Hop-Ups for Dummies - Swapping Rubber by Chad Baird

Are your tires looking tired from one to many burnouts? It might be time to spend a buck little buddy and get some new tires, if not for safety and ride-ability, then for looks.

Lets talk tools; Screwdrivers make really bad tire irons, in a "pinch" they will work but you might as well buy extra inner tubes because your guaranteed to swiss cheese the damned things if your tires have stiff sidewalls. I highly recommend Motion Pro's tire irons. They're made out of steel and unlike aluminum tire spoons they don't get nicks that chew up your
tubes.

The first thing I do is pull the core out of the valve stem, this ensures the tube will be out of the way of the evil tire popping tire irons. You'll have plenty of chances to pop your inner tube later.

Next on the list is to lubricate the rim and tire after breaking the bead, usually the bead won't be hard to break on small tires. Lubricating both rim and tire, once again ensures your not going to have to learn how to patch a tube. For lubrication I use either a soap solution or spray silicone. Start by laying the tire and rim flat on the ground and placing the #1 iron in between the rim and the tire.

Now, without applying pressure to #1, place #2 iron a few inches away, make sure the tubes not in the way and apply pressure to both irons. POP, the tire just popped off the rim! Now work your way around being careful not to let go of the iron lest it come flying back in your face and poke an eye out. That would be horrible, if not so much for your loosing an eye but because your Mom, who for years would never let you have a BB gun because she thought you'd poke an eye
out, will never let you live this down. The upside is you'll have a cool glass eye you can pop out to impress your friends..

You should have one side of the tire off now so let's work on pulling out the fragile lifeblood of your tire out, the inner tube. Look at the stem, it should be held down in some fashion, wither by a rubber grommet or by a nut. Undo this and gently pull the tube from the rim and tire. Repeat the above procedure for pulling the rest of the tire off.

Now for the tricky part; Let's put the tire back on. This is where your patience and mechanical finesse comes into play. Once again lubricate the tire so it slides easily over the rim and use your irons again to mount the tire halfway on the rim. After that grab your tube and find the hole where the stem goes in. Old school guys will work as a team; one holds the
rim and the other the tire. The tire person takes a running start at the rim and pops that sucker on the rim in one fell swoop.. How many tries this takes is directly proportionate to the amount of beer you've consumed.

Fishing the stem in between the tire and the rim is a lesson in pain management for those of you who still have soft knuckles. Hurts don't it? Here's a trick, place an iron on the outside of the rim almost like your going to pull the tire off the other side, now with your third hand feed the stem into the hole in the rim. As soon as you get it in there screw that nut
back on the valve stem so you don't have to do this again later and stuff the tube back in-between the rim and tire. Making sure the tubes not twisted and the rim is lubricated, start putting the remaining side of the tire back on the rim with your hands all the while stuffing the fragile tube out of harms way.

Almost done! This is the last and most critical part; this is where most tubes meet their demise. Get as much tire as you can on the rim without using the irons, the tire bead might look impossibly tight but if you keep the spacing of the irons close and take your time you shouldn't have any problems. Now that you're finished wipe all the excess lubrication off
the tire and clean up the rim.

Fill up the tire with air?? Does it leak?? Did you remember the valve stem??

If you did this the first time out without popping a tube or busting your knuckles then time to celebrate!!

Until next time.. Shiny side up..

Chad

About the Author: Chad Baird - My riding/wrenching obsession started in the summer of 88-89. My Dad got me a used $50 Sears minibike with a seized 4hp Tecumseh. I spent hours upon hours in the garage hooking up throttle cables/linkages, kill switches, changing tires, swapping engines and of course riding and crashing. Dad would hand me a repair manual, show me how to do something once (mostly how to use a tool) and then was pretty much hands off except to yell at me about loosing his tools. He would also cuss me out for taking off without making the bike 100% ride-able or fixing something half-assed. So that's basically how I learned, lot's a trial/error and getting yelled at. heheh.. Now my whole life revolves around working on, riding, talking about and teaching others who are interested and even some who aren't, how to do the same.

Motorcycle Missionary? or just an annoying biker with a tendency to pontificate? You decide...