When mounting a rear tire on a Harley rim do you remove the pulley/brake rotor? I have mounted tires on bikes before and never removed a brake rotor. But, I have yet to have ever mounted a tire on a Harley rear wheel. I ordered a tire and balance beads. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to use the beads since I have balanced wheels before and I have a collection of weights. Any experience with the balance beads? I have a buddy that is using them on his bike and his wife's bike and he's a big fan.

From what I understand getting the old tire off and the new tire on isn't that bad for the 130/90B16 tire size, mag wheel (tubeless). I have done a number of front tires but, not many rear tires. Then I discover that both my tires are the same size. Back in the day I once mounted a rear tire on a front rim (on a Yamaha) I rode it till it was worn completely out and never noticed that it handled weird or was a safety issue at all. Of course it was a 550 and light weight.

 

If you don't know what you are doing it's not hard to bend your rotor which is more expensive than having it done.

 

I don't have any trouble balancing them on jackstands but you cant pay me enough to do a rear tire with spoons... I have a bag of dyna beeds that I would put in if I had balance issues after I had installed the wheel, so far have not needed them..

Ds

 

Little bit of work with spoons but easily done, my father and I do our own tires, keep the rotor/pully on no problem, also use and love dyna beads