Changing Tyres

[johnnysneds]

Today I collected my new rear Motoz tyre for my bike. The Metzeler 6 Day Enduro tyre that came stock is aptly named and only lasted that long! A good tyre but.....

So I thought id take the opportunity to practice changing a tyre out with the gear I would have with me on a ride. Ok so removing the tyre and tube from the rim was relatively straight forward, now came the difficult part of fitting the new one. Well things didn't go as planned.
I followed this video from a Bridgestone expert to a "T" who quite frankly makes it look like a doddle, well he's probably done it a million times.
Quote from the video when he's fitting the new tyre "just put the iron in on the opposite side from the rim lock and it will just pop right on", erm no!

Now I have two rim locks fitted to my rear wheel which more than likely is for competition use. Now this makes life a complete pig and an hour and a half later I was defeated. So I took the whole shebang around to Cockpit to let the guys with the tyre fitting machine have a go. I felt better when I saw them struggling just as much as I was. Eventually they managed to get it fitted but it wasn't easy.
This brings me to my main concern. What are you suppose to do if touring in the back of beyond and you need to change a tyre? Do I ditch the rim locks to make life easier and risk ripping the tube stem off?
I might get away with just changing out the tube or a tube repair, however even just popping one bead off and getting that back on was a struggle for the guys in cockpit, what chance would I have in the middle of a jungle.
Im considering BIB mouse tubes, their approx. $300 for a set, but are only good for around 1500Km. However I have read of a guy who has had the same mousse tube in his front for 10 years :shock:
Its a good idea but I think its let down by the materials used. There are limited to certain speeds due to heat expansion where you risk the tyre popping the bead Apparently they are also a nightmare to fit, but I suppose once fitted you don't have to worry about a puncture. I don't think i'll go for them as the cons seem to be outweighing the pros.
Big n' Tall you mentioned some tube system the other day, care to chime in and enlighten us?

So anyway got the new Motoz fitted and hopefully the will give me slightly more traction in the dreaded red clay :x 1200 Baht bargain

These tires have a fitment option for wet or dry conditions. Very clever and you can see from the photos below how the direction makes a difference. The wet direction looks like it will disperse mud from the pattern more freely and hopefully prevent them from clogging up where the dry direction is more restrictive resulting in more grip if used in loose dry dirt conditions. Hopefully it'll give me more of a chance in the clay.

Wet direction:

Dry direction:

 

[johnnysneds]

Further to this, if there are any tyre changing experts out there who are willing to put on an in-field display I would love to see how it's done without getting angry :x

 

[KTMphil]

I was on a trip with Mark in Laos & he changed 4 inner tube flats on the same bike in one day, each time took 15-20 minutes.

There's definitely technique to it, the problem here is you can go to yamaha square and they'll change a tire for 100 baht, so we dont practice, even out in the sticks villagers are eager to do it for you for the same money.

I like the moose idea a lot for trail riding, you would have thought with development that there would be moose's that would last a 7 day tour now, id be happy to pay that money for piece of mind of no flats in a heartbeat.

I had the Moto Z MX tires on when riding with Johnny a few days ago, who had the Metzeler 6 Day Enduro tires and it was quite noticeable that the Moto z tires had much more traction uphill in the wet red clay.

I spoke to Justin yesterday about his 100 psi Nuetek small inner tube set-up and i think he was having some problems fitting it.

 

[bill]

I use one rimlock on my DRZ400 and a coupla wheel weights opposite for balance.

Have fitted new tubes several times in the bush without too much trouble.

The cheaper soft compound knobblies (like VeeRubber) are easier to get on/off than a quality (harder compound) Dunlop tyre. I normally run a cheap knobbly on the back and a Dunlop on the front.

Silicon spray/WD40 makes the the tyre slip on a lot easier however that's a bit bulky to carry. I just carry a small bar of soap (hotel soap) in my tool kit and run that round the bead.

 

[johnnysneds]

Hey Bill,

Yes im actually beginning to think the issues I had with the tyre yesterday was due to the compound of the tyre. The soft Metzeler came off real easy, I should have tried putting that back on to see if there was a big difference. I used WD40 when attempting to install the Motoz to no avail. The tyre shop also had problems seating the bead. I noticed him inflating the tyre to 60 psi several times trying to seat her.
I think I was just unlucky with the tyre I tried to fit. You've brought up a good point though, harder compound tyres may be difficult to get on and off for tube repairs.