Finally got a day in the 60's. This has been such a terrible winter. As many of you know, I generally ride through winter. Well, this year, my inspection ended in October. The tire I ordered didn't arrive until middle of November. By the time I could actually make time to replace the tire, it was already mid December. Then we had probably the worst winter I could remember since I was a little kid. I waited until today to change the tire.
Seriously though, I try not to ride under 40 degrees. This winter was brutal. December was pretty cold and shitty. However, I haven't seen a January and February like this since my childhood. Every day well below freezing. Several days below zero. I think they said on the news that it snowed consecutively every day until around the middle of February.
I might ride through winter, but this wasn't the winter to do it in, and I'm really glad I didn't. It's also the first winter I haven't caught a cold. Wondering if that's because of the Zinc and Vitamin C supplements, or because I was riding every day in cold weather. Anyways...
This has to be one of my least favorite maintenance things to do. Surprisingly it went incredibly well. Had no issue breaking the bead and the tire slipped right on and the bead lined up on the second try. It usually takes me at least an hour to line up the bead.
I hate doing tires so much, I actually called the local shop to find out how much they'd charge me to mount the tire. $50 for a balance and mount. Not bad, but I have more time than money, so decided to do it myself. đ
I probably could have got this past inspection for an extra $20, but really didn't want to ride through the winter with it. That was the main reason, I waited until now to get it inspected. Riding through the winter can be dangerous enough without adding bald tires to the mix.
I can't believe how well this went. I broke the bead on the second try. Normally I have to fight with it for a good hour or two while reciting my lexicon of the most terrible words in the English language. Not today! Everything went smoothly and no potty mouth!
I used a pry bar and hammer claw to break the bead. A trick I learned the last time I changed the tire. Then to mount the tire I used the zip tie method. To do this, you wrap zip ties every 3 to 6 inches around the entire tire after you put the tube in of course. Once the zip ties are nice and tight and the tire is closed, you just spray the rim with window cleaner or soapy water and the tire slips right on with a little effort.
I could have sworn I took a picture of the zip tie technique to share in this post, but it must have slipped my mind. I go through a tire each season, next year I'll post a step by step, or maybe even a Youtube and 3speak it.
This might be the last year I run knobbies too. I love these Kenda Klassics but the street eats them up. These are street legal but they lean more towards off road use. I just haven't been doing a lot of off road riding. I figured I had plenty of meat left on the front tire, so I just went with the matching back tire. Next year, the front tire will probably be worn down, and I'll go with a tire that's maybe 60/40. 60% off road 40% street. Maybe even 50/50 which is how they come from the factory. These tires are probably more like 80/20 leaning towards heavy off road use.
I also have to decide whether I like distance riding or playing guitar more. Any long rides, over 4 to 6 hours in the saddle, and my throttle hand is numb for the next 3 months. I just started getting feeling back in my throttle hand. This sucks a lot because I play finger-style guitar and having feeling in your picking hand really helps a lot. đ
For that reason, I may gear it out as a super moto street racer. I've got the exhaust and carb. Now all I'd have to do is change around the front and rear sprocket to trick out the gearing a bit. Right now, I believe I'm running the stock ratio. I doubt the last owner changed much, besides adding the handlebar risers.
So I'm ready for the 2026 riding season. I don't really have any plans this season. Most times, my plans don't work out anyway. This year though, I'm dealing with two cancer patients and a sick cat. I'll probably keep to riding local this season đŠ Still riding local is better than no riding at all đ
All that's left now is an oil change and I should be good for 2026. I'm thinking about ordering a new engine for the Chinese 250 too. As much as I love riding my DR650 the gas mileage is atrocious. I'd really like to drop a new engine in the 250 and use that for cheap transport around the neighborhood. I fuel up the DR every couple of days, the CSC TT250 gets about 2 weeks between fill-ups and that's driving all over the city and even racing it around a bit.
Thanks to Iran War, I suspect gas prices will be through the roof this summer âšī¸ So sick of constant wars and rumors of wars. Hopefully it doesn't take full on nuclear war until we finally decide enough is enough.
Till next time, keep the rubber side down!