What did you do in your garage today..?

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End of season for me and getting a jump on an early start for next year.

Spent half a day at a friend's shop yesterday where we installed new sprockets and chain. Original chain had 36,500km on it and owed me nothing.

New Roadsmart IV tires front and rear. The Roadsmart III's I had on were brutal to get off, rear in particular. Buddy has a No Mar changer, but tire sidewalls were incredibly stiff.


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I'll be getting a new battery in next March or April as a PM item. The original OEM one just finished its 8th season, so I'm replacing it, cheap insurance IMO.
 
Lightcycle said:
On the Hyper, to turn their OE grips on/off, you have to navigate three levels deep in the TFT menu display to find the option. Depending on where your status on the display is set, it could take 10 button presses to get max heat. Dumb.

On the DX, the button is on the back of the right-hand side handlebar cluster. My elf-like hands are too small to reach, so I have to either take my right hand off the throttle or use my left hand. (are we still talking about motorcycles here...?)
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Wow, they really went backwards on that. On my 821, the start button cycles through the heat settings. Now that's brilliant!

Oxford has/had a third design with a ring controller that mounts next to the grip so the grip itself could be replaced cheaply when worn/crashed.
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ReSTored said:
New Roadsmart IV tires front and rear. The Roadsmart III's I had on were brutal to get off, rear in particular. Buddy has a No Mar changer, but tire sidewalls were incredibly stiff.
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Try warming them up to make the rubber more pliable.

Best would be a heat gun, but if you don't have one, a hairdryer will take time, but will do the trick.

If you don't have either, laying the wheel+tire out in the sun would also work - but seeing how its November, try putting it inside the car in the back with the sun hitting it directly through the rear window.
 
Relax said:
Wow, they really went backwards on that. On my 821, the start button cycles through the heat settings. Now that's brilliant!
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On my Trip9, the start button doubled as the on-board lap-timer start/stop. That was cool.

As for the current state of affairs, I blame the over-gadgetization of modern motorcycles. ABS TC Radar Cruise Microwave Mirror Defrost, etc.

It's either each function has its own button, and you end up with that crowded Africa Twin handlebar cluster, or it gets buried under several layers of menu options and you're clicking arrow and select buttons like you're playing Mario Party on Insane mode...

They need to integrate it with voice control on your comm systems:

"Hey Ducati, turn heated grips on to medium"
"Ok. Calling 911 Emergency Services"
"What? NO! 😳 Hey Ducati! Cancel! Cancel!"
 
Lightcycle said:
Try warming them up to make the rubber more pliable.
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Actually, my friend has quite the shop and has proper tire warmers. Breaking the bead on the rear was a killer and we used clamps to compress the bead to lever it off with the No Mar. The replacement was in the warmer heating up and it went on OK. In retrospect we probably should have heated the rear before trying to remove it. 20/20 hindsight.

The front removal was relatively easy and the new tire was warmed and went on easy as well.
 
ReSTored said:
End of season for me and getting a jump on an early start for next year.

Spent half a day at a friend's shop yesterday where we installed new sprockets and chain. Original chain had 36,500km on it and owed me nothing.

New Roadsmart IV tires front and rear. The Roadsmart III's I had on were brutal to get off, rear in particular. Buddy has a No Mar changer, but tire sidewalls were incredibly stiff.


View attachment 80627

I'll be getting a new battery in next March or April as a PM item. The original OEM one just finished its 8th season, so I'm replacing it, cheap insurance IMO.
Click to expand...
I had a NoMar and found that laying your tires on your driveway in the sun before mounting them definately made the job easier. Putting them in the front seat of your buddies or wife’s car on a hot, sunny day works even better. Sport bike tires were a breeze on that thing, Michelins especially. Michelin sport touring tire sidewalls were also pretty soft and easy to mount but other sport touring tires not so much, they get noticeably stiffer as you get into that category. If anyone is on the fence about getting a NoMar and has the space I would highly recommend their Classic model package with balancer, weights lube etc.The Rabaconda looks pretty slick if your tight on space and like portability but I would prefer something anchored to the floor that you can really throw your weight into on those touring tires.
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