Silly question: Removing wheels... easy to do ??

[ecumike]

This is probably a ridiculous question for those who've do it before, but is it simple to take the wheels off and on.. like.. just unbolt the axles and slide, and slide back on and tighten?...  or is there some other alignment/balance/whatever...  I know it's probably easy to do... just want to make sute that after I take them off, and get new tires on, that I'll feel comfortable and able to put the wheels/rims back on... also.. It'll save me $40 at the dealer.

[GStar]

Pretty staight forward. You'll probally have to take you front calipers off too. Just be sure to retighten the pinch bolts last w/the tire on the ground.

[sportbikepete]

Make sre you use the right torque for everything when putting them back on especially the pinch bolts. And be sure to check the tension of your chain before and after you tighten up the rear.

[ecumike]

Sat. I took off the wheels (yea, it really was straight forward) and took them to the Honda shop, who in turn ended up not charging me the extra $20... the 'out  the door' price... $44 for mnt. & bal. front and rear.

Everything's set, except I didn't have a torque wrench, and no one I knew had one, so I had to do without when putting them back on.

[Eric Kelcher]

pick up a torque wrench. you will need it. Find out what range of torques your bike uses and get one that fits that range I have 4 now20-100?in/# 10-50ft/# 25-75ft/# and 50-150ft/# which you pretty much need all of them if you rebuild a motor. Sears sells decent ones for $50-75 and their best ones are around $125 for truely good ones Snap-On or Mac but they will cost you $200-250.
also if you ever drop a "clicker" type torque wrench you must get it recalibrated.

The absolute best measure of torque is bolt elongation but that is difficult to measure then "beam" type torque wrenchs but I find it is much faster and more consitent to use a "clicker" type.

[ecumike]

great, thanks Eric.  I'll check out Sears.. I found one at Home Depot for $57.  I figured I'd need one, but didn't really know how important it was to have one.