JynxFE2lilblkheart's blog: "The cm400 Project"

Lmao.  So, after all these years, I finally had to do my first motorcycle tire change.  It may not sound like much to have to do, but I actually had to go all the way through it, as in even removing the tire from the rim, but we'll get there later.  So, as I had mentioned in my last writing (A Little Downtime), my rear tire on my motorcycle was not holding air.  I took a little time, got my tools, sat down, and had at it.  I got the tire off the motorcycle no problems, and had planned on calling around to have someone change the tire.  After about seven calls, including calls to the local Honda dealer, I found no one who was willing to change the tire, though many of them had new motorcycles or at least new rims and tires they wanted to sell me, which they couldn't put on.....  I hate small towns sometimes, but I hate salespeople more.  So I said screw it, and took a look on YouTube.  There were alot of different videos available, and alot of them were just going way too hard.  It doesn't take that much to take a tire off a rim, and then I found THIS GENIUS. Just too easy. I kicked myself for not thinking of it, went and followed his instructions for the removal of the tire from the rim, and learned something new. A few things actually. My damned tires have tubes in them! I also learned that the reason the rear tire wasn't holding air is that the tube had blown out. I thought about patching the tube, but after a good look, it just seemed to me that the tube was probably as old as the bike, and opted to get a replacement. Now comes the song and dance of where to find a tube locally. I called the Honda dealer, and they didn't know if they had one or not, and asked if they could call me back. I gave them my number. Then I took a trip out to the Polaris dealer. They had it, and they knew it. I like that in a place. So I bought a replacement tube from the Polaris dealer, and went about changing the tire. The old tire might have lasted a bit longer, but I decided since I already had a replacement tire and the work was already done, it was time to switch them out. Everything went smooth, and I reinstalled the tire on the bike, and have been riding the ever loving hell out it since.