SmarTire: Installing the front Sensor
It wasn't raining and it wasn't too cold. No excuse not to start the installation of the SmarTire. After all, it's been two months since I bought the kit.
In theory the valve stem is the heaviest part of a wheel. Right. Notice where the valve stem is when I put my wheel sans tire on a balance stand. My front is lightest at the valve stem, not heaviest.
I checked because I thought I'd mount the SmarTire sensor to get more of a neutral balance. Since I don't want to mount the sensor at the valve stem I pretty much followed the mounting instructions as to sensor location.
The metal piece in the first picture is a bridge that goes over the valve stem to stop the sensor mounting strap from blocking air flow. The second picture shows the mounting strap before it was trimmed to size. The instructions call for about 1 inch of strap beyond the worm gear.
I opened the package that contained the sensor and slid one over the mounting strap for the front wheel. The sensor is a "touch" too wide for the rim. I took a little bit of the plastic off of the sides of the sensor to get it to fit better.
The kit comes with a warning label to note the location of the sensor. I placed it on the wheel in the appropriate spot them mounted the front tire. It took a little trial and error to figure out the best way to mount the tire without damaging the sensor or having the sensor get in the way. The SmarTire instructions helped, but were written for those using tire change machines.
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