So, today was pretty busy, and my hands suffered a lot from mounting my new Continental TKC-80 tires (bought from fortnine.ca), and I spent most of the afternoon on it.
In the morning, I went to Canadian Tire, initially to buy a 18mm hex bit that I needed (according to the service manual) to remove my front wheel. Couldn’t find the 18mm hex bit, but “PotterOo”, a guy from BC on nc700-forum.com, had mentioned a 17mm worked for him so I bought a kit of hex bits that included the 17mm (always useful to have a few other ones too). Wandering around Canadian Tire’s, I ended buying a few other things I would possibly need sometime in the future: a rope, some fire starters, a set of screwdrivers of all kinds with a bag, and straps to hold the bike.
I sometimes feel like I should enter stores and just buy what I really need at the moment, and be back later if I need anything else, but it’s like I don’t like the feeling of needing something in the middle of some work and so I usually prefer to anticipate. Well, today was the proof I’m right: as soon as I started removing my front wheel, it became obvious I had to secure the back of the bike so that it doesn’t crash down. And then I used… the straps I had just bought! Yay! I hanged the front of the bike to the garage opener (it’s not heavy).
So with that done, I removed my front wheel with no particular issue, putting the caliper away so that it didn’t get damaged/bent by the wheel. And I deflated the tire and started trying to “break the bead” (the process of moving the tire away from the side of the rim, toward the central part)… and it was quite difficult, but I was successful after some ten to 15 minutes probably. Then removing the tire completely from the rim was easy. Installing the new tire was also pretty easy, although the rubber was so stretched that I was wondering if the tire was not too small for the rim… Then I inflated the tire, heard the two strong “bangs” when the bead is sitted (the tire sticks to the sides of the rim), and mounted the wheel back on the bike.
Rear wheel was not much more difficult, the only difference being that the chain needs to be removed from the rear sprocket. Now breaking the bead on the rear wheel was a painful experience and I got a huge blister in my right hand from holding the irons. I think that one took me more than 30 minutes to break. After that, removing the tire, setting the new one went with no particular issue. At the time to sit the bead, however, I couldn’t do it, my pump was not giving enough pressure. I remembered reading about someone who had had the same issue, and I went to the gas station to use their pump, which solved the issue (the “bangs” were much louder!). Back home, I mounted the rear wheel back on the bike easily.
Then I decided to take a quick test ride, and enjoyed as much the new tires as the heated grips 🙂
