Dear diary: My baby has new shoes, the Metzler ME55 is a much better looking tire and if Murphy's law hadn't intervened and let the skies open up I would be able to tell you how much better they perform!
Suffice it to say I don't want to try out new tires on slippery wet roads, I think I remember reading that rubbing them with sugar soap got rid of the new tire coating so some of that may be on the shopping list today.
My cat Neko even had to come look at them, but since she couldn't eat them she soon lost interest.
Getting them was half the battle with the Honda dealers initially fitting a Dunlop on the rim, when I pointed out that I requested a Metzler they told me to come back in half an hour, at least they had the good grace to knock the price back from $220 plus $20 fitting to $219 all up.
Wrestling the back wheel back on was a PITA of monumental proportions but I learned a lot about angles and bits that can go on first and last ha ha.
I had to drop the chain but that was preferable to disturbing the exhaust pipes as anything that breaks the seal on pipes could make them leak again.
Oh one thing I did learn (remember) is that you can rebuild your whole back axle, adjusters, spacers, wheel, brakes and all on the shed floor and then fit them due to Honda's clever use of removable ends on the swingarms (but of course all you experts knew that eh!)
So putting the whole thing back on just requires patience, the arms of a weightlifter and dropping the chain as it truly gets in the way.
But for us with 4 into 2 exhausts where the axle cannot come out past the pipes this method is a Godsend.
