Gotta love Amazon Prime. Tire spoons and rim shields arrived this morning. Like a kid on Christmas morning, couldn't wait to open the box. Hmmm, I say to myself, ya know, the wheels are still sitting in the garage with my tubing-clad bucket and bottle of Windex. Maybe I'll just throw on my slippers and kinda check out if the rim shields fit on and which way these spoons get oriented.
Shields pop right on and fit like they were made for this wheel. Recalling my extensive training and education on the job (ok one YouTube video) I get what I think is the correct orientation of the spoons and space them a few inches apart from each other. The drop center of the opposite side is very easy to feel with a little tug.
Ok will try this later.
Well that plan lasted all of 10 seconds before I grabbed the Windex bottle and sprayed down the bead. Popped those irons back in over the shields and gave them a simultaneous tug (yep, just like the guy did it on the aforementioned YouTube video). Pop, right over the lip of the rim. One more "nibble" on either side and 1st bead completely off. Repeat for second bead, even easier.
So, never removing a motorcycle tire from a wheel before I was able to remove both in literally under 10 minutes with absolutely no sweat whatsoever (in my slippers to boot). I can't believe I've been paying the dealer $100/hour to do this.