Tidewater Motorcycles

Alright, It is an absolutely gorgeous morning and another ride along to work. So it's time for some new tires. I think I've mentioned it in either my last video, I think it was an old change video. I talked a little bit about tires. And it's time to do the tires. So I've been researching tires for New Elame. And a little history on the tires of this bike. And when I bought it, the tires were legally okay. So they had enough tread depth, they weren't scalloped or whatever. But I really wasn'too crazy about them. And again, bagger on the budget, I'm trying to squeeze them for everything I can to include. I got a two year warranty. I got the hazard protection on my tires. And I even got them to throw in a $125 gift certificate so my wife can get some new boots. So I about squeezed about everything I could out of the deal on this bike. So I did push my luck on the tires. But And I'll give more details on tires. I'm going to probably cut into the garage And again, not going to do a tutorial, but probably going to go over a few things with this tires because I am going to do something new here. I started calling around. And I was just shocked how expensive tires are for an ultra classic. Now I'm sure a lot has to do with But anyway, long story short, That seems a little steep to me. I wasn'too crazy about that. So, A couple people like, oh, well, But if So that started calling this some anxiety, but a long story short, I decided to take the plunge. I found some tires online. I went with a different brand. I wanted to try Michelin. Heard some good things about Michelin, so I figured I'd give him a shot. I have the exact miles written down and I'll cover that later on the video, how many miles I got out of these Dunlops and a little more on the price of these Michelin's. So, I ordered a Michelin's online and significantly cheaper and I'll give the exact prices later. After I order them, just horrible anxiety, I'm about, am I going to get these tires in the mail and are they going to be So, They are actually, she gives you the week and the year, they're actually less than a year old shelf life. So, I'm pretty pleased with that. So, my plan right now is I am going to remove my front and rear wheel myself and right now I'm kind of on the fence of what I want to do next because it is significantly cheaper to remove the front and rear wheel and just take those to a shop and have them mount and bounce the tires and then bring them back and put them on your bike. Not only, I've talked about this before. I don't want to be without my bike for, Well, I'm kind of on the fence because something else that I've kind of st I found a Harbor Freight tire balancer for So, I'm kind of on the fence there. I don't know if I want to do it because to take the tires to a shop, I'm looking at about $45 a tire mounting and balancing. Now, I'm going to call a few more places today and price around but I can get this tool for about 39 bucks and if all goes well, moving forward, I can do my own mounting and balancing. So, it's got me thinking. But So, that's it for now. I'm almost to work and we'll see you in a little bit. Alright, back out in the garage, the messy garage. Not centered in the camera here. So, we'll just talk a little bit about the tires that I have on, New LMA and the new tires that I got. A little bit about the cost. I spoke about earlier. I got the n She currently has the stock Dunlop tires from Harley-Davidson with the barge shield on. I'll put them on. So, as I mentioned, I had these done at the dealer under the tire warranty program. So, I was just looking at my mileage and these tires were put on in July of 2018 and since then I have put 15,936 miles on the tires and they're pretty well. So, a little bit about the tires that I got in the mail. So, I decided to go with the Michelin Commander IIs. Now, they're making Commander IIIs now. I don'think they're making Commander IIs. So, part of the thing that I was concerned about was the age of these Commander IIs. So, we'll talk about the price point here. So, before I get into this price point, $650 souped nuts with Dunlop tires. What I got these Michelins for, I got the front tire for $163. All right, sorry about that. I got an interrupted wife came out. 67 for the front tire and for the rear tire $224. 70. So, grand total $388. 37 plus tax. Shipped via Amazon Prime, shipped when it was free, got here about four days, pretty easy. So, with that said, $388. 37 plus the $45. 45 for the mounting and balancing, I'm looking at $428. 37. So, it's going to give me a cost savings of $221. 63. That's a big deal. That's a lot of money to me. That's, So, a savings of $221. 63 for me to put a little sweat equity into my bike. I enjoy working on my bike. Now, the front tire came just UPS guy had it over his shoulder, that little thing around it with the address on it. And then the back tire was actually in a box. I've looked them over, they're in good shape. I don't see anything wrong with them. So, I think I'm good to go. So, I told you that we would look at this date. So, on the tire, if we spin this around here on the front tire, you will see a four-digit date. So, $3,720. Now, I didn't know that in my head. I had to use the Google machine, but $37 is about the first week of September of 2020. And then the rear tire is $2720. So, first week of July 2020. Talking about how I'm going to do this. All right. So, I went ahead and did the front tire first. So, what I've gone ahead and already done is I've marked it. Let me get down here where you can see. So, you look right in there. You can see this little tab that sticks out. So, this is a tensioner plate. You see it's kind of a half moon. So, when you're adjusting your belt tension, this is what you use to slide this tire back or forward to adjust the tension of your belt. So, So, I just took a Sharpie and marked the top of that tab and the bottom of the tab. So, that way, when I put it back together, I can put this plate right back in the same position. My belt tension and my tire alignment will stay the same inside there. So, I did the same on the other side again so they could just be both kind of pl So, same thing on this side. A little tab. I marked it so that way I know on the half moon where I'm at for my belt tension. All right. We got the back wheel off. You can see it a little better here. It's pretty worn down. So, barely any tread left there in the center of the tire down way past the wear bars. So, it's time to replace it. So, that's that. All together, maybe an hour and a half to take it all apart. So, I've everything set out. So, tomorrow I'll be taking it to the shop, get them to mount them. Hopefully, they can do it while I wait. And then, tomorrow evening, we'll put them back on. So, we'll pick up right there and see how it goes in the reverse order. Wish me luck. All right. I've got tide water cycles out in Suffolk, Virginia. And I brought my tires out here this morning to get them mounted up. And some of my savings just went away. So, took them in there to have them mount the tires. And mechanic came back and said, my bearings in my front and my rear tire were bad. So, again, these guys are fantastic out here. They took care of me on the spot. So, basically, it's $9. 59. I got here at $9 when they opened, and I'm out the door in an hour. So, they mounted and balanced both tires and replaced my bearings. So, I was at $90. Cost me another $100 for the bearings. Again, that's not bad. So, $190 out the door, tires mounted, balanced, and bearings on the front and rear tire. So, pretty pleased with that. So, tide water cycles out here in Suffolk. I'll take a couple pictures and some video rounds. So, Come out, check these guys out. They are fantastic. J Really appreciate their business. So, we'll flip this around so you can see the place. So, all right. Well, we're back from tide water cycles and went ahead and got the wheels back on the bike. Fantastic morning this morning. I was able to get in and out of there in an hour. So, a little bit more money. What I thought was going to be a $90 repair ended up being $190, so an extra $100. But, really, I'm not really counting those bearings because the bearings were bad. If I would have took it to a shop, they quoted me $650 for tires out the door. Hopefully, they would have found the bearings and I'd have had that additional cost on there as well. So, I still think I did well even though it was just unexpected. So, we'll flip this around and show you how things look after I buttoned up. We'll talk about a couple of the lessons learned or things that I learned while doing this and passing on to you. And hopefully, it'll help you if you ever need to take your tires or your wheels off your bike. All right, so we got the front tire back on. She'still sitting on a jack stand, but the wheels are on the ground. So, it's the new tire, Michelin Commander 2. Really, the front tire is pretty straight forward. The only thing is, is not sure what year they started putting the ABS wheel speed sensors on the bikes. So, just make sure if you do this, some of the newer bikes have these wheeled speed sensors. It's basically right there. Acts as a spacer. Just make sure you want to get that lined up correctly. Clean it out. Some new anti-season compound in there when you run your axle through. So, I still need torque this bolt down a little bit more, but pretty straightforward. Just the reverse orders when I took it off again. Make sure when you put the spacer back, you see those machined lines. They need to be on the outside here. And then, tighten down this retaining bolt. Again, I've seen both. So, pretty straightforward. Calipers went back on pretty easy. Everything went well back here as well. So, I've got everything buttoned up. I just need to wipe down the chrome before I fire it up. So, some of the lessons learned here are also the same thing. Little speed sensor or the ABS sensor right in there. It goes in between the wheel and this bracket back here that holds the caliper. So, that can be a little tricky. It's got a notch where it kind of lays in. So, basically, it'll bend a little bit. That needs to come this way. And it sits right in there. Same thing. Clean it up a little bit. Now, I did find, and you can see my notches where I marked lined everything up nice and neatly, I did find when I had this bike up in the air that when putting the wheel back on, I got the wheel positioned underneath there. And then, I started lowering the jack down to line up the axle. So, instead of trying to lift the tire up, which is pain in the butt, I brought the bike down to the tire and lined it up. So, that's kind of a couple of the lessons learned. All right. So, that's that. Pretty easy process. Got the tires back on. All I got to do is wipe it down and take it for a little test ride. So, Please Another thing, check today. I am up to 14 subscribers. We'll call it the 10 because I'm pretty sure that a couple of them are my nieces and nephews and my favorite aunt. So, I appreciate Hope you If you have any suggestions, let me know. But I'm going to keep doing it. It's fun. I enjoy doing it. So, 14 subscribers, 1,400 subscribers, 14,000 subscribers, it doesn't really matter to me. I enjoy doing this. So, hopefully you enjoy watching and that's pretty much it. So, in the meantime, Keep that shiny side up and we'll