I decided to post my "tutorial" that I linked above here:
I was not able to find a tutorial on how to remove the front wheel from a GL1800 Valkyrie so I wrote this up. It is probably not the right way to do it so if you see something bogus please let me know! Also, there is a lot of dirt and bugs on my bike so please excuse my lack of cleanliness.
Yesterday I had a pretty exciting front wheel flat while riding on a rural highway. I was able to (eventually) plug the hole and air up the tire but the ride home was pretty spooky. The hole in the tire was in the exact center of the tread, where there is a very deep groove, so the plug had very little rubber to stick to. Certainly much less than a car tire.
In the process of slowing down on the highway I had to ride the bike about 20-30 seconds. When I stopped the tire was smoking hot. It might be possible to run the tire with the plug in it, but I am not going to do it. Not only is the plug sketchy, the tire certainly suffered from some heat damage. Plus, I really don't want to tempt fate by having a less-than-perfect front tire when I am riding.
The front tire on the new Valkyrie is an odd size. It is a Dunlop Sportmax D254F 130/60-R19 61H. (It is not even in Dunlop's catalog!) I think I will be able to order the OEM tire but so far I have not have had much luck in finding it at one of the online parts places.
I did not think removing the front wheel would be a problem until I remembered that the new Valkyrie does not have a center stand. I found several videos for sport bikes that had some very scary ways to work without a center stand but I am lucky in that I also have a Gold Wing. So I removed the center stand from the Gold Wing and put it on the Valkyrie. It bolts right up. You have to be very careful that the lever that you press with your foot to put the bike up on the center stand does not hit the muffler because there is no cutout on the muffler for that part to fit. I did not install the spring so the center stand just flops onto the floor.
One other problem is when the bike is on the center stand it barely lifts the rear tire in the air. If you want to lift the front of the bike up the rear tire will hit the ground and it will not work. Removing the rear tire to get more clearance is an option but to do that you have to take off the seat and the rear fender! So, I put a piece of ¾ inch plywood under the center stand to give it a bit more height. I tried to use two pieces of plywood to get more clearance but I was unable to get the bike onto the center stand. One piece of plywood worked well. I did not want the bike to roll forward off of the center stand so I took a tie-down and locked the center stand to the front engine guard.
I have an ATV lift and a PepsX stand so I initially thought it would be simple to lift up the bike and put it on the stand, but the exhaust and lower body panels hang down a bit on each side and I was not sure if they could support the weight of the entire bike. I eventually decided to lift the front end up and put jack stands under the engine guards. I think (?) the engine guards are strong enough for this. Currently the bike is very stable with the center stand and two jack stands. I had to position a piece of plywood on my ATV lift to make sure the lift only contacted the center of the engine case.
Removing the front wheel once the bike is lifted is pretty simple. The instructions are in the owner's manual. I did not bother with taping the rim. Instead I just took my time and placed each brake caliper on a small bucket/stool.
Hopefully this method of lifting the bike does not cause damage to the bike. I also hope it is as safe as possible. If not maybe you all can point me in a better direction.
I hope that anyone with a similar issue with the new Valkyrie will be able to find this thread. I doubt most people have a Gold Wing center stand laying around. If I did not I would be tempted to buy one just for maintenance purposes like this. Because the swingarm is single-sided finding a rear spool stand is, I think, impossible. As for changing the rear tire I am not sure if the bike will tolerate being put on its side like you can do with a Gold Wing. I suppose eventually I will have to pull the rear fender. The Gold Wing center stand will help with this for sure.
Notes:
The threads on the right side of the center stand are reverse threaded!
There is a hole on the left side of the front axle that a 5mm allen key fits into perfectly to help pull the axle out.
When removing the center stand from the Gold Wing, put washers in between the coils of the spring before you take the bike off of the center stand and the spring will be much easier to pull off with a spring hook.
Basic hand tools required:
22mm socket (axle), 14mm socket (center stand), 12mm socket (brake caliper bolts), 10mm socket (fender), 8mm hex socket (center stand), 8mm socket (fender), 6mm hex socket (pinch bolts) & 5mm hex socket (fender)