There's a moron working on my bike.

Classic Goldwings

Help Support Classic Goldwings:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

CapnDenny1

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 4, 2009
Messages
74
Reaction score
0
Location
O'Fallon, MO (St. Louis)
That would be me.

A few weeks back my wife an d I were out riding and some lady started to pull out in front of us, so I tried to blow the horn. It was so weak I could barely hear it, and the lady in the car just kept on. Luckily I had room to slow down. As a result I got some new horns, so big red German horns that are loud as all get out. I was real proud of myself that they botked right in place of the old horns and looked OK, even though they were much larger and bright red.

So I went out in the garage to take the front wheel off to get my new tire mounted. I tried jacking up tthe front with my Sears ATV jack and I got it to go up but I was a little nervous about going up high enough that the self locking pawl engaged. So I lowered it back down and started looking for a better way to support the front end.

I noticed some dirt on the back of the fron t fender. Upon closer inspection, I discovered it wasn't dirt. Some moron mounted som enew horns which looked fine when the bike was sitting alone, but obviously they rub on the fender when riding and hitting bumps.

So then I realized that same moron was trying to jack the front end of the Goldwing up in the air and take a wheel off. I decided he better take the rest of the night off and reconsider before he puts the tire on wrong or something.

What's the best, meaning safest way to support the front end when taking the front wheel off? Once it's off can I lower it back down onto the center stand alone and count on the lack of a front tire to keep it off the front tire that isn't there anymore?

Even this moron can move the horns. And I might even test them with me on it this time!

Dennis
 
Dang, Dennis...from the title, I thought you musta had your bike in my garage! :smilie_happy: :smilie_happy: :smilie_happy:
Sux about the horns diggin into the fender, tho.
When I changed my front tire, I put it on center stand, then used my floor jack to raise the front off the ground just enough to get the tire/rim off. I used a small block of 2x4 under the engine casting up front, and lifted gently. Worked fine for me. :good:
 
AApple":yiiif2di said:
Dang, Dennis...from the title, I thought you musta had your bike in my garage! :smilie_happy: :smilie_happy: :smilie_happy:
Sux about the horns diggin into the fender, tho.
When I changed my front tire, I put it on center stand, then used my floor jack to raise the front off the ground just enough to get the tire/rim off. I used a small block of 2x4 under the engine casting up front, and lifted gently. Worked fine for me. :good:


Same here.
 
AApple":20p6ajby said:
Dang, Dennis...from the title, I thought you musta had your bike in my garage! :smilie_happy: :smilie_happy: :smilie_happy:

Yeah, I kinda thought from the title maybe you had Joel over working on it! :smilie_happy:

JUST FUNNIN JOEL!

I use a floor jack under the engine and leave it there til I'm done.
Mine leaks a bit so it slowly creeps down so if I'm going to have the wheel off more than a few hours I put a jack stand under it.
 
Tomahawk":1lfxe8jw said:
AApple":1lfxe8jw said:
Dang, Dennis...from the title, I thought you musta had your bike in my garage! :smilie_happy: :smilie_happy: :smilie_happy:
Sux about the horns diggin into the fender, tho.
When I changed my front tire, I put it on center stand, then used my floor jack to raise the front off the ground just enough to get the tire/rim off. I used a small block of 2x4 under the engine casting up front, and lifted gently. Worked fine for me. :good:


Same here.
Same here! Either great minds think alike, or we are all in trouble! :smilie_happy: :smilie_happy:
 
mcgovern61":3eusgx8z said:
Tomahawk":3eusgx8z said:
AApple":3eusgx8z said:
Dang, Dennis...from the title, I thought you musta had your bike in my garage! :smilie_happy: :smilie_happy: :smilie_happy:
Sux about the horns diggin into the fender, tho.
When I changed my front tire, I put it on center stand, then used my floor jack to raise the front off the ground just enough to get the tire/rim off. I used a small block of 2x4 under the engine casting up front, and lifted gently. Worked fine for me. :good:


Same here.
Same here! Either great minds think alike, or we are all in trouble! :smilie_happy: :smilie_happy:

And also same here!
 
mcgovern61":2up3yjut said:
Tomahawk":2up3yjut said:
AApple":2up3yjut said:
Dang, Dennis...from the title, I thought you musta had your bike in my garage! :smilie_happy: :smilie_happy: :smilie_happy:
Sux about the horns diggin into the fender, tho.
When I changed my front tire, I put it on center stand, then used my floor jack to raise the front off the ground just enough to get the tire/rim off. I used a small block of 2x4 under the engine casting up front, and lifted gently. Worked fine for me. :good:


Same here.
Same here! Either great minds think alike, or we are all in trouble! :smilie_happy: :smilie_happy:



So lets go with the Great minds think alike LOL :smilie_happy: :smilie_happy: . I 'd hate to think we are all in the soup LOL :smilie_happy: :smilie_happy:
 
that moron lives in me to ....but im an advanced moron .....with the chain hoist i got up in the ceiling of my building ive already pulled the goldwing up off the ground just to see if it would do it luckcaly nothing happen :smilie_happy: :smilie_happy: :nea: :Doh2: :doh: :mrgreen:
 
Let's hook the chain hoist to my truck and see how high we can lift it! Uhh maybe not. :smilie_happy:
 
my floor jack is broke,so I just pumped up the forks and shocks to the recomended max(might have been a LITTLE more),then slid an old plastic(very sturdy) crate I had laying around under the motor and a 2x6 snuged in ontop of that and then let all the air out of the forks and shocks.Last winter I removed the motor the same way;Air out till the motor just sat firrmly on the crate,unbolted everything,air back in,bike lifts up motor stays on the crate.Just slide it out the left side.Easy as it gets.
 
If you have the engine guards, those are a great place to balance the bike while the front wheel is off. I put a jack stand underneath the engine guard on the right side (when the bike is on the sidestand, the right side sits up higher) and then jack up the left side engine guard. The bike is balanced on points about 3 feet apart which makes it very stable.
 
I like that approach. I have it on the center stand. I can use my ATV jack to raise the front and then put some jack stands under the engine guards. Even the moron in my shop should be able to do that safely!

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Dennis
 
That worked great. I just jacked the bike up on the cross piece for the engine gaurds and put a jack stand on each side under the guards on both sides. It was nice and stable. I got the front tire done just fine. I put of the front fork rebuild. I figure I can do that this winter when it's too cold for golf or riding.

The rear wheel took me about 3 hours to get out of there, but I was being really careful. I printed out the procedure on goldwingdocs.com and that worked really well. I took it and had the tire replaced and was all set to leave the bike shop, but I checked the rotation and they had mounted it backwards. They claimed they did it the same as the one that came off. I never checked the old tire. But they went ahead and swapped it around. I'm just glad I checked and didn't find it after I had it mounted.

Now I have to get some 60% moly grease from Honda. I'm anxious to get the wheel back on, but I don't want to do it without lubing the splines. They look like they are in pretty good shape, so theres no point to rushing the job.

I also got the passenger arm rests from Saber Cycle. I know, I know. Saber Cycle bad! But I haven't had any issues witht hem yet. They have always shipped stuff promptly. These are GL-1500 arm rests and I have a GL-1100. I am going to mount them to the trunk. That way they swing out of the way so I can get my leg over the darn seat. And if I'm riding solo, I can just take the trunk of with the arm rests attached. I plane to reinforce the trunk either with metal or just a second layer of PVC on the inside. The arm rests were seconds and had a spot on the leather where the metal left an indentation during shipping, but they were advertised as blemished, and it paid $75 versus $150.

Take care all,

Dennis
 
:clapping: :clapping: :clapping: :good:
I never paid any attention to which way my old rear tire was when I changed it, either. I figured it didn't matter...it was coming off anyway. I DID pay attention to how it went back on, tho. A bike shop should have known better, or at least said "Hey..yer tars on the wrong way."
Oh well...ya got it done! :eek:k:
 
:hi: CapnD.. I am with you i use the h___ out of my ATV jack. The bike sits nice and stable if the jack is placed just in front of the kick stand...I raise it all the way up, then I can take both wheels off in just a few minutes. of course i have no kids around to worry about......used it that way when I rebuilt the rear shocks and when I sent the wheels out by UPS to have new tires mounted....a little extra air in the shocks help get the jack under though... Bob
 
Top