New Winter Tires for the Ural (HF307)

With the temperatures getting colder, I decided it was time to order this year’s winter tires for the Ural sidecar to facilitate my year round riding. The Heidenau K37 Snowtex I have on now are proper winter tires with the snowflake printed on the side. They’ve worked great for the last two years, but are now pretty worn out. This will be my fifth winter riding, so I guess it is fitting that the Duro is also the fifth tire I’ve tried for winter riding (Uralshina, Duro HF308, Kenda K335, Heidenau K37 Snowtex, and now Duro HF307).

Above, you can see the K37 Snowtex on the left and the new HF307s on the right. If the K37 Snowtex worked so well, why did I switch? Cost. One K37 Snowtex is about $180. I found a deal on the HF307 which put them at $65 a piece. I bought three HF307s tires for just under $200 shipped. It was a pretty easy choice once I looked at the money.

The Heidenaus were very difficult to get on because they were so stiff and barely cleared the rear swingarm and drive shaft. The Internet promises me the HF307s will be easier to install. We’ll have to see how lazy I am this weekend before I can find out. I’ve been admiring them in the garage for a week now. hehe.

I wrote about the K37 Snowtex a few times. They worked really well in the snow, but I couldn’t justify the price difference. I hope the Duros work as well as people say they do, and last longer than the crappy K335s.

 

K37 Snowtex posts:

• New Tires!
• Snow Tires for the Ural
• Winter Sidecar Prep
• Riding in a Snow Storm

I Broke My Mojo

Installing my new tires proved to be a bit more adventure than I expected when I began. I thought it was going to be a nice Saturday afternoon project, but it turned into a multi-day affair.

Snow Tires for the Ural

I turned over 15,000km on the Ural last weekend and decided to do some maintenance. Little did I know it would turn into a multi-day ordeal at no fault of the Ural.

More Bike Goodies

Today, more brown boxes arrived with bike goodies. First up is the Haynes R1150GS Service & Repair Manual. I have several of the Haynes manuals already, and I really like them.

After reviewing the manual, I noticed my current torque wrench didn’t go down to 8 newton meters, so I needed a smaller one. I purchased this Craftsman Digitork Torque Wrench. Torque wrenches are expensive! Lucky for me it was on sale! I also noticed I needed some hex head and torx bit sockets to use with the torque wrench. BMW is very fond of both heads on their bolts. With the below I should be able to complete the remaining maintenance items on my list. 

This pile was in front of the house too. Tires for my wife’s GZ250 on the right. The rest of the consumables should be coming soon for the GZ.

The big boxes contained the Aerostich Steel Wheel Crate Workstand. It was on sale from $237 to $165, and on valentines day, they had another special %14 off. For $142, it made sense. I ordered it on 2/14 and received it on 2/15 via regular shipping. Nice!

Here’s what it looks like mocked up:

With the Super9 on top. It lifts the bike about 12” off the ground. Safety straps should be used. I just wedged the center stand down. to hold it up. More on this later. The BMW is taking up my workspace, so I can’t use it just yet. It also has a 500lbs weight limit and the porky BMW is 550lbs.

Here is the stand packed up to store. It doesn’t take up much space.

More exciting maintenance posts coming soon. It’s been warm here lately 33F-50F, so I’ve been riding the Super9 and SV650. My goal is to finish up the BMW by the end of February, so I can make room for the next bike to work on.

Tire Pressure

I am behind on my blog, so I’ll just start with today and work backwards. Almost every Wednesday my co-worker and I ride to lunch (usually Chipotle). It has been a tradition for the past few years. It has been great to get out of the office and sneak in a quick ride.

On the way to work today the Ural felt like the rear tire was a bit low. I tried to make a mental note to check is before we went to lunch. I also asked my co-worker to remind me. I know I should check before I left home…

When we left for lunch, I set out with my tire gauge and checked the Ural.

The manual states the front should be 32psi, side 30psi, and the rear 40psi. The front was 30 and the pusher was 34. I had the Slime Power Sport Tire Inflator handy in trunk. It took care of the low pressure easily.

While I was filling up, my co-worker asked for my tire gauge since he didn’t remember the last time he checked his tires. He rides a Concours 1000. The rear came out at 30psi. The front was at 25psi. He thought it was maybe ok. I told him no way a bike that heavy would be ok with that low of a tire pressure.

We hunted around on his bike looking for the recommended spec. My bikes all have them written on the swingarm. Not on the Kawasaki. We found it under the rear seat. It said 41psi for the rear and 36psi for the front! Quite a difference!

I was finished with the slime pimp, so I let him fill up his tires too. I just ran the pump off the Ural since he didn’t have a SAE connection or a 12v socket. It took the pump a couple minutes to get up to those higher pressures, but it did. With everything set right, we set off.

I almost always ride with the pump and tire gauge now. They have come in handy so many times this year I have lost count. When was the last time you checked your tires??

It was very windy, but beautifully blue skies. Great day for a ride!

 

Related Posts:

• Slime Power Sport Tire Inflator Review

Wheels, Tires, and Birds

On the way to work yesterday I was very happy to be wearing all of my gear. I was especially grateful for my full face helmet! A bird and I crossed paths and this photo is the result:

 

I didn’t realize what it was at first, and thought it was just a giant bug. I raised my hand to wipe it away and then saw the white drip and realized what had happened. EWWW!! Damn birds! I closed my mouth vent, but it was too late. It dripped into that too. YUCK! I got to work and immediately started cleaning. I took the visor off and used a lot of soap. Very nasty. It cleaned off easily as it was still wet and drippy. I shudder to think of this experience without the visor. Although quite rare for a moving motorcycle to be hit by a moving bird’s crap, this should be high on the list of reasons for a full face helmet (besides the whole crashing thing).

My poor Ural is trapped at St. Croix Ural 56 miles away. I brought it in last week to get the wheels repaired since the spokes have been having so many problems. They tried to fight me and did not want to fix them under the warranty. After I wasted two days arguing with St. Croix, IMZ Ural approved the replacement under warranty as I knew they would. The dealer has no idea why it keeps happening, and continues to try to extort money out of me. This will be my last interaction with them, as I am working to build a new relationship with a Ural service center 94 miles away. He had a couple ideas on the cause of the problem. When I suggested that to St. Croix, they said they’d charge me $80 to test. As politely as possible, I told them where to go with that idea. New wheels for the Ural are on order. They are expected to arrive in one to two weeks. Grr.

This weekend, I will be attending the 7th Annual East Central Iowa Sidecar rally in Anamosa, IA hosted by the National Motorcycle Museum. I’m hoping it will be fun. Looking at previous years photos, there should be a few dozen sidecars. I am really bummed I can’t take my Ural, but I am looking forward to all the sidecars outside and the bikes in the museum.

Thanks to a good deal from Lloyd, I picked up another set of Dunlop Q2 tires for the SV. Since I don’t have the Ural back, I was forced to get them with the SV650. The rack made it really easy to carry the tires home securely.

The last set went over 5,500 miles, and most of those miles were two up with full luggage. Considering that, I think they did quite well. Mine are VERY worn.

Old on the left and new on the right. Click on the photo to enlarge. I tried to line up the tread pattern to make comparison easier.

Before I got rid of my old rear tire, I had some fun with it first. :) More on that later.

GS500 Rear Tire Replacement

This post documents putting a new Pirelli Demon Sport Touring Rear Tire size: 130/70H-17 on my 2007 GS500F.

Tools Used:

• 22mm wrench or 22mm impact socket with impact wrench 
• 17mm wrench
• 14mm wrench
• 14mm socket 
• valve core tool 
• side cutters (or pliers)
• 2-3 tire levers/tire spoons
• rim protectors 
• Windex (it is alcohol based, so it dries quickly unlike soapy water)
• axle grease
• tire gauge 
• torque wrench 
• hearing protection (impact wrench is loud)
• air compressor to seat the bead (or a bike pump!)
• includes affiliate links to support the blog

1) Get the bike on the center stand to lift the rear tire up

2) Use the angle cutter or pliers to remove the cotter pin

3) Use the 14mm wrench and 14mm socket to remove the bolt attaching the rear caliper to the support

4) use the 22mm wrench or impact and the 17mm wrench to loosen the castle nut on the axle and remove the axle.

5) Slide the tire forward to remove the chain from the rear sprocket and remove the tire from the bike

6) Remove the tire from the wheel. Here is a video showing how to dismount and mount a tire in less than five minutes using the cheap harbor freight tire changer I use.
Old tire and new tire:

7) get the tire on the balancer and balance it

this tire needed five 1/4oz (7g) weights to get it balanced

8) grease up the axle with a small amount of axle grease

9) reinsert the axle after putting the brake caliper back
Rear caliper bolt torque: 25 ft-lbs

put the chain on the sprocket too

10) put the castle nut back on and use a new cotter pin
Rear axle torque: 40 ft-lbs

11) Seat the bead on the tire with the air compressor and inflate to 36 psi.
12) Go for a ride and enjoy your new tire!


Related Article:

GS500 Front Tire Replacement

Written by Chrisluhman for Everyday Riding. All rights reserved.

GS500 Front Tire Replacement

This post documents putting a new Pirelli Demon Sport Touring Front Tire size: 110/70H-17 on my 2007 GS500F.

Tools Used:

• 19mm wrench or 19mm impact socket with impact wrench
• 17mm wrench
• 14mm socket with extension
• valve core tool
• side cutters (or pliers)
• 2-3 tire levers/tire spoons
• rim protectors
• 6” or 8” C-clamp (a slow, hard way to break a bead – easier way)
• Windex (it is alcohol based, so it dries quickly unlike soapy water)
• axle grease
• tire gauge 
• torque wrench 
• hearing protection (impact wrench is loud)
• air compressor to seat the bead (or a trip to the gas station!)
• includes affiliate links to support the blog

1) Get the front tire off the ground. If you still have the center stand, this is easy. I put two 50lb sand bags on the rear seat, and the front tire stayed in the air.

2) Using the 14mm socket, remove the two bolts holding the front brake caliper on.

Place a rag on top of the fender to protect it. Lift the caliper out of the way and place on top of the front fender.

3) Using the side cutters or pliers, remove the cotter pin from the castle nut.

4) Using the 19mm and 17mm wrench, remove the castle nut from the axle.

and pull the axle out.

5) Remove the tire from the bike
6) With a valve core tool, remove the valve from the valve stem to let all of the air out of the tire.

7) Break the bead on the tire. There are a lot of different ways to do this. Some of them easier, but I thought I’d try something new with this tire change and try C-Clamps. Tightening the clamps on the tire will break the bead.

One side of the tire’s bead broken away from the rim.

I found it helpful to use a rim protector to get the bead on the other side broken.

8) Once the bead is broken on both sides, you can start using tire levers to lift one side of the tire over the edge of the rim. Use the rim protectors to avoid marring the paint. Liberal use of Windex help lubricate the tire off the rim.

9) When the first side is completely off, flip over and push off the other side. Again, use the Windex to make this part easier.
 
The new and old tire side by side:

10) When mounting the new tire note the direction arrow on the tire and align appropriately.

11) Using more Windex and rim protectors, lever the first side of the tire on.

12) Once the first side is on, lever the second on. Windex helps a lot. Also make sure to keep the tire pushed down in the rim. This keeps the tire in the narrow part of the rim making it much easier to lever that last bit of tire over the edge.

13) Replace the valve and lubricate the tire again with Windex. Use an air compressor to quickly fill the tire. This will cause the bead to seat on the rim. You will hear two loud “pops” as the bead seats.

This little compressor works great and was only $10 at a local auction.

14) Fill the tire to the recommended 33psi

15) mount the tire on a balancing stand and balance.

This tire was balanced by adding three 1/4oz (7g) weights.

16) Remount the tire to the bike and torque to the following specs:
Front Axle Nut: 30 ft-lbs
Front brake caliper mounting bolt: 30 ft-lbs
17) Replace the cotter pin with a new one
18) Take the bike for a ride
19) Enjoy a cold beverage!
I recognize using C-clamps and levers is the “hard way.” I do own a tire changer. It brakes the bead in a few seconds compared to the minutes it takes with the clamps. It also dismounts and mounts the tire far faster and easier than levers. Good tools cost good money, but save LOTS of time.
I bought the tire changer last year when I realized how many miles I was putting on my bikes and how many my wife was also riding. We needed between three and five sets of tires a year between all of the bikes. At $70-$100 per set to have them professionally installed, we recouped the cost of the tools in one year.

Related Article:

GS500 Rear Tire Replacement

Written by Chrisluhman for Everyday Riding. All rights reserved.