Need New Tires

[Mike D 1990 Goldwing]

While working on my bike I got a good look at the date on my tires, 3405. If I'm correct that means they are 18 years old. I was keeping an eye on the tread but not the date. The dried-out tire might have had something to do with my accident last August. I found some Dunlop 404 tires that were cheap so I ordered the front and when I went to a local repair shop to see what it would cost to mount it he said the 404 isn't very good on Goldwing because of the weight it would ware out fast, about 2000 miles is what he thinks. Has anyone tried the Dunlop 404?
Isn't there a way to get the rear wheel off without having to remove the saddle bags? I thought I saw someone say they did it by laying the bike on its side? I have one of those lifts that the Harley owners have that lifts the bike up under the frame so both wheels are open to be worked on from under the bike. I'm interested in any input.

[blupupher]

I personally don't care for the 404, I had poor performance from them on an 1100 Shadow.
No idea what their weight rating is and how they will perform on a GL1500.

As for removing the rear, the GL1800 is the one you can lay on the side and remove the tire, not the 1500.
You can remove a few bolts and lift the entire rear of the bike upward to remove the tire, but many that have done it said getting it lined back up when you are done is harder than taking the plastics off (a how to posted here if curious.
A lift jack probably does not get the bike high enough to remove the tire, but a bike lift (the ride on kind) that has a rear tire dropout will allow for the tire to be removed without taking all the plastics off (but still need to loosen the exhaust to get the axle out).

I had taken the plastics off the back of mine 3 times, the first time took me almost 2 hours, but I went slow and was very careful. By the 3rd time, it took me less than 30 minutes. (another how to here on how to do it.

Regardless of how you do it, make sure you lube your drive shaft splines, and change your gear fluid while back there.

[Mike D 1990 Goldwing]

Thanks for the suggestions. I saw the post that Scott had on how to remove the rear tire but it was a few years ago so I hoped a newer way was available. Dennis Kirk had the 404 listed as usable for a Goldwing but after I ordered it I was thinking it was to cheap to be reliable. This is a picture of my lift, I thought it would go high enough to get the tire out from underneath.

[detdrbuzzard]

when i had my 1200 Wing i was going to put 404's on it, my friend Vic quickly talked me out of buying them. if 404's were not good enough for my 1200 Wing i sure wouldn't put them on my 1500 Wing

[Mike D 1990 Goldwing]

Thank you for the input, I have already bought the 404 but I also have decided to get the elite 4 instead so I will have to send the 404 back. I asked a local motorcycle repair shop, and he can get the tires a little cheaper than any of the places I checked online.

[C-dub]

Thank you for the input, I have already bought the 404 but I also have decided to get the elite 4 instead so I will have to send the 404 back. I asked a local motorcycle repair shop, and he can get the tires a little cheaper than any of the places I checked online.

Where did you find Dunlop E4's? I hope you found them for a decent price. I could not get them from WingStuff when I needed them last year. They had been on backorder for at least 6 months, so I went with Bridgstones G704/G709. The only place I could find E4's was from my dealer and they wanted around $800 for a set, not including the installation IIRC. Forget that!

[blupupher]

Thanks for the suggestions. I saw the post that Scott had on how to remove the rear tire but it was a few years ago so I hoped a newer way was available. Dennis Kirk had the 404 listed as usable for a Goldwing but after I ordered it I was thinking it was to cheap to be reliable. This is a picture of my lift, I thought it would go high enough to get the tire out from underneath. 20220420_172009.jpg

You need to get the rear up enough to basically roll a tire underneath it, not a lot of room to angle the tire out.
It is either straight down or straight back.

Here is a pic of my plastic off, you can see the limited room to move stuff around, and getting the tire back in and getting the brakes on without access to the left side would be very difficult.

[Mike D 1990 Goldwing]

I got the price from the owner of the repair shop for the E-4s . He told me he can get the front overnight and the rear in a couple of days. He didn't say where he was getting them from. I'm going to get them from him but I might get 1 at a time so I'm not spending $460.00 at one time.
Blupupher, thanks for the picture, like the old saying a picture is worth a thousand words. The lift I have goes pretty high, but I doubt it is going to be high enough to roll the wheel out the way you mentioned. I'll have to read through and print out Scott's instructions when I'm ready to remove the rear wheel. I have CRS so I will need to reference the instructions often while do the work.
Thanks for the help.
Mike D

[MaineStreet]

$460 for E4s including install? That is a great price. I paid that much for the tires alone. Installed myself so no additional cost (well, paid for new stems and balance beads and sustained a few bruises). Hope you like the new tires!

[Mike D 1990 Goldwing]

No, it's $460 just for the tires and $30 to mount them if I bring the wheels to him. He said it would be at least $100 for the back if I took the bike to him. When I'm ready I'm going to try and remove them and bring the wheels for him to mount the tires because I'm cheap and poor.

[Mike D 1990 Goldwing]

I ordered the tires from the local repair shop on 4/19/23 and he called on 4/20/23 and said they were in so I dropped of my front wheel off on Friday morning, but I haven't heard anything yet.
Blupupher, I measured the distance from the plastic where the license plate is mounted and it is 28 inches, so I should be able to get the rear wheel out without too much problem. I'm waiting until I get the front wheel on before I start removing the back. To many parts to remember were they go

[FM-USA]

Couple months ago few of us were talking about CT on Wings and the question that got most perplexed was the CT tire's width wouldn't go past the swing arm and rear gear. I said just remove the air and it will. If it still won't, use an air nozzle at an angle across the valve stem (remove valves needle) and the tire sidewall will become rather pliable. (Caution if you have balancing beads)
Problem 1 solved.

Next was the extra height of a CT, wouldn't roll in due to the low clearance. I was beginning to mention my trick of several 1x4 & 2x4 when the guy said he was on dirt with the center stand on wood. OH NOW you got it easy, I said. Just dig out the dirt under the rear of the bike but not to close to the center stand.
Problem 2 solved.

My driveway needed surfacing and to keep flood water from entering the back yard it was raised nearly a foot. Over the last 99 years the alley was re-surfaced several times causing the garage and apron to look/be sunken. That created a low area at the garage concrete apron, looks like an old style grease pit but shallow. Setting a length of 2x12 on a blocks at level with the driveway I merely back up the bike so the center stand is on the driveway and rear tire is on that 2x12 with a smidgen of clearance. Remove that wood and the tire has nearly a foot extra clearance. makes it easier to work back there also.

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[Mike D 1990 Goldwing]

I got the rear wheel off and had the tire mounted, I needed a O-ring to replace the one on the wheel under the part that has the studs that go in the rubber on the wheel. Installed the wheel today and got to where I'm trying to install the saddle bag on the left side. I can't get the holes to line up with the mounts and get the short bolts started. Does anyone have any ideas why? It would be easier if the bolts were 1/4 inch longer!

[Rambozo]

What is keeping things from going into position? As a rule, it's always a bad plan to pull things into place with the bolts. However, if you have something like warped plastics you can always use longer bolts to get it started, then once it's close swap the bolts one at a time for the proper ones. Were things under tension when you took it apart?

I looked at the pictures when I took mine apart and one thing I noticed is that you need to make sure the passenger headset cable isn't trapped between the bag and mounts. But I don't see anything else that would be in the way. I didn't take a pic of the back of the bag, so I'm not sure if there is anything there that could get in the way.

[Mike D 1990 Goldwing]

Thanks for the information, I didn't check that, but it is possible. If you saw the picture of the lift I'm using it is 28 inches off the floor, that made it easy to get the wheel out from under the bike but it doesn't make it easy to get it up and in place, so I was tired by the time I got to installing the saddle bag. I thought about your idea using a longer bolt to pull it in enough to be able to use the correct bolts, but that was after I had given up for the evening.

[FM-USA]

I got tired of using long screwdrivers to lift the wheel in place. Still could have used a 3rd hand.
I now use 1x and 2x pieces of wood to elevate the tire in place. Could make a mini ramp.

Anyways, thoughts, ideas, suggestions & possible solutions just passin' them along.

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[DenverWinger]

Helps to let the air out of the tire before trying to lift it up in there, makes the tire "Skinnier".

[Mike D 1990 Goldwing]

First thing, I got it back together about an hour ago, will take it for a ride tomorrow, weather permitting. I feel real stupid right now. I couldn't get the saddle bag mounted because my dumb a!@##$$ was using the bolts for the exhaust covers, which are a lot shorter than the correct bolts. The only thing I can say is I was going by the looks of the bolts, I was thinking the mounting bolts were clean and the exhaust cover bolts were showing a lot of use, obviously I was wrong. I took a bolt out of the other side and thought about slapping myself. Oh well stupid mistake cost me some time, but no real harm done.
Fm-USA, I agree about the third hand, I could lift the wheel but couldn't move anything under the wheel while lifting the wheel. I called one of my sons and asked him to stop by and help. While I was waiting for him I decided to try one more time and this time I got a piece of 4x4 under the wheel and then got a better grip and lifted it up and slid the wheel on the gear on the final drive, with it up on the final drive I was able to put some more stuff under the wheel to support it so I could get it slid all the way on the final drive. Hope the weather is good tomorrow for a test ride! Thank You for the suggestions.

[FM-USA]

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A picture that saves a 1,000 grunts...
and a few choice words.

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[Rambozo]

[Mike D 1990 Goldwing]

I took it for a ride last Sunday, it was a nice day until about 4:00 PM. I live close to Lake Michigan and the wind was coming off the lake, so it got chilly. I rode it about 80 miles with no problems, ran and rode smooth the whole day. I'm not how many of you saw my post about my accident with what looked like minor damage but I REALY lucked out because the accident knocked the timing belt off the left side, and I rode it 7 miles to get home after. Should have been a totaled motor!
Thanks again to all who gave advice and suggestions.
Mike D.

[MaineStreet]

Excellent result. How did you like the E4s? I think they are darn nice, at least for the first 300 miles. I'm hoping I get good mileage on the rear. Would love to see 10,000 miles (no passenger or towing), but we will see. I got 10K miles on Motoz Tractionator GPS tires on my Super Tenere. But for that bike, I'm going a different direction and installing Michelin Road 6s. The benefit of changing tires on the Goldwing is that it makes changing tires on most other bikes seem like a walk in the park (as well as Can AM Spyder tires).

[MaineStreet]

Excellent result. How did you like the E4s? I think they are darn nice, at least for the first 300 miles. I'm hoping I get good mileage on the rear. Would love to see 10,000 miles (no passenger or towing), but we will see. I got 10K miles on Motoz Tractionator GPS tires on my Super Tenere. But for that bike, I'm going a different direction and installing Michelin Road 6s. The benefit of changing tires on the Goldwing is that it makes changing tires on most other bikes seem like a walk in the park (as well as Can AM Spyder tires).

[Mike D 1990 Goldwing]

I put another 125 miles on yesterday, tires seem really good, I did feel a little vibration at about 75 MPH. I did have one of those slow speed wobbles with the old tires that isn't there now, my front tire was starting to look like it was cupping some. I'm thinking the tires should be broken in by now that's 230 miles on the new tires.