Front wheel removal

Got my new tire in and I need to take the front wheel off the GRiSO. The manual says to remove the bolts from the brake calipers. Is this necessary? Do the calipers need to be removed to clear the wheel?
I will look at it tonight but thought I would ask in case there is some magnificent trick you guys do..

Yeah you have to dismount them, not remove them. Not hard...
Get rubber bands to keep them out of the way and it's an easy job.

Thanks! As I suspected.

New problem. The caliper bolts are not loosening. I am giving it all Ive got with the wrench and nothing so far. Do I need to hit it with the impact tool? Seems way tighter than necessary.

Shouldn't be hard at all...45 foot pound if I recall...
No offense but you're going counter clock wise right? Lefty loosie, righty tighty...

Mine had loctite on them. First time took some force.

Mine had loctite as well but it was never a huge effort to remove them bolts.
I do use a half inch ratchet though...

You brute.

Hmm, I don't recall it taking all that much force to loosen. I wonder if the dealer had it off earlier.

I was going in the right direction. Although I have fought with left hand thread bolts till I found out what they were!
Going to warm it up with the heat gun tomorrow, if that doesn't get it I will let the dealer break the bolt heads off. I think Luigi dipped the bolts in Locktite.

beetle wrote:

You brute.

Whaaaaaattttttt... I'm smooth as butter Son.

The two foot broker bar did the trick! Wheel removal this afternoon when its a balmy 60 degrees Thats not celsius! I gave myself a Pilot Road 4 tire for my Xmas.

Hope you all are having a very Merry Xmas today!

Hi guys, Merry Christmas, is there any special reason the brake calipers have to be taken off, just wondering.
Wakey

They will foul the wheel rim if you simply remove the axle.

Ok thanks Beetle, thats a good enough reason ah mate.
Wakey.

Not to mention that putting the wheel back on while aligning the rotors between the pads at the same time is more pain than it's worth...

Triman023 wrote:

The two foot broker bar did the trick! Wheel removal this afternoon when its a balmy 60 degrees Thats not celsius! I gave myself a Pilot Road 4 tire for my Xmas.

Hope you all are having a very Merry Xmas today!

Yup ... on all three counts.

Few tools are as satisfying to use as a breaker bar.  

Mine -- which has yet to suffer defeat    -- is from Harbor Freight.  http://www.harborfreight.com/12-in-drive-25-in-breaker-bar-67933.html

I am also very pleased with the MPR4's, tho I only have all of 300 miles on them.

And, yes, Christmas; great joy ... after the grandkids wore themselves out.     Even better, today is only the Second Day of Christmas!

Bill

Calpers slid right off with a bit of a twist. I put masking tape on the rim and that was a good idea.
The only problem I had was tightening the axle nut, had a friend hold the other end steady while I torqued it.

Am I an idiot or do I have special calipers?

I'm attempting to remove the front calipers so I can remove the wheel. (So I can remove the front forks so I can change the oil.) The calipers slide back toward the wheel but contact the wheel before they're clear of the brake rotor.
I was very surprised by this turn of events. So twisting is the key? I don't see how that will help. Is the trick to squeeze the brake pads outward to provide more clearance?

Any advice is appreciated.

Yes.

Ahhh! I'll try that.

I had huge problems removing a single handlebar bolt and ended up removing the whole assembly, making a jig and using a lot of heat to get it out. No surprise MG has used industrial strength Loctite elsewhere too.

Well I wasn't able to finesse the calipers off the rotors so I removed the rotors to provide the clearance. Those twelve bolts were definitely Loc-tited in! They weren't going to vibrate loose.

Make sure you loctite them when you put them back on.

Thanks. I absolutely did use blue Loc tite and torqued them to spec.
Got it all back together and took it out for a 20 mile test.
The front wheel did not fall off so overall success.
Using the ladder in an A frame position with a hand winch and nylon straps behind the steering head all worked well. I'll be doing it again if I take just the wheels in for new tires. I don't know if I can trust a shop to lift the bike properly.