Well folks, a customer brought his heavily customised FatBoy in to the workshop today.
He owns the local tyre fitting company and after an expensive experience last time he needed tyres, decided to bring it in for me to do.
Ordinarily this is no problem and I wasn't expecting any issues but boy I was wrong about that.
The removal went exactly to plan. Just put everything down on the bench in sequence as you take it off the bike.
The removed wheels duly went off to have new rubber fitted and were returned a couple of hours later.
Refitting is just a matter of doing things in reverse, so I started at the front.
Front wheel took 20 mins, all done and dusted
Now for the rear....
I started putting it all back together and as soon as I pushed the axle (If any of the OCC staff are reading this, I did say push. You don't need to use a 16lb mallet to fit an axle!!! )through I knew there was a problem.
The new Avon Viper Sport (200/55 R17) is physically 4mm wider than the Metzeler that was fitted!!!!
The sidewall touches the belt and both top and bottom belt guards! and I don't mean a gentle kiss, they dig into the sidewall!
So there are only 2 options to fix this. First, buy a tyre that fits and was designed for this bike!
Second, put the wheel and tyre on the tyre machine and sand back the edge of the tyre by 2mm, not recommended but will work short term.
My customer is trying to find a replacement tyre tomorrow morning and I have to completely strip the back end again and when a new slightly narrower tyre is fitted, reinstall the wheel.
Folks, the moral of the story is this. Never take the manufacturer specs as accurate and don't try to fit a tyre to your bike that wasn't designed for that bike.
As soon as I have the new tyre, I will sort this out but it has cost the owner another bunch of £
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