When I returned home from Virginia, I was greeted with a nice box from SuperBikeSupply… and its contents inside:
There’s still a handful of stuff I have not received yet, but this will keep me busy for a while.
I decided to get the tire situation taken care of first, which meant taking off both wheels. I already had a stand for the rear, but had to go out and buy a front stand to get the bike completely in the air.
Since I was taking off the rear wheel, I figured I’d loosen up the front sprocket now.
I used the metal handle bar from my floor jack and wedged it between the wheel and swing arm with towels. I read about people just putting the bike into first gear and using the transmission to loosen the front sprocket nut. I’m not down with the idea of putting that much stress on important drive train parts, so with the bar method, all the stress is put naturally onto the chain.
Once that was taken care of, it was time to get rid of the stock chain. Since I wasn’t going to be using it anymore, I took an angle grinder to it.
Grinding off a pair of pins didn’t really work, so I just switched to a metal cutting blade and that made quick work of the chain.
Eventually both wheels were off and I could take them to get some proper rubber installed.
I found a guy who races in AMA and mounted tires for a good deal out of his garage in Pleasonton. The previous day, I bought a set of Pirelli Pro Slicks from someone in Dublin.
The front tire went on no problem, but once the rear tire was mounted and air put in, we realized there was a puncture hole… This put me in a pinch, but luckily the guy had a set of Dunlop 211s that he was willing to sell because of my situation. These were also the United Kingdom made Dunlops, not the US ones. After the Dunlops were put on, I drove over to Dublin to return the Pirellis, and found him in his garage just as I pulled up. I didn’t exactly get a full refund, but I did get a set of Pirelli SuperCorsa Diablos (without holes) for cheap.
I ultimately amassed this pile of rubber in my garage.
I actually ended up just selling the Diablos… and I’m still trying to get rid of the stock Dunlop Qualifers.
With the tires taken care of, it was onto other important matters…