TENERE 700

with the other side . With the old tyre off , we started to struggle fitting the new E07 +. The Mitas ’ stiff sidewall may be great for off road use , but crickey it makes getting them onto the rims difficult . A lot of swearing , grunting , and many tyre levers helped . While the weight was off the swing arm , I thought it was a good time to remove grease and replace all the linkage bolts . If you own a T7 , do this before you ride too far . There doesn ’ t seem to be much , if any , grease on these from the factory . Ride through the rain or some rivers at your own peril . I won ’ t bore you with all the details , but , long story short , fitting the front E07 + was just as much , if not more of a struggle . Unfortunately once we got the front tyre on the rim , and went to inflate it , we found we ’ d pinched the tube . That meant taking one side of the tyre off again to fit a new tube . This time we were super careful not to damage the only spare tube . In the end it took about four hours to fit both tyres to the rims . I used my Ryobi battery-powered inflator to pump up the tyres and try to seat the bead . The plucky little Ryobi wasn ’ t grunty enough though , and could only manage 40-something psi - probably not enough to seat the beads of the tyres on the rims .

PROFESSIONAL HELP Undeterred … we fitted the wheels back to the bike , and I went for a test ride . It was now that I found the bike was resembling something of a

KIWI RIDER 63