'd give it a go myself.

A tri-folded bathmat to prevent damage to the rim

I tried this five times before it popped off

On the backside, I had to do it twice, the secret is to rotate  1/8  of a turn

The new tire slipped onto the rim easier than my 17" tubed KLR tire changes. Easy!

There is a caveat here, I need rim protectors if I'm going to play games like this with bike in better condition, as I added minor scratches the rim in a few places. (I hit a deer with this bike in 2007, who is counting nicks and scratches?)

The bead popped in with no trouble at all!

Metzler Roadtec Z8

Motorbike Crashes

It looks as if the driver taking evasive action failed to check his right hand side. Perhaps using brakes would have been best instead of "swerve to avoid".

I found the following video hard to watch...

2012 World of Motorcycles Exposition Hamilton WOMEX

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Here we were at the World of Motorcycles Exposition's first Hamilton show. It was pretty decent for the first time around, hopefully the word will spread and next year it will be even better.

2012 Toronto International Motorcycle Show

The Amsoil Girls

Flats, Punctures, and Other nice things

It sucks to be me...

When I rode a sport bike I pretty much checked my pressure once in a while, and took the bike in to have the tires changed when I hit the wear bars on the rubber.

Moving to a dual purpose bike like the 2004 KLR 650 meant that I could do much more of my own maintenance on the bike, including tire and tube changes, and, because I'd planned on riding it off road and managed to put on over 76,000 kilometres on it, I guess I've done well over fifteen tire changes on it for one reason or another. My buddy Willie was a real help there, as he's no stranger to tire changes, and any errors I make here are purely my own, not his.