Tires in Louisiana

[Revjames]

My rear OEM tire has a slow leak. It had a small nail that I had plugged, but leak is coming from an apparent seam in tread cap about an inch or 2 from where plug was installed. The plug is not leaking, but was just a temporary fix until I can replace tire.

My question is this, does anyone know a dealer in Louisiana that can and will install a car tire on rear of a Spyder? I have been calling New Orleans Powersports but can never talk to service manager, nor get a call back? I bought my Spyder from a dealer that sold out not long after I bought. Could I trust the new Spyder dealer's service, Honda of Covington Powersports, if they will do it?

I do not have the equipment to remove rear wheel myself, and honestly and am a bit leery of tackling such a critical job. Thanks in advance.

[pegasus1300]

Rev do you have a good friend who is a pretty good mechanic? If so have him watch a couple of You Tube videos on removing the rear wheel,especially the one by finless bob on removing the rear wheel without disturbing the belt settings. Then ask him to take off your wheel for you take it to you favorite tire store and change the tire, then have your friend put it back on. It really is not that hard,just fiddely.

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Rev do you have a good friend who is a pretty good mechanic? If so have him watch a couple of You Tube videos on removing the rear wheel,especially the one by finless bob on removing the rear wheel without disturbing the belt settings. Then ask him to take off your wheel for you take it to you favorite tire store and change the tire, then have your friend put it back on. It really is not that hard,just fiddely.

:agree: ... any person with some mechanical experience and a 36mm wrench & a car jack can do this CORRECTLY after watching the video's ..... good luck .... Mike :thumbup:

[shakin_jake]

:agree: ... any person with some mechanical experience and a 36mm wrench & a car jack can do this CORRECTLY after watching the video's ..... good luck .... Mike :thumbup:

~~~Mike!, what about balancing, what are you and others doing. Just wondering what the forum consensus is. I have a balancing rig for my Vespa GTS and can also balance my airhead GSPD with the same equipment but have yet to try (don’t have a need @ this point) to balance any of my Ryker wheel/tires. Again, just wondering what you Spyder pilots are making do with


Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.
A recent study has found that women who carry a little extra weight live longer than men who mention it

[Peter Aawen]

Not Mike, but I'll guess that he'd say the fronts can be balanced on just about any balancer so long as they have small enough cones to tighten the rim onto the spindle. The rears, if you go with a good quality properly mounted car tire (align the coloured dots ;) ) then you are very unlikely to find the tire actually needs balancing. :thumbup:

I've done literally hundreds like that without any issues &/or vibrations yet - even seemingly fixed that '70+ mph belt vibration' on a couple of F3's :rolleyes: Maybe it was just that I didn't re-tension the belt afterwards, but then I always try to take the wheels off & refit them without varying the alignment &/or tension?!? :dontknow:

So given that you already know how to use it, your balancing rig will probably work as well as any, if not better than at least some! :ohyea:

[Little Blue]

:gaah: ......:banghead:.....That is how I felt when I called and said 'any chance of getting a different type of rear tire installed?'

I couldn't find anyone who would help me. I needed a Rear Tire ASAP, was going on a wonderful weekend trip with the wife.

SO, I took the bullet and let my local Spyder Dealer do the job.
I was on the road an hour later. Wonderful Service and I am glad to have a new tire.....:ohyea:

Safety first you know and an awesome weekend time with my wife. .......:yes:.......:yes:......:thumbup:

[Peter Aawen]

My rear OEM tire has a slow leak. It had a small nail that I had plugged, but leak is coming from an apparent seam in tread cap about an inch or 2 from where plug was installed. The plug is not leaking, but was just a temporary fix until I can replace tire.

......

Reading that bit I've bolded RevJames, I'd be a bit wary of ryding on that tire at all!! :lecturef_smilie: If the plug has sealed the 'actual' leak caused by a nail, but now your tire is leaking air from a seam some inches away, it may well mean that your tire has already started delaminating internally! :yikes:

This might be due to some belt damage caused when the nail punctured it, but it could also be a construction defect - in either case, the risk of sudden and catastrophic failure is fairly high & probably getting worse by the minute! Once any air & any moisture it may carry is introduced into the belts &/or construction layers of a tire, they begin to deteriotate rapidly unless sealed properly, and plug repairs simply don't do that!! Plus, now that you have this sort of leak, that tire is definitely a throw-away, even if it seems otherwise brand new!! You just cannot repair a tire once that sort of failure & leak has occurred - you don't & can't know how far the delamination has spread - well, not until the tire explodes &/or disintegrates, which will probably happen in use with little if any warning!! :shocked:

So Please, be very careful if you ride on that tire at all - I would go so far as to suggest that you NOT ride on it at all! And do try to get it replaced ASAP!! :lecturef_smilie: If you've read any of my previous tire related posts, you'll know that I will just have to add that you should preferably replace it with something not quite so prone to this sort of thing as the OEM tires! :p Sorry. :rolleyes:

[Revjames]

Reading that bit I've bolded RevJames, I'd be a bit wary of ryding on that tire at all!! :lecturef_smilie: If the plug has sealed the 'actual' leak caused by a nail, but now your tire is leaking air from a seam some inches away, it may well mean that your tire has already started delaminating internally! :yikes: .....

That is why this is so critical to me! I am "caged" in my truck until I can get tire taken care of, and I am really missing ryding! But yes Peter I am extremely wary of riding on that tire, so my Spyder is parked until it can have a new rear tire! And yes I am definitely trying to avoid going back to OEM tire.

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

~~~Mike!, what about balancing, what are you and others doing. Just wondering what the forum consensus is. I have a balancing rig for my Vespa GTS and can also balance my airhead GSPD with the same equipment but have yet to try (don’t have a need @ this point) to balance any of my Ryker wheel/tires. Again, just wondering what you Spyder pilots are making do with


Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.
A recent study has found that women who carry a little extra weight live longer than men who mention it

What I have found concerning AUTO ( which are made to closer tolerances ) tires if the person mounting the tires follows recommended Red or Yel. dot alignment .... most Auto tires will either balance correctly or come very close before ANY weights are needed. .... for Spyders with an Auto tire on the REAR I found ( and so did Peter ) that balancing It, gives very little to NO added benefit. ... waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back I balanced my first rear tire and have not for the last 5 rear tires ...... Mike :thumbup:.... Sorry for the re-dundency but I posted before I read Peter'sanswer .....:dontknow:

[pegasus1300]

What I have found concerning AUTO ( which are made to closer tolerances ) tires if the person mounting the tires follows recommended Red or Yel. dot alignment .... most Auto tires will either balance correctly or come very close before ANY weights are needed. .... for Spyders with an Auto tire on the REAR I found ( and so did Peter ) that balancing It, gives very little to NO added benefit. ... waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back I balanced my first rear tire and have not for the last 5 rear tires ...... Mike :thumbup:.... Sorry for the re-dundency but I posted before I read Peter'sanswer .....:dontknow:
And so have I ,no need to balance

[shakin_jake]

@ Peter & Mike. It’s all well and good to place the tire dot (sometimes painted dot) according to the tire valve placement so long as the tire valve is actually the heaviest point of the rim

I say that as there have been more than one rim that I sat on my balance rig with the tire off only to discover the heaviest point of the rim wasn’t at the tire valve, in fact once the heavy point was 180 degrees opposite the tire valve location


Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.
Liberalism: Ideas so good they have to be mandatory

[Revjames]

Update: I found a great price from a local tire dealer, Discount Tire, on a Kumho Ecsta in the original 225/50R15 size. Tire is ordered and Covington Powersports (dealer that bought out the dealer I bought Spyder from) told me they would install the tire at a price of around $240. Considering shop rates, that seems a fair price to me. Now I just hope they have an experienced Spyder tech that can do the work.

[Revjames]

While talking tires, at approximately what mileage should I expect to replace front tires? I know there are a gazillion variables, but just looking for a ball park idea. My riding is pretty tame, I don't feel I'm particularly hard on tires. I ask because when shopping for rear I started looking for fronts as well, and they are scarce as hen's teeth in original size.

[pegasus1300]

I replaced mine at 20,000 more or less. They were wearing funny and I was going on a long trip. YMMV.

[JKMSPYDER]

The OEM Kendas on the front should last 25,000 miles or so as long as they aren’t defective. But we see a lot of defective Kendas.

[bigbadbrucie]

My fronts were replaced at around 28,000 miles. I replaced them with Vredesteins (car tires).

[Peter Aawen]

@ Peter & Mike. It’s all well and good to place the tire dot (sometimes painted dot) according to the tire valve placement so long as the tire valve is actually the heaviest point of the rim

I say that as there have been more than one rim that I sat on my balance rig with the tire off only to discover the heaviest point of the rim wasn’t at the tire valve, in fact once the heavy point was 180 degrees opposite the tire valve location


Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.
Liberalism: Ideas so good they have to be mandatory

Was that WITH the valve stem installed?? Most rims are made so they are reasonably evenly weighted with the valve stem hole in place, then they ADD the valve stem, making it the heaviest point by something close to the weight of a valve stem - international conventions call for that to end up the heaviest part of the naked rim in order to allow the easier matching & balancing of tires with the also internationally called for 'yellow dot on the lightest part of the tire'. By those same international conventions, the red dot on a tire denotes the tires high point in it's roundness, usually where the tapered join in the tread layer causes a bit of a bump, and if the rim isn't exactly round, it should be marked at its lowest spot (usually with a tiny drill spot or a sticker) so that the tire tech can match the red dot to the correct spot on the rim - but if the rim doesn't have such a mark, then the tech should align the red dot on the tire with the valve stem, even if the tire also has a yellow dot! :thumbup:

Still, most good quality rims and tires these days are made very well & require little if any balancing - the manufacturers of both tend to work together in order to achieve a better overall product, resulting in less (if any) need for balancing or indexing on the rim to match high/low spots. This stuff is all governed by the same international conventions that decree manufacturers use basically the same sizing terminology & date/production marking syntax, and for MOST reasonably good quality rims & tires, it is largely complied with - if it's not, those manufacturers tend to lose sales &/or be forced out of the market, so even tho there are some cheap & nasty rim & tire manufacturers out there, they generally don't last too long or they up their game & very soon comply with the international conventions. :rolleyes:

If you got some (possibly dodgy??) rims that obviously DON'T comply with those international conventions, then you should really consider tossing them, cos if they took such an obvious short-cut, who knows what other short cuts they may have made!! :shocked: Not all that long ago here in Oz we got a batch of counterfeit 4WD rims, rims that for all intents & purposes LOOKED like the quality brand they were copies of, but it didn't take long for people to realise that they were very difficult to balance regardless of where the tire tech aligned the dots... then the rim failures started happening, often at speed! The centres would part company with the rest, or the rim would split circumferentially, and all sorts of other fairly drastic things! No fatalities, but a fair few accidents & then the rims were traced & recalled, and that company no longer imports into Australia... but I believe it's still selling rims into other less advantaged parts of the world! :yikes:

[Revjames]

Thanks all for your input. I "should" have quite a few miles remaining on my fronts, don't wanna buy too early and have them just sitting around. I did pick up new rear tire today. Kudos to Discount Tire in getting it in store in one day! Out the door price of just under $90, including road hazard protection. Plan to have it installed tomorrow. Now if it will just stop raining every day! It's one thing to get caught in rain, but I have a truck so do not ride in rain on purpose. :roflblack: Again thanks all. This forum is proving to be a valuable asset for Spyder owners.

[Revjames]

OH MYYYYY!!!! Went to have an $80 tire installed for $240 and ended up spending nearly 30 grand! Finally was able to buy the wife her RT Limited. Happy wife happy life! LOL :2thumbs:

[Peter Aawen]

OH MYYYYY!!!! Went to have an $80 tire installed for $240 and ended up spending nearly 30 grand! Finally was able to buy the wife her RT Limited. Happy wife happy life! LOL :2thumbs:

Well! I guess that's just another risk of getting your tire replaced by a dealer!! :yikes:

Enjoy! :ohyea:

[shakin_jake]

Was that WITH the valve stem installed?? Most rims are made so they are reasonably evenly weighted with the valve stem hole in place, then they ADD the valve stem, making it the heaviest point by something close to the weight of a valve stem - international conventions call for that to end up the heaviest part of the naked rim in order to allow the easier matching & balancing of tires with the also internationally called for 'yellow dot on the lightest part of the tire'. By those same international conventions, the red dot on a tire denotes the tires high point



~~~~yes, I absolutely leave the rubber air valve stem in place when looking for the *TRUE* heaviest point of the rim. The tire wont hold air if you leave it out Peter=:-)

https://live.staticflickr.com/474/32819420820_f91805b083_z.jpg

I’ve been using Marc Parnes balancing system, as seen in the above pic sitting on top of my kitchen stove. How this system works, the bearings in the two outer blocks with flat spots are able to sit on top what most that use with this system, a pair of concrete blocks, since they are readily available everywhere for cheap. The length of a concrete block is typically longer than the distance of half the height of your average motorcycle rim/tire combo

So the flat spots of the bearing blocks sit on the concrete blocks, you then insert the shaft through your rim’s bearings. The shaft does not come in contact with your rim’s bearings, that’s what the cones do, they butt against the bearings after you finger tighten the thumb screws. Marc Parnes offers cones for a multitude of motorcycle wheels. I haven’t checked his site but I would imagine he carries cones to fit Spyder wheels. When I started using Marc’s system I bought cones to work with my GS as seen in the below photo and my modern Vespa, a 2013 GTS

https://live.staticflickr.com/7330/16327565636_6f1212f2ae_z.jpg

Okay, going through my flickr photo stream I found a pic showing what I described above


https://live.staticflickr.com/8681/16167324679_1647acc931_z.jpg

at the risk of going off topic, here’s another tool I use when doing tire work. Before I bought this contraption I used the heels of my boots to break the seal that forms between a tire and motorcycle rim. The above works on leverage


https://live.staticflickr.com/7442/15731095544_f4912ec6b6_z.jpg

again, at the risk of going slightly off topic, I thought I’d show this pic doing tire work on my living room floor. Here in north central Fla. its hotter than the hinges of Haddes most of the year, so I bring the work indoors where I have air conditioning. I think a lot of two and three wheel pilots (at least in my part of the world) dont want to do tire work because its too hot outdoors. I say bring the work inside where its cool. Now I’m really going off topic with this next comment. I’d like to see manufacturers like Can Am offer cooling seats besides heated seats to their offerings. I’d love to be able to buy a Spyder with an option to cool the seat. We have more hot months where I ride than months where its cool

Aight!, just to recap what I said about finding the true heaviest point of the rim so you place the light point of your new tire you’re installing on said rim, Hey!, if others want to blindly install their new tires with the paint dots to the tire valve, thinking it’s the heaviest point of the rim, more power to them. As you and others have said Peter, its worked for you. OTOH, since I have the tools and the technology (application of knowledge), I’d rather take the time on a new to me wheel and fins the true heaviest point, and mark that spot inconspicuously (I place a dot using a permanent marker on the center of the rim) so that next time I mount a new tire, I’ll place the painted dot to that point knowing it’s the heaviest point of the rim

I’ll readily admit I’m splitting hairs doing it my way. It’s kind of like using a torque wrench to tighten a nut or. Bolt vs. using the built in torque wrench of your brain. Both work, but in the case of tire life, I’m likely to get more life out of a tire rather than not finding the true heaviest point on the rim, with the rubber air valve installed=:-)


Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while

[Peter Aawen]

~~~~yes, I absolutely leave the rubber air valve stem in place when looking for the *TRUE* heaviest point of the rim. The tire wont hold air if you leave it out Peter=:-) ...



But if you do your rim balance test with the tire already mounted on the rim, then you're not actually finding the *TRUE* heaviest point of the RIM per se, but more that of the TIRE & RIM assembly instead! :lecturef_smilie:

You really should try to find the heaviest point on the rim first (but with the valve stem in place) then align the dots on the tire accordingly, fit the tire, & check the whole wheel assembly's balance; and only THEN make a decision about whether the dots on the tires are in the wrong place - and generally, in 98 & 3/4% of the time on quality/good name brand tires, those dots tend to be where the international conventions on tires & rims specifies they should be. Sure, you might need to add some weight to properly balance the wheel assy even after doing that, but it'll almost certainly need less weight to balance than if you don't. :thumbup:

And I too would love to see a cooling seat for a Can Am Spyder. :ohyea:

[shakin_jake]

But if you do your rim balance test with the tire already mounted on the rim, then you're



~~~no Peter, when finding the heaviest point on the rim, the tire is removed, the rubber air valve is left on the rim

And if anyone needs an explanation why the reason is because the tire valve will be a constant, the tire isn’t


Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while

[Peter Aawen]

~~~~yes, I absolutely leave the rubber air valve stem in place when looking for the *TRUE* heaviest point of the rim. The tire wont hold air if you leave it out Peter=:-) ...
[Added comment 1: what's the tire got to do with it if you're looking for the heavy point on the rim?? Cos if the tire's ON the rim, you're balancing the combined rim & tire assy - but if the tires NOT on the rim, then all the air has already leaked out! :shocked: You need to balance just the rim, with no tire mounted, but WITH the valve stem in situ if you want to find the heaviest point on the rim - see my post quoted & emphasised below. ;) ]




But if you do your rim balance test with the tire already mounted on the rim, then you're not actually finding the *TRUE* heaviest point of the RIM per se, but more that of the TIRE & RIM assembly instead! :lecturef_smilie:

You really should try to find the heaviest point on the rim first (but with the valve stem in place) ......


~~~no Peter, when finding the heaviest point on the rim, the tire is removed, the rubber air valve is left on the rim
[Added comment 2: so you're now agreeing with what I said in my first post & highlighted in comment 1 ;) ]

And if anyone needs an explanation why the reason is because the tire valve will be a constant, the tire isn’t....


:hun: But isn't that what I wrote?? :dontknow: Added comments & emphasis above, just to make sure we're talking on the same wavelength?!? :thumbup: