Front Tire Headaches

[mojo]

Good Golly Miss Molly. I never realized what a pain in the butt changing out the front tire was going to be. The tire was the original that came with my 2002 Nad ( date coded 2001 ) and it has seen its better days so I decided to swap it out.

First lesson, never order tires off E-Bay without checking with the vendor on the date code. I nearly bought a brand new Michelin Commander that had a date code of 2003. Thankfully I messaged the guy before bidding on it. Ended up buying one from Ron Ayers for $ 108 ( date code 2007 ).

Then came the chore of getting the front axle off. That thing was frozen inside the bushings. It took a 2 lb hammer and a lot of persuasion to get it to budge, but it finally came off. Then came the dealer quagmire. They refused to change the tire for me because I didn't buy it from them. ( Liability issue they said ). No worries so I went to an independent Harley shop and he did the job for me for
$ 20. Great deal I thought.

I went ahead and changed out the brakes ( new EBC's all the way around ) and finally got the tire re-installed. Thankfully I do not have to go through this again for a while. What a PITA it was with that axle.

I will give a report back on the Michelin once I have had a chance to ride on it. I currently have a Michelin Commander on the rear and love the tire. Great wear so far and great ride / handling.

Chris

[dogdoc]

Chris: Did you just replace brake pads and leave rotors along? have them turned? replaced? just wondering about rotors. Thanks

[ringadingh]

Some shops do give you a line of crap about changing a tire that they didn't sell you. Thats why I bought a Harbour Freight tire changer, and will do my own from now on. I also replaced my brake pads with the EBC ones and just sanded the glaze off the rotors when I changed them. They work good but I did notice that they make a little more noise when applying the brakes over the stock OEM pads.

[mojo]

Doc:

I just sanded the glaze off the rotors and threw on the new brakes. It took about 20 miles before the brakes started grabbing real well. So be careful the first time you ride your bike and braking. :)

They do grab real well and felt it was an improvement over the stock pads.

I am real pleased with the ride of the Michelin. Seems to be much smoother and it is much quieter versus the Bridgestone that came off it. I just need to get it broke in then I can tell better how the grip is.

Chris

[dkdixie]

Chris: Did you just replace brake pads and leave rotors along? have them turned? replaced? just wondering about rotors. Thanks

Turning is not an option. Too thin to turn. If grooved that bad, its time to replace

[radco]

Some shops do give you a line of crap about changing a tire that they didn't sell you. Thats why I bought a Harbor Freight tire changer, and will do my own from now on. I also replaced my brake pads with the EBC ones and just sanded the glaze off the rotors when I changed them. They work good but I did notice that they make a little more noise when applying the brakes over the stock OEM pads.

EBC usually are loud..The same problem was gripped about on the Sabre forums..

How in the world did you get a tire to last that long ?

[dogdoc]

Thx Chris appreciate the feedback. Hope you like the new tire.

Dennis