With 46,000 kays on the clock, the EV’s tyres have come up for renewal, with the rear tyre showing the cross-bars. The front was OK, although some scalloping was evident – a problem I’ve encountered before with Bridgestone BT45s on my Metal Stone and Jane’s Breva 750.
But I like them, so I ordered another set from Alpine Motorcycles in Myrtleford. I didn’t know how old the tyres were so I replaced both.
Firstly, I had to remove the wheels. The rear needs to be jacked up so that the rear wheel clears the mudguard; it has to lift quite a lot but I had a scissor jack with two supports which could lift at the swingarm. Then it was lowered so that the front could be jacked up a tad, too, to pull the front wheel out.
I took it slowly and methodically so that I didn’t knock the bike over.
Before I replaced the wheels, I gave the girl a bit of a spruce up, getting into places I normally couldn’t: checked up under her skirts at the rear of the gearbox and swingarm. I gave the rims a polish with a metal polish. There’s some flaking chrome which is a known “feature” of these EV tubeless rims.
All set for another run.