Aprilia pegaso 650 new air tubes

Spring is finally here, time to tinker with the motorcycle. I’ll be installing new air tubes.

Changing tubes is a useful skill for like … when going on a trail in the woods.

Preparations

First some preparations:

• figure out what kind of tubes I need
• lookup the procedure and tools
• go shopping for

I have the official workshop manual where I can find all this

PNEUMATICI / NEUMATICOS / TYRES
Anteriore / Delantera / Front 100/90 - 19 57H
Posteriore / Trasera / Rear 130/80 - R17 65H

The procedure loosely speaking is as follows:

Front tire

• suspend the motorcycle so it won’t fall over when the tire is out
• loosen some bolts, extract the main shaft
• detach the spedo cable
• free the wheel
• remove tire from the rim
• pull old tube out install new one
• put everything back together

Rear tire

• no need for support, I have a center stand
• remove mud guard
• loosen the main shaft bolts
• free the wheel
• continue as before

Tightening torques 100NM for the rear axel, 80NM for the front axel.

Tools

• Car jacks or scrap wood to support the motorcycle
• Levers to remove the tire
• 19, 24 mm socket wrench to remove the rear tire shaft
• No. 4, 8 hex bit to remove the from tire shaft
• 8 mm socket wrench to remove the rear mud guard

and the new tubes …

Work

Started with the rear tire since it required no support. Taking it off was easy, the hard part was taking the rubber off the rim. Although I vaguely remember as a child helping my father do a similar work on our car back in the days when cars used to have tubes, it still took me a good two hours.

What helps: to have strong and long levers (at least 25cm long), alternatively use a pipe to extend the length of the lever and preferably have three of them.

After de inflating the tire, walk with your feet on the rubber, this helps break the tire from the rim.

Don’t rush things and don’t use excessive force, the tire might crack.

Brake the tire from the side with the brake rotor, this way the tire can lie flat without scratching the rotor.

Cause of flat tire

After the tire is off check the outside and inside of it for sharp things sticking out, use a flash light if needed. That’s how I found a 1 cm long wire that got stuck in the tire wall that was completely invisible from the outside, and nearly invisible from the inside. Flat tire mystery solved hopefully …

Next the front tire. This is thinner, besides the fact that I had to use supports thing went smoothly and a lot faster.

Final thoughts

A well spent Saturday, a very satisfying job.

Tip: always read the manual and take pics before taking something apart.