[Shop-talk] Favorite tools

[old dirtbeard]

Forgot to say, that over those many years of changing tires on the floor
with tire irons, I had nicked, scratched, and scraped my aluminum wheels
many times. It is almost impossible not to do so. They were rather a mess...

I hand sanded and then buffed out the wheels on the Sportster after
removing the old tires and before mounting the new one, to remove 20 years
of scratches from 90K miles of riding and tire changing (some bike tires
only last 3-4K miles, so I have done many changes on this bie in those 90K+
miles).

Anyway, I was able to remove and replace the front and rear tires on the
2001 Sportster without a "mar" on the wheels. The No Mar tool design
ensure that at no time does any metal contact the wheels.

It also took just a few minutes to break the bead, remove, and reinstall
the tires.

Here is a video of a guy changing a MT90 on a Harley wheel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZNzrYGis_M

A great investment that I only wish I had done decades ago...

best,

doug

On Sun, May 31, 2020 at 6:42 AM old dirtbeard <dirtbeard at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi guys,
>
> Since the COVID era started, I like many others have been spending more
> time at home and in the garage (my shop).
>
> It has given me some time to think about things that perhaps I would not
> have thought about, but one is how much I enjoy a good, useful tool.
>
> I thought I would start posting my favorite tool of the day or week just
> to share what I thought were good acquisitions.
>
> I do mostly motorcycle and automobile work on my own vehicles. I try to do
> everything myself that I can.
>
> I have been riding motorcycles since I was a kid and have been changing my
> own tires all those years on the garage floor with a couple 4x4's and some
> good tire irons. It worked, but it always involved a lot of sweating and
> swearing and busted knuckles and sometimes hours to break the beads and
> remove and install the tires. It also required a lot of bending over as
> everything was on the floor.
>
> Last year I bought a US-made No Mar Classic HD tire changer and used it
> for the first time time the last two weekends.
>
> What a life enhancing experience that was! I should have bought one 20 or
> 30 years ago. I am attaching links to a couple photos of it:
>
> The first one is breaking the bead on a Harley front tire--it is at waist
> height and literally can be done with one hand:
>
> https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=446D39C8B1E43758&id=446D39C8B1E43758%21166808&parId=446D39C8B1E43758%21166807&o=OneUp
>
>
> The second one is just finishing mounting the rear tire:
>
> https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=446D39C8B1E43758&id=446D39C8B1E43758%21166809&parId=446D39C8B1E43758%21166807&o=OneUp
>
>
> Once you mount them you should balance them, so here is a picture of a
> US-made static balancer that I just use on jack stands. I have had this for
> a very long time and it works great:
>
> https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=446D39C8B1E43758&id=446D39C8B1E43758%21166812&parId=446D39C8B1E43758%21166807&o=OneUp
>
>
> Both the tire changer and the balancer are joys to use.
>
> I will post a few more in the next few days and would encourage all of you
> to do so to share the knowledge/experience that this group possesses.
>
> best,
>
> doug
>
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