[crobin]

Well I have changed many dirtbike tires/tubes so I have decided this go round I'm going to change my sv's tires as well. I have all the stuff, tire stand, spoons, tire lube, weights, balancing stand etc. Are there any special tips or tricks for tubeless tires? I have a set of Z6's to spoon on. On the dirt bike often I set the new tire out in the sun or put a hair dryer in it. Also is there anything else I should do to the bike while the wheels are off, such as bearings etc? I only have 12,000 miles on the bike.

Thanks

 

[RandyO]

line the yellow dot up with the valve stem , get your rotation correct, same as tube tires but without the tubes= easier

 

[andy4us]

line the yellow dot up with the valve stem , get your rotation correct, same as tube tires but without the tubes= easier

It's better to balence the wheel with out the tire on it first. Then the yellow spot (which is meant to be the lightest spot on the wheel, but not all makes I believe), goes at the heavy spot of the wheel, which often isn't the valve stem. I have soapy water in a spray bottle, and using clamps to compress the tire so that it can drop into the bottom of the "U", makes getting the final part of the tire on the rim much easier.

Andy

 

[Guest]

Ditto on using the tiedown straps if you have trouble seating the beads. I mounted a pair of diablos on my bike and had trouble with one bead. I had to take the valve core out while filling the tire AND use a tiedown strap around the tire to finally seat the bead, it was very dangerous and not fun.

Ari

 

[MrStinky]

Stick the tire in your car or in a nice hot spot for a while to get the tire nice and warm and it will go a bit easier.

 

[Mad Max]

It's better to balence the wheel with out the tire on it first. Then the yellow spot (which is meant to be the lightest spot on the wheel, but not all makes I believe), goes at the heavy spot of the wheel, which often isn't the valve stem.

^ what he said.
I have only changed my tires a couple times. The first time took me about 5 hours start to finish, the second time was under 2 hours. I balanced my wheels with out tires (make sure valve core is in) and the heavy spots were somewhat near the stems, but not actually them. I marked the heavy spot with a spring loaded centerpunch on both sides of the wheel so that its always there.

When I went to GP races at Laguna-Seca I got to watch the Dunlop and Michelin guys mounting tires and balancing. They're pretty quick and it makes me wish I had a machine like what they use in my garage. Anyways, they balance with a regular static balancer. They put the freshly mounted wheel+tire on there let the heavy spot fall to the bottom, then mark the light spot at the top with a tire crayon. They rotate the wheel 90º on the balancer and stick a whole strip of weights on the rim, but perpendicular so that aside from an inch on the rim the rest is hanging off. They then proceed to start cutting off the chunks of lead with some snips seeing only if the wheel rotates one way or the other. When they get close they stick the strip of duct tape they are going to use onto the wheel to include that in the balance too. I did this the last time I balanced mine and its much easier than sticking weights on there one at a time.

 

[acedeluxe]

this has got me wondering if I polish my wheels (full polish) this winter, will/can I mess up the balancing?

 

[algreen]

this has got me wondering if I polish my wheels (full polish) this winter, will/can I mess up the balancing? 

Depends on deep you polish them , but you'll lose a trivial amount of weight.

 

[Mike]

Ya, I take my bare wheels and new tires to my dealer and he mounts them with a fancy machine for $6 each. Then I bring them home and balance them with the Metzeler static balancer. Easy.
I got the balancer from my dealer for $110, it works great.

 

[buck000]

Rear wheel removal - includes removing brake caliper bolts?

I've decided to be a bit more hands on with my new (to me) '01 SV650S.

Unfortunately, my mechanical aptitude is less than 0. So apologies in advance for any boneheaded questions, such as:

The service manual I've got says that to remove the rear wheel, you have remove the rear brake calipers. Is that true? I'm just wondering if I really need to.

adTHANKSvance.

 

[NOsquid]

You don't *need* to but it makes things easier. It's just a couple of bolts.