Author Topic: Change your own tires? (Read 5385 times)

land_shark · « **on:** October 18, 2005, 02:46:54 PM »

I have a garage full of 3 bikes, and have been spending a lot of money on tire replacement. I feel like I can do better....

What are the tricks? tools? anyone have any horror stories? success stories (even better!)?

I'm imagining an old 14" car rim bolted on to my workbench (removable), with split tubing around the edge, a pair of spoon irons, bottle of soapy water, and a wad of saved cash in my pocket

What can I expect out of this? Am I going to dent this $#!T out of my rims? Did you?

tacoman · « **Reply #1 on:** October 18, 2005, 03:34:58 PM »

I've done tube tires a lot, mainly on dirt bikes. Buy some tire irons, usually two and and a large scredriver will work. Its easy to scratch rims though. It helps if the tires are warm and use soapy water. I'm notorious for pinching tubes so careful there. As far as the bandits go with tubeless radials, I don't go there. Balancing is not an issue with dirt bikes but on the bandits they are. Depending on what type of riding you do, you may get by with the balancing type but if you're into higher speeds, computer spin balance is the way to go.

Sven · « **Reply #2 on:** October 18, 2005, 04:30:31 PM »

An alternative would be to buy the tire you want online at the deepest discount you can find and then have someplace other than your normal $60/hour MC shop mount it. A guy I know takes his to the Husqvarna (sp?) shop and they mount/balance for $25.

Tundrahog · « **Reply #3 on:** October 18, 2005, 05:37:43 PM »

I'm with Sven. My local dealer will do it for $20 if I pull the wheel from the bike and re-install. I've heard of people doing it at home, but I'd hate to find out I was off some at 120 mph!!

Diskbrake · « **Reply #4 on:** October 18, 2005, 06:15:25 PM »

My back tire popped a few weeks ago (glass) and i just managed to make it to my local garage and they charged £180 for tyre and fitting.

land_shark · « **Reply #5 on:** October 18, 2005, 06:34:10 PM »

what happened to my poll? I put '0' days, so is should have been never-ending. Not a big deal, but, you know.

I agree that it'd be bad to find out the imperfections of my work on the interstate somewhere. But man, I just feel like it should be do-able, and really end up saving me a lot of time and money to do it on my own...

Red01 · « **Reply #6 on:** October 18, 2005, 07:05:13 PM »

I don't know what happened to your poll.

But have you checked out the General FAQ for the Making your own tire mount & balance equipment thread?

ray nielsen · « **Reply #7 on:** October 18, 2005, 08:19:10 PM »

Harbor Frieght sells a car tire changing tool and offers a motorcycle attachment for under $100. It and the purchase of a "Breezer" hand tool make a good combination.

I've changed maybe 50 tires in the last couple of years with these, and had good luck every time.

The "Breezer" is an aluminum tool that is used with a hammer to both dismount and mount the tire bead. Being aluminum it doesn't scratch the rim if used carefully. Lots of soapy water is needed along with some help at times especially with stiff walled touring tires.

Breaking the bead is a problem on wide rimmed wheels and the Harbor Freight unit has a built in bead braker -- be careful not to bend a disk on a front wheel with two brake discs. You'll need a piece of wood as a spacer uner the wheel to hold it up off the floor.

With just tire irons and plastic rim protectors it will usually take a couple of people to do the job. You'll need a good air compressor with at least 90 PSI to get the bead to "pop" on some of the wider radial tires, a hand pump just won't cut it. A couple of extra hands work well to get the bead in contact with the rim when seating the beads too.

speedytriple · « **Reply #8 on:** October 18, 2005, 10:49:47 PM »

i have this tire changer from harborfreight. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=42927 and have done a few sets of tire with it in the year i have had it. with a set of tire irons it is a snap. the bead breaker works great also.

mike

PeteSC · « **Reply #9 on:** October 18, 2005, 11:22:57 PM »

I think zero days means the poll runs for zero days......as in NONE!

I mounted a rear tire on my DR650, just to see how hard it would be to deal with repairing the tube type tire out in the boonies.
I'll probably do it again, since I bought a balancer.....but won't look forward to it.
You can shop your local shops,and see who has the cheapest mounting prices. Locally, there's at least a $10 difference per wheel.

Hey Ray, does using a ratchet type strap on the circumference of a tubeless tire help you seat the bead when inflating? I couldn't get my tube type to seat without one.

Red01 · « **Reply #10 on:** October 18, 2005, 11:35:57 PM »

Quote from: "PeteSC"

I think zero days means the poll runs for zero days......as in NONE!

Nope. When creating a post, there's the poll features at the bottom, and the # of days to run the poll says:

Quote

[ Enter 0 or leave blank for a never-ending poll ]

I always leave it blank myself...

land_shark · « **Reply #11 on:** October 18, 2005, 11:36:47 PM »

Quote from: "Red01"

I don't know what happened to your poll.

But have you checked out the General FAQ for the Making your own tire mount & balance equipment thread?

I have 2 posts going relating to tire repair, and the poll is on the other one. Many apologies!

Thanks for the thread reference!

tom624 · « **Reply #12 on:** October 19, 2005, 02:20:26 AM »

I use the HF tool also, and it works fine. (once I understood the translated Chinese instruction pamphlets). I figured that between the lower cost of tires on line, and the ridiculous dealer mounting charges, the equipment paid for itself on the first pair of tires I mounted. And it was a one-person job.

Tom

land_shark · « **Reply #13 on:** October 19, 2005, 10:45:48 AM »

Nice. To get this straight, the Harbor Freight setup would be $34 for the stand/bead breaker, and $49 for the motorcycle tire adapter? That's almost too good to be true.

jfudo · « **Reply #14 on:** October 19, 2005, 11:22:02 AM »

I haven't had any luck doing my own tire changes. I've done one front tube and tire on my ex wife's '81 kawasaki KZ440. Got it on fine I though, but I must have pinched the tube putting it on. I promptly gave up and took it to the shop to replace the tube correctly. That cost me $15 more than if i took it in the first place.

The next one was me trying to use my own homemade bead breaker for the front tire of my old '92 Yami FZR600. It didn't work at all. I got to a point where it would've been too embarrassing to take to the shop, so I had to finish the job. I ended up cutting the tire off. Even with a big section of rubber missing, the freakin bead wouldn't budge for me. Very carefully cut the steel in the bead with an angle grinder. I then took it to the shop to have the new tire put on.

Somewhere in the process I also bent one of my brake rotors. That process ended up costing about $75 more than if I just took it in. I was yound and stupid (and poor) then. I vow to never attempt it again. I've torn down and rebuilt my bandit onto a new frame, but I still won't touch the tires.

By the way, my local shop (not a dealer) charges $20 for mount and balance, and they have some great stuff to look at while I wait (including the front counter attendant