Practice Tire Change

Since there's a good chance we could get a flat tire in the middle of no where on our trip, I thought it would be a good idea to practice changing a tire in the comforts of my home.  I figured it would be pretty similar to changing a bike tire, which I've done a million times, but still wanted to have it under my belt prior to the trip.  A good resource I used was the GlobeRiders F650GS Adventure Touring Instructional DVD.  Overall, it wasn't too tricky and basically the same as a bicycle.  I used the side stand to help break the bead and WD-40 to slide the tire on and off like butter.  I also tried my pocket rocket hand pump to see how long it will take to pump this thing up.  Once I got the tube filled, it was about 100 pumps for a 2 psi gain.  I'll let you run the numbers to achieve 34 psi...  It was 100 deg and super humid, and it ended up not being the cleanest of exercises.  I can't imagine it being any more ideal than the middle of the NM desert in late August.  Overall, I'm not too worried now about running into this on the trip.