Changing a tire

The tires on this Honda are old - maybe 10 years, I am not sure. I've owned the bike for nearly three years now and the guy who sold it to me had the Avons on it for at least a few years.

I have a new(er) front rim and tire from a guy who had some extra parts in Mililani. I'll run that tire for awhile.

Picked up a new rear tire from Glenn's Cycle Supply in Kaimuki - a Kenda, with a tube cost about $80 bucks. The tire size is 110/90 x 18. I went with the less expensive tire (Contis etc. run over $100 per tire) because I don't plan on doing much peg scraping, just cruising.

Well I thought I'd give it a shot at changing the tire on my own. The old one was brittle and tough to get off. I had two tire levers and could just barely get the bead over one part of the rim. Bust out the sawzall, cut the tire. I didn't cut down to the bead because I was afraid about messing up the rim with the saw blade. So I levered the bead away from the rim and cut it with a bolt cutter. Both sides.

Removing the tire took awhile, probably 20-30 minutes. Putting on the new one was surprisingly easy. I sprayed soapy water on the rim, used the levers and got one bead on within a minute. Stuck the tube in, put the valve stem in place then sprayed some more soapy water on the remaining bead. It levered pretty easy until the last couple of inches. I stood on the tire to get the bead in and then used one tire lever to get the last section in place. That took all of five minutes - if that. Yeah!

Next I pumped it up and was happy to see I didn't puncture the tube with the tire lever - it was fine.

The tread pattern on the Kenda looks kind of tractor-ish. If I could do it again I might choose another tire even if it cost a bit more. I had ordered a Cheng Shin, but when I went to the shop Glenn told me that size of Cheng Shin went out of production so the distributor sent the Kenda.

That's okay, main thing there's a good tire on the bike with no cracks in the sidewall.