Rampage Flat tire - tube change and rim lock now fitted - pi

[Dangle_kt]

My Inner tubes and rim lock arrived yesterday so when I got in from work I cleaned my bike and then set about fixing my flat tyre.

Removing the rear wheel was an easy affair, made complicated only my the TERRIBLE quality of nuts and blots on these bikes! None of them are the correct size, they are either minutly oversized, or they are undersized and round the corners nicly!

The removal was made all the easier by a SLACK chain, I've only ridden it for twenty mins, and I was by no means giving it a handfull, so I am very supprised at how true all the comments are refernce the chain.

Once the wheel was off the tyre levers were useless until i removed the rear sprocket, as there was enough clearence for a 2 inch tyre lever at most. I removed the sprocket because it is held on with bolts, the brake disc is held on with allen key bolts, but due to the DODGY sizing on the allen key heads, my allen keys don't fit very well, I either hammer it in and I can't get it out, or it drops in and rounds off with one turn! ECH!

Anyway, rear sprocket off, tyre levers in place - HEAVE......

Well it was harder than it used to be on my mountain bike! Anyway after a few minutes struggling I got into the swing of it, and in a few mins the tyre was off.

I then got my drill out and my metal drill bits and drilled a pilot hole on the far side of the rim oposite the valve hole, then I drilled it out bigger and bigger until the rim lock would fit properly. Used a little light oil to ensure I didn't burn my drill out.

Once this was done I spent 10 mins cleaning off all the alloy barbs that were all inside the rim...don't want any of them ruining my inner tube!

The rim lock is a rubber oval shaped to match the inside of the rim, with grippy rubber on the side that will meet the inner tube, coming out of the other side of the rim lock is what looks like a valve, but it isn't it's just a bolt set into the rubber that you push through a hole in the rim and bolt in place , it stops the turning forces that you get from running a tyre on low PSI from making the tyre spin on the rim, thus ripping the inner tube apart with the valve (which obviously can't spin with the tyre because it's poking through the rim), by having the inner tube gripped on both sides it stops this happening so less destroyed inner tubes!

Once the rim lock was fitted I put the new KING inner tube in place (looks alot sturdier than the stock item!) refitted the tyre (again lots of straining...then i figured the technic and was alot easier for it!)

The only thing I would say is that the rim lock makes it VERY hard to refit the tyre as it is as wide as the tyre so there is no room to get the tyre bead into the rim, I found by loosening the rim lock and pushing it up out of the way you could JUSt fit the tyre in place, then re tighten the rim lock.

I inflated the tyre and there were no nasty hissing sounds!

Refitted the sprocket and then the rear wheel - tightened the chain up (i noticed the chain tensioner was forcing the chain onto the underside of the swingarm - this would easiely wear through unless monitored, so one to watch i feel!)

Cleaned and lubed the chain up to help it not stretch, then I started to dry the bike off before putting it away, noticed the air filter (stock item) was DRENCHED! so I removed it, squahed it to get all the water out, dried it off and then oiled it up with some light air tool oil, hopefully this will stop it absorbing water next time! No wonder it stalled when I rode through a few big puddles the other day!

All in all a good evenings work, couple of questions:

What PSI do you all run front and rear?
What do you all use to hold the bike off the ground? an MX stand costs �£�£ so I'm after a cheap option.