Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126769
PRODUCT EVALUATION. Kawasaki bead breaker Changing tires is one of the great necessary evils of motorcycling. It isn't fun, and if you've got problems breaking ~he bead, it can be exasperating, tirmg, and frustrating. The worst offenders are racing tires, cenain brands of road racing slicks, some types of knobbies. But even street tires', especially tubeless tires found on stock Honda rims, can thwan the best effons of three men with tire irons for long periods of time. The alternative has been a tire chtmging maChine, not something normally parked in an enthusiast's garage. Enter the Kawasaki bead breaker, pan number 57001-1072. If you change tires, if you have ever wrestled with or cursed at a stuck bead, you need this tool. For less than the price of a good tire, you'll never have to pry and lever and scream and shoot tire mounting lube all around again. Tires will kap off their beads without physical strain; changing tires will take a tenth the time it takes without one of these. If it sounds like we're enthusiastic, we are. But then, to fully understand why, you would have had to have been there the time it kept raining and drying out and raining and drying out during a long endurance race the one where one of oui staffers didn't have enough spare wheels and didn't have a bead breaker. We've used one for a year now. It·s basically a giant set of pliers with leather-padded claws. One claw its on the rim; the other grabs the tire on the opposite side. One squeeze and the tire is popped off the bead. Flip the wheel over and the other bead is easily loosened. The handles come apart, the rear section of each handle snapping into place. When the handles are removed, they can be used as tire irons, although we don't especially like the way they're shaped. (We prefer giant tire irons sold by Moto Race, available from dealers for $8.95 each.) The Kawasaki bead breaker isavailable from dealers for $69.95. ' It's wonh every sweet penny. • mean t'le ditlbi8la f) ellllll8n winning and losing. TORCO Racing Oils. with MPZ, are _ ...... formulated to help unlock the poWer hidden in )'OUf fourstroke racing engine. ral.'··,M+P+Z =_ _ U _ _ Solid and fluid films provide the right combination of lubrication and engine protection. The key is a blend of Moly, Phosphorus and Zinc known as MPZ. MPZ deposits a solid lubricating film on internal engine surfaces, becoming a relief lubricant when the oil's fluid fiIriI is washed or burned away. MPZ also works to heal engine surfaces damaged by metal rubbing against metal. The oil's fluid film is fortified .with polymers that have better adhesive and cohesive properties than ordinary base oils. So rings. seal better ... fuel dilution and compression loss are minimized. --........ Y-. •.••• TORCO Racing Oils are available in seven different grades, because different engines and conditions demand 1ORClO 1IACIIMt . . . USA Lubricants Company 12247 Lakeland Road Santa Fe Springs, CA 90604 ~RACING ~ TIRES.")':~\ ~~ . EXCLUSIVE Western U.S.A, DISTRIBUTOR Hap Jones Distributing Co. P.O. Box 32368 San .Jose, California 95152 "We Can Save You Money" BURBANK YAMAHA It SEVEN _ _ SIZES 3:00x21. 110/90, 4: lOx1B, 4:50x18 4:50x17, 5:C1Ox18. 5:C1Ox17 HI·POINT RACING PRODUCTS 3 l l » _ l... _ ZflOH_o. Leo_ 01-_' ~e.-.CA_1O (714) 963-9704 D••I.r Inquiri•• Invited 1BOl W. Burbank Blvd. Burbank, CA 91506 (213)B45-B73B--------~