Passes & Canyons Blog

I’m still counting on taking the Kawi on the OFMC trip very shortly but nothing has happened yet on the carburetor issue. For insurance I got a new rear tire on the V-Strom a couple days ago.

I got this recommendation from both Bill and Dennis, that I get the tire at Let It Ride, on 8425 W. Colfax, and then take it next door to 1 Down, Four Up Motorsports, at 8427 W. Colfax, to be mounted. That worked out great. I called ahead about the tire and they had it in stock. I asked them to hold it for me and made an appointment so I could have it mounted while I waited.

Mid-way through the job, the guy (whose name I can’t remember–I really should make note of these things) asked if I wanted new rear brake pads because with the old ones, “there’s almost nothing there.” That didn’t surprise me; I had been thinking about that possibility. So sure, put on new pads. He said the front pads are fine.

Then as I was paying he told me they had adjusted the chain as good as they could but there was some stretching and really, the chain and sprockets need to be replaced. That didn’t surprise me either.

The ride home proved interesting then. Of course I was doing some swerving to scuff up the edges of the new tire but I wasn’t so busy with that as not to notice something else. A noise I had wondered about for quite awhile was not there.

This noise is something I’ve always thought of as maybe the chain slapping. I’ve tried adjusting the tension but never made a difference. I take it now that the shop did a better job of adjusting it than I did and at least for now that slapping–which is apparently what it was–is gone. At the very least, the noise is gone. So OK, that’s something to take care of after the trip.

Biker Quote for Today

I was born intelligent, but my bike ruined me.

I’ve had this ongoing issue with the Concours not running properly, where I’ve used carb cleaner to much benefit but not total. Every time I had ridden it lately it had run better so when I took it out the other day I was hoping for it to perform perfectly.

It did not. In fact, it ran much more poorly than before, needing me to rev the engine before taking off from a stop and dying repeatedly as I came to a stop. At least that settles the question of whether I’m going to be able to address this myself or if I need to enlist professional assistance.

This business of the bike not running properly matters for several reasons. First, I want the bike to run right. That’s a no-brainer.

More pressing, however, is the fact that it is now July and that means the annual OFMC bike trip is coming up in just a few weeks. Having gone through all the hassle with getting this new top bag mounted I was really hoping to take the Kawi this year. I’ve tried to reach Joel, my mechanic, but I suspect he is up in Montana at the family farm for an extended period.

The issue here is that if I can’t take the Kawi, I’ll need to take either the V-Strom or the CB750. And both of them need new rear tires before they can go on an extended trip. So obviously, if I need a new rear tire I need to get cracking on that.

Why not just get new rear tires on both of them if they are in need anyway? Well, regarding the Honda, as little as I ride that I can probably pretty easily put that off until next year. It’s only if I want to take it on a long trip that I’ll need a new tire sooner. But the V-Strom could use a new one now. Except that, to cover my bases, I contacted Ron, my sometimes V-Strom mechanic, to see if he would be available to get a tire on this bike and he is out of the country until August 3. Ouch.

Now it’s getting serious. Frankly, I’d rather just put off new tires till later if there’s any way I can take the Kawi on the trip. So it hinges on Joel. Who I have not heard back from.

Calling Joel: Please get back to me ASAP. Meanwhile, I better find somebody to put a new tire on the V-Strom.

UPDATE
OK, this has been evolving as I’ve been writing. Joel just got back to me and will be back in town in a couple days and can get the Kawi running good before we’re scheduled to leave. In the meantime, I spoke to Bill, who directed me to a shop he and Dennis like for getting new tires put on and I’ll go ahead and get a new rear on the V-Strom just to play it safe.

Biker Quote for Today

Motorcycle mechanic only because freakin’ awesome is not an actual job title.

Have you ever watched the tread melt off your tire? I have. Not literally turning to liquid and dripping off, but being worn off in a matter of hours.

What you need to understand is that motorcycle tires are an entirely different critter than car tires. With car tires you have a broad, almost flat tread that the car rides on top off all the time. Motorcycle tires have a round profile because when you turn, you are leaning the bike. The round profile ensures that you always have tread in solid contact with the ground.

With only two tires, and those having very small contact areas, it is extremely important that you have good grip. Car tires have a hard rubber tread that will last 35,000 miles and more. In order to get a good grip, motorcycle tires use a very soft rubber. And guess what? That soft rubber wears away a whole lot quicker than hard rubber, generally not lasting much more than 10,000 miles.

Then there’s the effect of air pressure in the tires. It’s common knowledge that under-inflated tires wear out quicker, on cars as well as bikes. And while under-inflation can ruin a set of car tires in just a few thousand miles, that’s nothing compared to the soft rubber on motorcycle tires.

Which gets me back to my story.

In the early days of the OFMC, John and Bill and I went one year to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. While there I noticed that I was getting a bit thin on tread and mentioned it to the guys, who looked and agreed I would be needing new tires pretty soon after we got back home.

We only rode on to Page, AZ, the next day, which is about 100 miles. While unloading the bike I happened to glance at my rear tire and I was shocked. What little tread it had just a few hours ago was almost completely gone! I called Bill and John over and they gasped in amazement. Somebody had a tire gauge and when I checked my air pressure it was very, very low.

Of course I put air in, and it’s no surprise I was nervous the rest of the trip about the possibility of a blow-out. Realistically, I should have had a new tire put on right there in Page, but ever the optimist and a cheapskate to boot, I didn’t. And it did get me home safely.

But I tell you what, these days I have it on my calendar to check tire pressure on both my bikes and my car at the first of every month. And if I’m getting set to go on a trip I check the pressure before I leave.

This is really all just common sense, but it’s so easy sometimes to ignore common sense. It is far, far harder to ignore your own eyes when you see the tread vanish from a tire that quickly. We all learned a good lesson that day.

Biker Quote for Today

If you think it’s too dangerous, go home and cut your lawn, and leave us to it. — Guy Martin

For the first time since I don’t know when, I have six good tires on my three bikes. I went up to Boulder on Wednesday where I was meeting Ron Coleman, of Western Dual Sport Motorcycle Adventures, so he could put a new rear tire on my CB750 Custom. Get together at 9 and I should be home again by noon.

Wrong.

First off, Ron forgot. I was late but he was later, so at 9:30 I called him. Got voicemail and left a message. No big deal for me, it was a beautiful morning and I was sitting in the shade outside a coffee shop drinking a mocha and reading a book. I called again at 10 and this time he answered.

“Hey, where are you?”

“Oh my god! I forgot. I’m leaving now.”

So it was another half hour plus before he made it there from Lafayette. Again, no big deal for me.

We then headed over to Jeff’s, where Ron’s tire-changing machine lives. The wheel came off quickly and the tire came off with no problems and then it was time to put the new tire on. And it was on, though not inflated, when it occurred to me that we had forgotten the new valve stem.

There’s something you need to understand about valve stems on old Hondas, at least the CB750s. They’re almost completely inaccessible. Checking your air pressure is really hard and getting a pump head on is even worse. So we were planning to put on a valve with a 90-degree bend that would be easy to get to. We had put a new valve in on the front tire last fall but now it was time for the rear. And we had forgotten it before the tire was back on the rim.

No problem. Just shove the rubber out of the way and insert the valve. Then pull it through.

Did I say the valves are almost impossible to reach? Ron managed to grab this thing with some pliers but couldn’t get much leverage. And after a lot of trying and a lot of effort . . . it broke off. Now we had to go buy a new one.

Off we went to Mike’s Motorcycle, which was cool because I had never been there. I always like seeing a new shop. But the only 90-degree valve stem they had was the wrong size. So we figured just stop at a car tire place; they always have valve stems. Well, this one did but not anything we could use. Push on.

So we ended up at the Boulder store of G-Force Power Sports. I knew there was a G-Force in Denver but didn’t know they had a shop in Boulder, too. And they had what we wanted. Normally a valve stem costs about $2. For a 90-degree one, however, $10. I bought two just to ensure we didn’t need to make a return trip.

Back at Jeff’s, we took the tire off so as to get the valve stem in as easily as possible, and all went well. And then it all went back together easily and quickly. And presto, I had a new rear tire.

Of course, then between lunch and shooting the bull we ate up some more time. It wasn’t much after 4 by the time I got home. Nothing like spending your entire day getting a new tire. I enjoyed every minute of it.

Biker Quote for Today

We’ll stay up all night working on a bike to just go thrash on it tomorrow.

Some people simply won’t start out on a motorcycle trip without new tires. I know Willie and Jungle are like that. And then there are people like me who look at the tire and think, “Well, this trip will be about 1,500 miles and I’m sure I have that much left on this tire. And if not, I’ll get a new one along the way.”

That was the case on this recent OFMC trip. Literally. I had that conversation with myself and then every day at the end of the ride I inspected my front tire to answer one question: Is there enough rubber on it for tomorrow’s ride?

It’s not enough to only ask that question before you start out. I learned that a few years ago when I went down to Arizona Bike Week. I looked at my tires and concluded I had plenty of rubber to get there and get home, but by the time I got there it was evident I had been wrong. As soon as I got to Scottsdale I headed to a local dealership and got new tires.

The tires I was riding on on the Kawi this trip were not a pair. I had gotten two new tires out in Ohio a few years ago when I went out for Vintage Motorcycle Days, but barely 1,200 miles later my rear got ruined by a puncture. I was able to get to Eagle where Jungle set me up with a used rear tire he had taken off his Concours before they went on a trip sometime earlier. And that one was good enough that I only had to replace it finally last year. But now my Ohio front tire was wearing thin.

Each day I checked it, and each day I concluded it would be fine tomorrow. Until the last day, when the disappearance of the rubber was more pronounced than it had been the other days. Hmmmm. I figured it was still good for 250 miles. And it was.

So I was over to Mountain Thunder on Friday to have Joel put a new one on for me.

“Wouldn’t you agree I could have gotten another couple thousand miles out of this tire?” I asked him jokingly.

“I think you should have replaced it a couple thousand miles sooner,” he replied, not joking.

Joel’s probably right. And I probably won’t change my ways.

Biker Quote for Today

Motorcyclist: A person willing to take a container of flammable liquid, place it on top of a hot moving engine, and then put the whole lot between their legs.

That’s my Concours up on a lift, getting new tires at Iron Pony in Columbus, Ohio. Five hundred dollars later and a “free” t-shirt and I was on my way again.

The tires weren’t totally shot yet, but I’ll be cruising about 1,200 miles in the next three days coming home from Ohio, and after being home for one day I’ll be taking off again on another 1,500 mile ride. Today was the best day to get the work done and this way I have more peace of mind on the ride home. As it was, I wasn’t at all sure I’d even get home without stopping somewhere–probably at a very inconvenient point.

This is the second time in two years that I’ve had to get tires while out on the road. Last March I headed out for Arizona Bike Week figuring I had enough rubber to get home, but by the time I reached Scottsdale I knew I needed new tires immediately. That time I got lucky, though. I didn’t have to pay for mounting and the whole thing cost me about $270. This time it cost me just a couple dollars shy of $500.

Just as a point of reference, that’s double what I paid for my first car.

So the place I went to was Iron Pony, in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio. I had heard about this place before and despite the price I was really glad they were there. First off, it was only just a few miles out of my way, and on top of that, they were open on Sunday. That’s really big right there.

The Iron Pony is quite a place. The building used to be a Super Kmart so as you can imagine, it’s huge. They work on bikes, they sell bikes both new and used, and they sell more motorcycle gear than you can imagine. And judging from what I saw, they have really good prices on a lot of stuff. High volume, low margin, you know.

And they were really nice. Don’t misunderstand my moaning about the price. It would have cost me just as much for tires somewhere else. I just hate the idea that two motorcycle tires cost more than four car tires and last one-fifth as long. But we all know that’s the case, so get over it.

So anyway, I’m set now. Tomorrow it’s on to Peoria, then a stop in Nebraska, and I’ll be home on Wednesday. I think I’ll be glad to get home.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Making the rounds at Vintage Motorcycle Days

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re becoming addicted to riding when you leave on the bike to get some dinner and get home only to realize you didn’t stop to eat.