Entire walkthrough of both wheel removal and installation on a 2015 R3R

[mstraub72]

Changing the tires on a 2015 R3R, the full walkthrough. Admin, feel free to move this to a more applicable spot if necessary, and anyone feel free to chime in with better ways to do any steps this amateur went with.

I just walked in from the garage after my first attempt at doing the tires on a R3R. My other bike is a Honda VFR800, with a single sided swing arm and a centre stand, so that one is easy, like taking a car wheel off. This one was intimidating. The forum was a huge help with things like how to jack the bike up safely, but I’m a little surprised that there isn’t a full walkthrough here I could find, or any good video’s online. Only found one from a 2010 R3T, and the way he did the rear tire seemed…not to the book. So, figured I’d type it all out while it’s fresh in the brain, and offer some tips the book missed.

Tools that you’ll need. 19mm socket for front axle, 14mm for rear, Torx bit to remove the single screw holding rear brake cable and ABS signal cable to the swingarm, and a few smaller metric allen keys or allen head sockets, 5mm for sure, wire brush or wire wheel for drill to clean old thread locker off bolts, and new threadlocker for reassembly. The blue, removable stuff, not the red permanent stuff. Some thin metal wire is handy to tie the calipers up to some part on the bike to keep the weight off the hoses as well. Grab whatever spline grease you prefer; I took the recommendation of the forum and got some Honda Moly 77 (updated version of legendary Moly 60). You’ll need some solvent to clean parts with as well; I just used lacquer thinner. Also, a normal hydraulic floor jack REALLY made placement of the rear tire back up into the bevel box easier. Apparently Triumph, in their infinite wisdom, doesn’t sell that plastic bit closest to the wheel (basically a seal, keeping grease in and gunk out) on the bevel box separately, so you break it, and it’s $2700 for a new entire bevel box. Dumb. I’d find someone with a 3D printer **** quick if I broke mine. Haha… Anyway, that floor jack was a godsend for this job, as that rear wheel is F’N HEAVY.

First up, I’ll leave it to you to decide how you want to jack the bike up. My crafty Dad with all the right tools knocked me out a quick bracket that simply mounts uprights outside those 8mm frame holes below the rear of the engine on each side of the bike (I understand older R3’s had larger holes there…13mm? Verify before crafting…), then spread the load by straddling one of the arms of a bike lift. I put thick rubber, that I normally use in my vice to protect softer materials, down on the other arm of the lift, and that spread the load a little over the more sensitive parts of the oil pan. Some people here just jack right up on the pan, but I felt this was a safer route. Total material cost to make the ghetto version of the Flipmeister bracket, $30 CDN for the ¼” wall box tube steel and a few grade 10 8mm bolts to act as pins.

This may have been overkill, but safety first when messing with 800lbs of bike I figure. I also tossed a couple ratchet straps up and over the bike, one over the seat, and one over the handlebar risers, and in a cross pattern, secured the bike to the jack. Did seem to make it more stable. Placebo effect, entirely possible. Haha…

So, another tip. Before jacking the bike off the ground, put some ratchet straps back to the backrest (if you have one) in a cross pattern from the handlebars, and gently pull them up snug. This will hold the forks in place when you have it airborne, making any sudden movements less likely, and makes working on the front tire more stable. If no backrest, hook it somewhere else, but not to your rear shocks. Stay tuned.

So, get her airborne. On one of those typical “ATV” jacks, I went up so the rear was about 8” to 12” off the ground. Most of these jacks have little safety detents that you can drop some lever into to lock the bike from falling if the hydraulics give out; I was in the middle safety notch of 3. The fore/aft tilt of the bike will vary depending on your balance on the stand (mine was a little front heavy, with the custom fabbed rear support being a little too tall in retrospect). Either way, you want a significant amount of clearance. Get the license plate off too…helps clear the tire.

First thing the book never mentions is that, bare minimum, your left exhaust pipe and mounting bracket is going to have to go. The book even shows the stupid exhaust in place as you “withdraw the wheel spindle”, aka the axle, making it look like it’ll clear under the pipe. But nope, unless I have some weird model year, the left exhaust and the black support bracket are directly in front of that 14mm axle head. Besides, having the exhaust off (I did both sides) sure made the rest of the job easier and less stressful about dinging up chrome. So, left side, I left the heat shield on, loosened up the clamp that holds the pipe to the Y pipe below the bike. Unsure what else to call that, but by “Y pipe”, I mean the splitter that diverts exhaust to each side of the bike. So, loosen that right up, undo the two 12mm bolts from the support bracket, and gently wiggle the exhaust off. Watch the front side of the chrome heat shield, you don’t have a lot of clearance while wiggling.

After that one is off, get the other side off. This side was easier to remove the heat shield, and that was simply loosening the pinch clamp at the rear of the shield, and the single 5mm allen bolt at the front. The clamp mechanism will be obvious when you have it off, it just falls into two pieces. When reinstalling, I just gently installed the 5mm allen bolt, and then reached the “back” piece of the clamp up and around, hooking it onto the top mating clip at the top of the backside of the shield, then replace screw and tighten up.

Next up, the right muffler. Loosen off the same clamp to the Y pipe below the bike, and then the two bolts holding the pipe to the support bracket. Wiggle and ease the pipe off the Y pipe. Set aside to avoid getting stepped on.

Now the support brackets. Their removal is the same on each side. One bolt holding it on is hidden behind the black trim piece behind your passenger pegs, so that trim has to go. Two allen heads at the front, and remove your passenger pegs. 12mm nut I believe. They’re happily notched on the back side, so no stress about trying to get them realigned perfectly. Behind the trim piece you will find your final bolt. 12 or 14mm…can’t remember right now. Take it out, and remove brackets. Set them aside and thread bolt back into bike a few turns for safe keeping. Helps avoid confusion later; I try and rethread every bolt I remove as I go along.

After those brackets are out of the way, next step was actually getting down to business removing the rear wheel. I slid my floor jack under the rear tire from the right side of the bike, knowing that eventually, I’m going to need to withdraw the wheel from the bevel box by pulling it that direction. I juuuuuust snuck up with the jack until you could see that it took up a little of the weight.

First up, the axle. Take a 24mm socket / wrench to the big nut on the right side of the axle. You’ll need a 14mm on the opposite side to resist the axle turning. Pop that nut off, and set aside. Next, you need to get the axle withdrawn enough to clear the swingarm and the rear brake caliper bracket. You really don’t want to mess the axle threads up, so if you need to get it started with a hammer, make sure you put a piece of wood against the face of the threaded axle to protect the threads, and gently tap it to get it going out the left side of the bevel box. There shouldn’t be much resistance at all, especially if you’ve got the tire supported by a floor jack, so if it’s fighting you, make sure you aren’t missing something.

So, gently withdraw the axle until you clear the brake mounting bracket. To remove the bracket, you also need to remove one more bolt towards the front of the bike. The front bolt is called a “torque reaction bolt”, and the manual says to replace after removing. The boys at my dealership just smirked when I asked them about it as I was dropping my wheels off for new skins, and said, nah, just clean off the old thread lock and put it back. So, your call…get a new one to follow the manual to spec, or clean off the threads and relock with removable locktite when reinstalling later.

Here’s where the manual wasn’t very helpful again. As I managed to get the caliper bracket loose after withdrawing the axle and removing the torque reaction bolt mentioned above, I found that there is very little room to get the whole assembly safely tied up with steel wire, up and out of the way. On mine, the brake line and ABS signal cable were held down quite tightly with a single Torx headed screw and rubber pinch clamp, screwed to the swingarm. Now, I had the right Torx bit, but I couldn’t get at that dumb screw no matter what I did. The rear right shock was in the way. Sooooo, off comes THAT too. The bike was getting very naked at this point. Was surprisingly easy, just undo the top and bottom shock mount bolts, 12 or 14mm, and the shock slid off with little excitement. I don’t know if I was expecting it to spring open a little like a car spring, but it just pulled off smoothly. Make a note of which bolt and washer goes where, one is a huge washer, one smaller. Think the big washer was on top if memory serves, but it’s fairly apparent when reinstalling. So, get the shock out of the way, undo the Torx screw holding the rear brake hose down, and now you have a lot more freedom to tie the entire rear brake bracket assembly up and out of the way without kinking any lines.

Pt 2 to follow, 10000 char maximum apparently...

 

[mstraub72]

Part 2.

After getting that out of the way, it’s go time. You can withdraw the axle completely, and again, if you have the tire supported by a jack, this is a smooth affair. If not, you need to support it somehow as you pull the axle out, or you could nuke that plastic shield on the bevel box I mentioned at the beginning, when the tire falls awkwardly to the ground. So, with the tire supported, pull the axle all the way out the left side of the bike. Watch for the wheel spacer to drop on the right side of the bike. Grab it and set it aside with the axle. Now you have enough room to wiggle the wheel assy free from the bevel box.

If you’re on a jack like I was, I just gently pushed the jack and tire as a combo to the right, as I guided the wheel free of the bevel box. It slid out of there pretty smoothly, and then you carefully lower the jack to the floor. Watch very carefully as you lower the wheel for (a) the parts on the left side of the wheel (driven gear, etc..) safely clearing that plastic cover on the bevel box, and (b) that your ABS sensor wheel on the right side of the wheel is clearing the right side of the swingarm. After you’re safely clear of all the danger zones, you can roll the wheel off the jack and out the back of the bike, under the license plate mount. Boom, the worst is over!

The front tire is a way easier affair. The back was a few hours work (going very slowly, as this was my first time with this bike), but the front was like 10 minutes. First up, remove the calipers, while leaving the hoses all connected. Tie them safely up and out of the way with that thin steel wire. I hung mine from my front signal lights; just draped a rag over each so as not to scratch up the chrome. Next up, loosen the pinch bolts at the bottom of the right fork (it’ll be on your left if you’re sitting right there in front of the bike. I’ll keep referring to the parts as they’re officially known, as viewed from the back of the bike, left and right side accordingly. It will just read backwards compared to what you’ll be looking at, as you’ll be sitting directly in front of the bike). Don’t need to take them out, just get them nice and loose. Then, using the 19mm huge hex head socket, unscrew the axle from the threaded end in the left fork. Again, support the wheel with your feet or something (this one isn’t nearly as heavy as the back was…), and collect the spacers as you slowly pull the axle through the whole wheel, then out the other side of the right fork.

In case you forget which side was which, as I did and had to refer back to the book, the spacer with the raised “flange” looking end goes on the 19mm socket side of the wheel, larger flange end facing the fork and the smaller end fitting inside the wheel, and the other smooth cylindrical spacer goes on the other side of the wheel.

Now, get that wheel out of the way, and might as well take a moment to get a look at the ABS sensor now that it’s easy to see. There is a little notch in the bracket, and you can see where it mates up with a bulge on the fork. When you go to put this back together, I found it handy to take a little painters tape and tape the ABS assembly to the fork. Too many moving parts with two spacers, an axle, AND an ABS sensor that all have to mate together, so just getting one thing locked into place with some tape as you reassemble is pretty handy.

And, one last thing. I also read a lot of tips on the forums that said basically, “While you’re here, this disassembled with the rear wheel out, might as well pull the 4 bolts from the bevel box and drive shaft tube apart, and lube the splines.” I agreed, so that was next. I only have 9000 miles on it, but figured it was worth a look while already wrenching away. Again, Honda Moly 60 seems to be highly recommended for this, and it’s been replaced by Moly 77. Slap some rubber gloves on for that stuff…wow, is it grey and f’n sticky. I looked like I was fingerprinted. Haha…

So, if you want to do this, you’re going to need to take that floor jack, and put it back under the rear end. Toss some pieces of wood on the lift to increase the height. Lift it up until it’s under the right part of the swingarm, the opposite side you’ll be working on. The reason for this is that, once we pull the left shock off, there’s nothing else supporting the swingarm, so it will drop (I assume? No idea how far it’d actually fall, but this seemed like a smart safety move.) Once you have just a little pressure up against the swingarm, you can take off the left rear shock. 12mm bolts again I believe. This one was more trouble for me than the right shock for some reason, but I eventually just got the top of the shock off the mounting post, then wiggled the whole thing back and forth a bit as I gently pulled the lower mount away from the bike. She popped off after about 10 wiggles.

Now, re: the Bevel Box to Driveshaft connection nuts. The book is VERY adamant about the tightening sequence and torque settings, so I also undid the nuts in the same order. Looking towards the rear of the bike at the 4 nuts, it’s Top left, bottom right, across to bottom left, up to top right. There’s no oil concern here, nor is there a gasket. All the oil is sealed in the centre part of the bevel box. So, gently release the pressure on the nuts in that sequence, then I left the top two installed as I removed the bottom two. The weight of the bevel box will keep the top two nuts in place. Then, support the weight of the bevel box with your right arm or a helper, and take the last two nuts off. After they’re clear, you can easily slide the bevel box towards the rear of the bike, disengaging the driveshaft from the box. Taking a clean rag, I gently cleaned out the female junction where the driveshaft slides into, and then took some Moly 77 and applied a thin layer to all the splines. Didn’t go buck nutty with it, as it’ll only creep out and fling all around in there. Cleaned off the face of the gear that mates up with the wheel as well, and Moly’d that up too. Again, not a crazy amount, just a thin layer.

After that, I wasn’t sure how to get the Bevel Box back onto the driveshaft, as it was now laying on the bottom of the driveshaft tube. Seeing zero options to prop it up anyway, I figured I could just sneak up on it with the bevel box, and kinda raise the rear of the Bevel Box just a little as I slid it in, hoping to lift the driveshaft up as it went in. Amazingly, only took like 4 tries before she mated easily. Slid the Box home, reinstalled the nuts hand tight, then slid the rear axle through the Box over to the other swingarm. This apparently ensures proper alignment (although I think the 4 nuts would have too…but hey…the Manual says so, so there you go…).

Now, to tighten the Bevel Box bolts back up, you have to do it in order, and in two stages. Again, looking towards the rear of the bike at the bevel box bolts, it’s Top Left, Bottom Right, Bottom Left, Top Right. Torque in that order to 20NM the first round, then up to 64NM the second. Reinstall the left rear shock, cleaning off the old locktite from the threads of the bolts with a wire brush, then applying a few drops to the first few threads so it spreads as you tighten it up to spec.

You’re done the entire removal and spline lube! Off to the dealer to get the rubber swapped out. I went with the Avon Cobras, and took the advice of the forum again, and went one size smaller with the front tire, getting a 140 instead of a 150. They said it made the bike feel 200lbs lighter, and being the towering 5’8” tall, I was all over this big pig feeling lighter. Haha…

One tip when you drop the wheels off for fresh rubber: Spotted somewhere in this forum that some people ask the shop to reverse the direction the air filler stem points on the rear wheel when they have the rubber off. Thought that was genius, pointing it away from the large brake assembly. My shop did it, and it’ll be nice to get at that air stem now!

Now, it’s time to reinstall the wheels.

Rear tire:

Apply a little fresh NLGI 2 spec wheel grease to the wheel driven flange where the bevel box meets the gear on the wheel. I just used Moly 77 here, hopefully that’s okay. Get the axle all cleaned up and wire brush the threaded end to clean it up and take off any thread locker. Since the left shock was reinstalled back in the Bevel Box spline lube step, you can safely take the floor jack down from the swingarm, as it’s time to use it to lift the tire back up into place. I rolled the jack in from the right side again, and rolled the tire up onto it, always watching the gear side and the ABS sensor ring side to make sure I didn’t hit anything. Got it balanced on the jack, and with a helper, slowwwwwly raised the jack, making sure to clear the bevel box plastic ring, while not hooking any parts on the brake side either. It was a snug fit, but eventually she was high enough that it cleared the Bevel Box plastic guard. I eyeballed it through the bevel box axle hole, and saw I was pretty straight. I eased the jack towards the Bevel Box, and after a couple wiggles back and forth, rotating the tire gently, the gears slid together. I slid the axle through to make sure it was supported, then clicked the transmission into gear, and tested to make sure I was indeed engaged inside the bevel box. It was…came up solid against 1st gear, but back in N, it just rotated smoothly. Success!

 

[mstraub72]

Last part, part 3:

Next up, you want to degrease the brake disc. I used lacquer thinner on a clean rag, and just slowly spun the wheel around while the rag cleaned the disc off. Set that rag aside for use up front on the front discs later.

Now, keeping the jack under the tire for support, I withdrew the axle back far enough to get the spacer in, and then once it was seated, I eased the axle forward juuuust enough to hold it in place while I refit the rear brake caliper assembly. This was made easier by gently sliding the pads up and down against the disc, and after it dropped over the disc successfully, you just finish driving the axle all the way through the other side of the swing arm. Clean off the old threadlocker from the torque reaction bolt, and apply new thread lock, then hand tighten to align the rear brake assembly properly. Threadlock and tighten the axle nut to 110nm, and the torque reaction bolt to 69nm. Pump the rear brake to confirm the pads seated properly.

Then, put that Torx screw back into the pinch clamp that holds the brake hose, and reinstall onto swingarm. Replace right rear shock afterwards, again cleaning the bolts and applying new threadlock.

Replace the rear exhaust support brackets on both sides, and the associated cover and rear passenger pegs. There are little stubs sticking up to align the passenger pegs, so that is pretty straight forward.

Then you can reinstall the exhaust. These are a little tricky…I found that spraying a little shot of WD40 onto a rag, then wiping the parts of the exhaust Y pipe that you’re going to mate the exhaust to helped it slide on easier, and will burn off quick. The tricky part is the bolts that hold the muffler to the support bracket…the nuts move freely inside the mount point, so getting them aligned is a little tricky. You can sorta poke the nut around with a screwdriver or a bent piece of wire to get them where they need to go, which will be obvious based on the old marks. Get them tightened up with a 12mm wrench, and then tighten the clamp at the Y pipe connection. Reattach the heat shield if you removed it. Congrats! The hardest part is done!

The front was easy peasy. Clean the axle, and brush off any old thread lock. Sit on the ground, place wheel in between forks. Put the spacers in their applicable spaces as mentioned previously, lift the wheel up into position, and start the axle back into its home. Again, I taped the ABS sensor into place so as to free up one more hand to keep the spacers in place, and then slowly feed it all through to the threaded end. If it doesn’t seem to go in far enough, make sure you aren’t too high or low on the 19mm socket side; I was too low by just a bit, and once I just squeezed my legs a bit to hike the wheel up a smidge, it slid all the way home and began threading easily. Hand tighten to make sure you’re not cross threading at all, then torque to 65nm, then the pinch bolts on the right fork to 22nm. Degrease the front discs by spinning the discs through a clean rag soaked with whatever cleaner you’re using.

Next, brakes. Starting with the right caliper (your left if you’re seated in front of it, looking towards the back of the bike), do the same maneuver as on the rear wheel. Slowly spin the wheel back and forth a little as you’re easing the caliper back over the disc. It’ll suddenly slip back over, and you can clean, threadlock, and reinstall the two caliper bolts. Tighten to 50nm.

Now, the other side. Same procedure as the right caliper, should slip back over disc, then you can reinstall the bolts. After the brakes are all torqued up, give the wheel a good spin and squeeze the front brake to test.

That’s it! Undo your straps that secured the bike to the jack over the seat / handlebars, confirm nothing is going to get pinched in the jack as you lower it, clear away all the clutter around the bike, lower the kickstand, and gently lower it to the ground and back onto her kickstand. Open a beer and congratulate yourself on a job well done.

 

[Mike188]

Excellent write up

 

[barbagris]

Well written up - though I think my way is simpler. Pay somebody else.

 

[1K9]

I jack up the bike, remove the top of both shock absorbers to drop the swingarm. Remove the license plate and proceed as mstraub72 so well described.

 

[Grumpy Ole Codger]

A brilliant description that even I can understand!! But then again, I am with @barbagris on this one - broken too many finger nails in the past!!

 

[AnthonyD]

VERY nice write-up, thanks for doing that!

 

[RockOn]

Thanks, gonna print out all three parts and keep it handy on the garage shelf for the day I tackle the rear wheel.

 

[mstraub72]

Hey @RockOn , I'll do you one better. How about a PDF all put together along with the photos? Can't seem to attach a PDF here using the Upload A File link, but if the Admin or anyone else wants to tell me how, I'll upload away! Thanks all for the kind words; once I get a coffee in me and a laptop, all the typing classes from back in high school kick in. Haha....