welp, the past weekend was the first time I've removed wheels from a bike. Took the wheels off, and took them & the new tires to a shop on DeSoto who would mount and balance the new tires for $30 each. Rawhide books the labor at 1/2 hr per wheel if you bring wheels in. so $65 each. and talking to the small shop I went to, he 'heard' that they didn't allow you to bring in new tires. had to buy them there. Not sure if there's any truth to that, but it wouldn't surprise me. Considering Cycle Gear has two different labor prices for the work if you bring wheels in for tire mounting. 1 price if you bring in tires from somewhere else (more $$) and another price if you buy the tires from them (lower price). I can't even imagine what Rawhide or any HD dealer would charge someone for a tire change if you just rolled in there and needed new tires given the labor involved with all the shit I had to do just to get the wheels on and off. I've heard of people paying nearly $800 or more.

overall, a fairly painless process. Made a little more painful simply because I had to make a few runs to Home Depot / O'Reilly to get a random tool here and there. It's not something I would want to do like every month, but it's manageable. Give the miles I put on in a year I figure every other season I'll need to do this. And now that I've got all the tools/sockets etc to do the job, I won't have to make extra trips in the middle of the job to HD/O'Reily's etc. And, i know now the order to do things from a procedure standpoint so next time shouldn't be nearly as time consuming.

I did all of this on a Saturday. Started at 9am and had everything off by around 10:30 and had an appointment at 12:30 in desoto. Was back home and had the Front on by probably 3pm. Brother came over for dinner around 5:15 and the rear was on by probably 5:20. Buttoned everything else up (slip ons, heat shield, bags, etc) and did a quick shakedown run and was eating dinner by 6pm.

It helps to have a 2nd set of hands. not necessarily to get the wheels off, but to get them back on / lifted up etc. I was able to get the front back on by myself, but the rear.....man, I just couldn't do it. Had my brother come over and we had the axle through in less than 2 minutes. It's just too big and heavy , and trying to align the axle with the wheel, and through the brake caliper bracket etc - not enough hands.



My bike is a 2009 HD Street Glide with Thunder Header slip ons. I had to do the following to get the wheels off / on etc. If you have stock pipes, you might be able to keep the pipes on, but then you might have trouble accessing the rear axle nut. Slip ons were easy to remove and honestly made working on that rear nut alot easier / more room.

Used a Craftsman motorcycle / ATV jack.
Used a dead blow mallet to tap out the axles.
Front Wheel:
- Axle nut is pretty big. I had to buy a new socket since i didn't have that size in my set. I want to say it was 15/16ths. I can double check.
- Needed to procure a 10mm 12 pt socket to remove one of the brake calipers in order to get the wheel / tire to drop / clear the calipers. If you have a dual disc set up you'll probably need to do this.
- axle/wheel spacers are the same size. but they do go on a certain way. They have 2 machined lines around the edges. These lines need to face outward.


Rear Wheel:
- Remove Bags
- check your belt tension. it should move up to about half way in between the belt tention gauge on the belt guard when you push up on it. Mine was pretty much ok. If you're good, just mark your adjustment cams on each side of the axle with a sharpie. There is a square notch that sticks out of the swing arm on each size right at the axle - mark where this notch is on each of your cams. when you re-install the axle, you can then just rotate the cams to align the markings with the square notch and your belt should tensioned properly again.
- Had to remove the slip-ons so the axle and chain adjustment cam would clear when removing the axle from the drive side and also to access the nut with a socket. Due to the shape of the exhaust, there was no room to pull the axle through the drive side to clear the bag support and the top portion of the exhaust.
- Remove the rear brake caliper bracket bolts so it's easier to re-install the new tire and also to drop the rear out. Hex nut, I think 5/8th allen socket. Also, if you have stock wheels, be sure to rotate the wheel into a section where the caliper can be removed. There are little high spots in the design of the wheel at the 'spokes' (for lack of a better term) that won't allow the caliper to clear the wheel. You should be able to remove the caliper w/out removing the wheel - like for a brake job etc.
- Axle / wheel spacers are different sizes . The larger one goes on the rotor side, and the thin one on the drive side. Like the Front spacers, be sure the machined lines are facing outward.
- Rear Axle nut. BIG nut. thought I would be able to use a crescent wrench, but no bueno. The crescent was hitting the square notch/indicator that sticks out on the swing arm and I couldn't get a good seat on the nut. So I had to buy a 36mm 1/2" drive.
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I find it amazing how much shops charge for mounting tires.
First they gouge you on tire prices, then gouge you to mount them.
I go through a set a year, no matter what. So that is usually about 8K of riding.
I get cheapies called Full Bore, $160 for a set on my Tiger, off Caparral Motorcycle Sports with free shipping. Then I take them to my small time mechanic and he mounts both and balances for $50. Note: I also give him two pounds of Bacon.

Dayze, isn't the 36mm included in your HD toolkit?
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I managed to find Michelin Commander IIs for $185 Rear and $165 Front on Jake Wilson's site with free shipping if I recall.. I was pretty pleased with that price .Cycle gear was wanting like $218 for the Rear and didn't even have a 21" for my Front in stock but it was like $180. I've been averaging about 10k per year on mileage so I'm probably looking at replaccing at least the rear once a year; might squeeze a little more miles out of the front

On the bold - :-). (assuming your comment was sarcastic and a jab at how HD bends people over lol...which they do lol).
nah no official HD toolkit for Dayze. Though, I should probably see what's in the toolkit and pack those items in case of breakdown. Some of the stuff HD sells cracks me up. like an Official HD Detailing "Kit" for some obscene amount of money.
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Picked this up 12 days ago.
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You should be able to get more than 10k out of the rear tire..I got the Commander 2 on my Road King Classic and taken lots of trips this summer loaded up..bike around 850 me at 230 and probably 70 in gear and I put 12000 on and still have a ton of tread left
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Nice Bob Dole.

:-)

best part - already has exhaust, Stage 1 and apes on it. lol. So Bob Dole doesn't have to shell out north of $1k for such goodies. And, the flat black is way easier to keep clean, and less chrome.

if it's got a piggy back fuel controller (Fuel Moto, Power Commander etc) - which it probably does if the intake is upgraded (or it SHOULD so it doesn't run lean with the SE A/C)- shell out a few bucks and have it legit tuned (if it hasn't been already) on a dyno instead of the canned fuel/timing maps from the controller. worth every penny, and since you're not going to have to shell out all the money for he goodies, a dyno would be minimal expense for a ton of gain / smile factor.

that thing will run like a raped assed ape. My current SG had a legit tune after cams, State 1 and exhaust, and it is unreal the difference. My seat of my pants dyno tells me my current one 96ci would curb stomp my stock 103 (R.I.P.). Not even in the same ballpark honestly.



oh, and
Motorcycles are dangerous / obligatory
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good deal. yeah, I'm hoping that's the case since Michelin has been touting the longevity. I bought it from a guy i've ridden with the last 4 years and he rode the piss out of it. So I'm assuming he got a little less milage out of the rear than I would lol.

If i can get at least 10k, I'll be happy. beyond that is a bonus. But I've ready people getting upwards of 14k depending on if riding a lot two up, and the throttle hand. My rear was toast, even though it looked like there was tread. it was to the wear bar indicators and then some and once it got to that point the tread disappeared rapidly. so if you're at your wear bars, or close to it, keep on eye on it (if you're not already etc). when I bought it I figured "Cool, I should get another 3-4k; boom, month and 1200 miles later it was toast.

Not to mention, the profile flattens out in the middle so much so gradually, I lost track / forgot what it felt like to ride with a rear that had a profile again. lol.
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It's had the full Screamin' Eagle treatment, to the point that Bob Dole is already shopping new seats. Goofy bastard that works with Bob Dole's buddy bought it in August, and the buddy said he'd sell it before Thanksgiving. Dude dropped another $3k in tires, battery, brakes and shit, and Bob Dole got the call that he was riding to Paris to trade it in. "How much?" Ummm...be there with a cashier's check in less than as hour.
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Bob Dole The Opportunist


yeah, those pipes are probably $600 (assuming they're VH Big Radius), SE A/C is probably $450. A fuel commander or SERT (Screamin' Eagle Race Tuner) is probably $350. Bars, probably $250, then if he went beyond 12" on the apes, he would've had to extend the wires, brake line, clutch cable. Tires (sounds like he would buy them at the dealer lol ) were probably $200/ea (wild ass guess).


Sounds like you got a good deal. Always nice to find one with all that shit already done to it.

This is the seat I upgraded to on my 72. Night and day difference. that lip holds your ass in once place and you don't want to slide off. Did a few 1000 mile weekends with that seat. Worth it.

http://www.mustangseats.com/ProductI...roductID=46895
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I had a wreck about a week ago Friday. I was out riding with a group of guys I don't normally ride with. We were on some back roads, and the turn snuck up on the leader. I've always found it best to pass the turn, and come back to it when leading a group of bikes. This guy decided to lock up his brakes. Four bikes with locked brakes in front of me, so I didn't have much time to react. I split the two directly in front of me, and brushed the bike on the right. My leg ripped his footpeg off, and his handle bars put a hole in my fairing. I managed to keep the bike up though, and my passenger didn't have a scratch. My leg was amazingly not broke/fractured so all in all, I'd say I got lucky. I'm able to ride my bike still, and I'll be getting the hole in my fairing patched for a reasonable cost. Gotta be careful out there. It definitely shook my confidence. I've been riding since, but that shit is still at the front of my mind.
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yeah, my first rides after the wreck I was very tense riding. getting alot better, mostly relaxed now. but when I come up on the situation like I did prior that caused me to wreck (passing someone and they change lanes all of a sudden) is still at the front of my mind. Now when I have to pass someone, I blast past them just to nowhere near them. Like you know how you leisurely pass traffic in your lane with the flow of traffic? It's like that, but instead of passing them leisurely, I get from A to B ASAP - meaning I go from behind behind them at them at their 8 or 5 O'clock to their 11 or 2 'oclock lickity split.
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Dam.
Some days I go out for a ride and I have this foreboding feeling of doom, so I turn around and go home.
I usually don't do group rides, but will just ride with one buddy because of the very reason of what happened to you.
Stay safe out there peeps
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yeah, I've grown to hate medium to large group rides, unless it's with people I ride with all the time. I rarely do any charity runs anymore because almost every run you hear of someone going down, and it's usually due to the group dynamic. Whether it be following distance, lack of skill, inattentiveness......all of it has a cascade effect in a group. IF I do ride in a group, I just ride at the very end OR I get a list of the stops after I register, and i head out to the first stop about 10-15 minutes before everyone else. The last charity run I did, the Rattlesnake Run, was just a giant cluster **** of people, bikes, idiots who can only ride fast in a straight line, idiots who ride aggressive within the group (like passing a bunch of bikes to get further ahead in the pack for no ****ing reason since we're all going to the same place). The charity rides have turned into a "Be Seen" at event and ride like an idiot all day. and I'd bet alot of these idiots probably put 50 miles a month (if that) on their bike because they're basically just drunks who like to bar hop and be seen. Throw those kind of people in a big group and it's bad news. Bikers for Babies a few years back was all I could take - way too many people that simply could not ride and had a well below average skill level in terms of braking, cornering, slow speed manuevers, lane presence . I was ready for it to be overwith after about the first 20 minutes. Haven't done it since and don't plan to.

the core group of guys I ride with, we can basically finish each other's thoughts on the road; lane changes, when to blast past someone, when to take it easy, and I know those guys can actually ride - and not just twist the throttle and go in a straight line like a 1/4 mile drag race from each stop.
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I'm helping run a charity organization that puts on rides, so I can't escape the group thing. When we do that, I'm either at the front with Road Captain duties, or I'm helping block, so I'm one of those guys riding like a jackass. We're doing it for a reason though. There's a group of us that get together all the time, and ride with each other regularly. Those guys like having me out front because I know where I'm going usually, and I set a good pace. If I would have been at the front, I would have taken a different route, but if a turn does manage to sneak up on me, I'll pass it and find a safe place for the group to turn around. Never lock the brakes up when you're out front... My friends give me shit cause I do it enough they think I do it all the time. They know though... Well most of them do... I had one guy get mad at me for it when we were in Arkansas. He was saying I put everyone's life in danger... Not sure where he got that. I wasn't going to lock up my brakes and have everyone bunch up behind me.

Summary:
Groups are fun if you know who you're riding with.
If you are gonna lead the group, the group has to be the first thing you think about in a potentially dangerous situation...
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