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Harbor Freight Tire changer to mount up new tires.

JDE

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So I finally got my new Shinko 705's mounted up the other day. Had PR3's on before got decent mileage out of them, maybe about 10k. Not quite what I was expecting for the price of the tires, but better than the stock Metzlers. Last tire change I changed them myself on the garage floor with some tire spoons and balanced them with Ride-on. It was doable, but man was it a pain. So, after seeing that the Harbor Freight Motorcycle tire changer adapter was available I thought I'd give it a shot. I've heard the reviews that it needs modification to work right and they are correct, the part that is supposed to clamp on and hold the wheel in place while you remove or install the tire doesn't work well at all. I had to use a ratchet strap to hold the wheel in place. That being said it was still MUCH easier having everything up off the floor to work on. Some have said before with this type of tire changer you MUST mount it to the floor. Ehh, not necessary. The instructions show it mounted to a wooden pallet. I mounted it to a sturdy piece of plywood, with a 2x4 frame and cross member for support. The plywood was a 4'x4' square. I didn't want to drill any holes in my garage or my back patio as I plan on selling this house within the next 2yrs. I may mount it to the floor of my next home, but found that at 5'10" 245lbs I had enough weight and leverage to make it work mounted this way.

While the tires were off I installed new metal valve stems as some day I think I might get a TPMS of some sort, haven't decided on one yet.

Also lot's of folks have mentioned that they don't like to use products like Ride-on in their tires as it makes a mess on the wheel when changing tires. Others have stated that when taking their bike to a shop they got charged extra to clean up the mess. My last tire change there was VERY little mess to speak of, cleaned it up with ONE paper towel. This time however, not so lucky. The front tire was the messiest, but the wheel was easily cleaned up on the front lawn with the hose. The Ride-on product that had gotten on the inner part of the wheel simply rinsed away with water, no scrubbing needed.

Like others who have mounted the Shinko 705's have noted, once on the bike they are taller. With the bike on the center stand the rear tire touches the floor of the garage. Also had to jack the front up a little more to get the wheel back on the front forks after mounting the new tire. After tires were mounted I took a break for the day then performed the $5 Fender mod, since the front tire is too big for the front fender in stock form. I didn't take any pictures of that though the picture in that thread are detailed enough.
 

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Thanks for sharing.

One comment / question. Ride on is white. What is in your PR3 tires? Also looks like too much was applied. Ride on in the proper amount only coats roughly the area of the tire between the chicken strips, not out to the bead. That extra coverage has a lot to do with the mess.

Here is Ride-On's picture of what coverage area should be inside tire:
Ride On Coverage.jpg

Here is their video:
[video=youtube;V2eTQk0Oarg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2eTQk0Oarg[/video]
 
Thanks for sharing.

One comment / question. Ride on is white. What is in your PR3 tires? Also looks like too much was applied. Ride on in the proper amount only coats roughly the area of the tire between the chicken strips, not out to the bead. That extra coverage has a lot to do with the mess.

Here is Ride-On's picture of what coverage area should be inside tire:
View attachment 17589

Here is their video:
[video=youtube;V2eTQk0Oarg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2eTQk0Oarg[/video]

You are most likely correct. I probably put too much in the front, it's hard to get it all out of the tube to make sure you are putting in the correct amount. So I think I added a little too much, to be on the safe side. I assure you though there is nothing else in the tire but Ride-on. It not pure white when you install anyways, plus after 10kmiles rolling around the inside of a tire it never gonna look the same. After 8k miles in the stock Metzelers the Ride-on had turned a very dark grey almost black.

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If you just want to balance a tire which you have put on yourself. You could also try using dynobeads, really small beads which you put in like you would with ride-on, they supposedly balance the tire while riding, and they are re-usable, you remove the valve stem and pour them out.

I just had my local shop put on Continental Motion Touring/sport tires. I like them, rode about 250 miles over the weekend with them and they feel great. I didn't get too hard into the curves due to I wanted to make sure they were scrubbed really well, but I did lay the bike over good in some curves at slow speed. I will be in the Dragon area in a couple of weeks :)

My local shop charged me one hour of labor charge ($90) to remove the wheels from the bike, change the tires, balance the tires. The set of tires were $185 thru them (cheaper than the sale cycle gear had for them). Well worth it for me to have them do all the work and buy the tires from them for less than $300. I give them most of the work on my bikes-like to keep the mom and pop shops in business as long as they are not too much more than the online stores.
 
I assure you though there is nothing else in the tire but Ride-on. It not pure white when you install anyways, plus after 10kmiles rolling around the inside of a tire it never gonna look the same. After 8k miles in the stock Metzelers the Ride-on had turned a very dark grey almost black.

Yep. After several thousand in my front (stock) Metzie, the RideOn had turned to a dark gray color. I don't honestly see how it could possibly _not_ do so, but maybe some tires have a color-seal coating inside them or something. ;)
I also did not find clean-up particularly bothersome. It did get on the rim (though perhaps only during the tire-change?). It was easily cleaned up, though.
 
Well, got 250 miles on these tires now.

My first impression, maybe I should have just went with the PR4's.

I've never ridden a dirt bike before or any kind of dual sport bike with tires that have this sort of tread on them like the Shinko's. So this is new to me and not quite what I expected I guess.

These tires have a lot of slow speed vibrations. 20-30mph especially. After that it smooths out a bit but there still more higher frequency vibrations at freeway speeds, that I feel more in my hands during my hour plus commute. Out the gate first impressions were still better than the Z8's as far as feeling comfortable with the handling and quicker scrubbing in I'd say. But coming from a set of PR3's, I've lost some of my cornering confidence. Just before pulling off the PR3's I had scrapped my first peg on the NC without freaking out. (Scrapped pegs on the old V-Rod many times, but that thing is a totally different animal) I think it will be a while before I'm comfortable even attempting to scrape a peg with these tires, if ever.

Also, "high" speed stability has changed slightly. There is a little more "wobble" I guess you'd say in the handle bars at highway speeds, especially with windy conditions. It's not dangerous levels, but just noticeable compared to the PR3's.

I'm sure to those who have ridden dirt or other dual sport/adventure bikes none of this would surprise you, but all I've ever ridden on has been street bikes with street tires.

I hope I get a chance to hit some dirt soon to make this worth while. Otherwise, I may go with the PR4's soon. Not sure if I'll wait until I wear these out first or take them off and keep them on stand by for when I know I'm going to go on an adventure off road. Now that I have a tire changer it will be easier to make the switch.

Time will tell..

I think I need to spend less time on motorcycle forums reading about all these really cool adventures everybody else is going on and wake up to reality. 99.5% of my riding is commuting. A guy can still dream I guess..
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Thanks for the review JDE. The majority of my riding is also commuting, so I went ahead and got the PR4's.
I had some concerns about the handling of this set up for the type of riding I do.
 
Good write up on these. They may not be the best for your (or my) riding style, but I think they look great on the NC!
 
They are all-terrain and just like on a truck they are noisier and vibe more than a pure street tire. I took me a few rides to get used to them. I have backed off on cornering speed a bit. That is mostly me knowing I'm riding on an all-terrain tire. On the plus side I don't flinch anymore when there is gravel scattered across the road. They also handle sand on the road a lot better than street tires. When you do go off-road you will be amazed at how much better they are. The Z8s were scary. The PR3s were a whole lot better but I never went above ~25 mph off-road on them. With the Shinkos I'm running 10+ mph faster and they feel perfectly stable. I could easily go faster but the speed limit on the dirt roads is 25-30 mph and I'm generally trying to enjoy the view. I suggest giving them 1,000 miles before giving up on them and also do some off-road with them. You might decide to do more off-roading. :rolleyes:For 99% on-road I'd suggest the PRs and just go slower when off-road.
 
They are all-terrain and just like on a truck they are noisier and vibe more than a pure street tire. I took me a few rides to get used to them. I have backed off on cornering speed a bit. That is mostly me knowing I'm riding on an all-terrain tire. On the plus side I don't flinch anymore when there is gravel scattered across the road. They also handle sand on the road a lot better than street tires. When you do go off-road you will be amazed at how much better they are. The Z8s were scary. The PR3s were a whole lot better but I never went above ~25 mph off-road on them. With the Shinkos I'm running 10+ mph faster and they feel perfectly stable. I could easily go faster but the speed limit on the dirt roads is 25-30 mph and I'm generally trying to enjoy the view. I suggest giving them 1,000 miles before giving up on them and also do some off-road with them. You might decide to do more off-roading. :rolleyes:For 99% on-road I'd suggest the PRs and just go slower when off-road.

Yeah, I'll probably end up sticking with the Shinko's until I wear them out. I could just see the conversation with the wife if I were to order another set of tires right now because I'm not happy with the way they feel on my commute to and from work. "Why did you buy another set of tires? You just bought tires. I thought we were trying to save money to move closer to your work. How much did these cost?" Ok, ok, I'll just wear them out first. It's just easier that way..
 
Following up with this thread after putting some miles on the 705's. I've got about 4k miles on them now, the rear is looking like it doesn't have much time left so I ordered another one yesterday. The front is still looking like it has plenty of miles left on it. As bamamate said, once I got the tires worn in a bit they got better. The ride improved quite a bit since I recently put in R.T. Gold Valve in the front forks and changed the fork oil. I think that might have been adding to my discomfort before, as now I don't feel the vibrations as much in the bars. The tires handle great on the road, after getting some time on them and getting used to the slight change in handling I don't notice any difference. I feel as though I can and do take corners just as fast and safely as I did before. Off road these were really good, I've only had them "really" off road once. But it was about 40miles of dirt roads, varying in difficulty. The tires never let me down. The only problem I had was when I encountered some thick large gravel. The tires sank pretty deep and I was having a hard time making the turn and ended up laying the bike down gently. Picked it back up after a short rest and was able to carry on. Though after talking with some guys who have ridden dirt bikes most of their lives it was probably more of my technique that caused my problem with the gravel.

I haven't ridden much in the rain with these as we haven't had much rain to speak of in my area since I put them on, so I can't give a fair report on wet handling for these tires. Though I think they perform fine, as I did get caught in one summer shower on one trip to work. Back end slipped on a painted line when making a left turn, but that could have happened on just about any tire and was probably more rider error.

To sum things up, in the beginning I wasn't sure if I was going to keep these tires on for the long haul. Gave them a chance, and I will be putting another rear on when this one is done and probably continue running with these tires in the future. They are cheap and handle great on the road which is what I do most, but I want the knowledge that if I want to take the NC off-road at the drop of a hat. I can, and don't have to change out the tires/wheels to do so. So I'm pretty sure 705's will be my tire of choice for miles to come.
 
I picked up a harbor freight tire changer recently. I just used it today to put new front and new rear tires on. The OP summed it up pretty well. It's not a top notch machine but I would recommend it as an inexpensive way to make a tough job a lot easier.
 
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With the Harbor Freight tire changer there is a great mod you need to do to prevent damaging your wheels. The guy who makes the Mojolever also makes Mojoblocks which will save your rims and help keep them from slipping. In stock form the tire changer will damage your rims for sure.
 
I saw the mods people were using on the youtube videos posted using the HF changer. Instead of the 3 vinyl Mojoblocks, I cut 3 pieces about 3" long off of an old garden hose. I cut one slit in each along the length of each piece. They slipped on nicely to the lip of rim and protected it well. A small cinch strap was used to prevent the wheel from spinning in the clamps (like in other videos). I put a wire wheel on my grinder and took the paint off the pry bar at the contact points on each end, so orange paint wouldn't flake off and prevent the bead from sealing. A little vegetable oil on the contact area of the bead setter keep paint scrape-age of my rim to a minimum.
 
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With the Harbor Freight tire changer there is a great mod you need to do to prevent damaging your wheels. The guy who makes the Mojolever also makes Mojoblocks which will save your rims and help keep them from slipping. In stock form the tire changer will damage your rims for sure.

The Mojolever and Mojoblocks are a must if using the HF tire changer, in my opinion. Here is the site for ordering them: http://www.mojotiretools.com/mojoweb.htm

An alternative to the Mojolever is to buy the NoMar bar: Mount / Demount Bar | No Mar Tire Changer | Cycle Hill Tire Changer | CH200 Tire Changer

I also purchased NoMar's bead clamp, "yellow thing", and their paste.
 
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