Motorcycle Cost

[Susuki_Jah]

I never really realized how expensive it is for some of the parts on a motorcycle.  I just bought  brake pads and cost me 60$. not too bad really considering they are good breaks and very much needed, but  I asked the service guys how much to mount and balance my tires if i brought them the rims. $26.00 each wheel to mount and balance a new tire?  WTF? it cost 10$ for low profile car tires on a 17" rim.  and if you bring them the bike without the wheels off it is 65$ per wheel. I dont really mind the cost of tires but the service is outrages!!.  Does anyone pay the same?

[Roadstergal]

It sounds like you got a screaming deal on car tires ($20 per wheel mount/balance is more typical).  Shop around.  Better yet, get a tire iron and DIY.

[RedShift]

... but  I asked the service guys how much to mount and balance my tires if i brought them the rims. $26.00 each wheel to mount and balance a new tire?  WTF? it cost 10$ for low profile car tires on a 17" rim.  and if you bring them the bike without the wheels off it is 65$ per wheel. ...

You're getting a good deal on tire mount & balance price if you take them off the bike.  It's $30/wheel around here, double per wheel if delivered on the bike.

It's all shop time.  To do a wheel right you need to spend a good 15-20 minutes with it.  There's no machine that does it -- it's all hand work from what I understand.  Not difficult -- just time consuming.

I say pull the wheels off and let the dealer do it right.  If you're hard-core, you can get the equipment to do it yourself for under $200.

[LizardQueen]

Yeah, service is expensive. My GS needs quite a bit of work and I've chosen to do it myself, and have been chipping away at the needed tasks as the parts come in.  I just dropped off my front wheel with a new Maxxis tire for the dealer to mount (the bike came with a Maxxis on the back, so I chose to have a matched set then will replace both when the rear wears out again).  Here it's 24$ for mounting and balancing a tire.  I thought that was high, too, but couldn't find it any cheaper after calling around.

My bike also needs a chain, sprockets, rear shock, fork rebuild w/new springs, and front brake pads.  I bought a chain tool on Ebay for 65$ and will do the chain myself as soon as I get the tire back from the shop (can't get it out of the shed to work on the chain without it).   The forks will be as soon as I can enlist hubby to help me, and I'm still waiting for the brake pads to show up.  Still looking for a rear shock.

All these parts cost me about $300 but if I had had the dealer do it it would have been probably triple that.  For the cost of the dealer changing the chain and sprockets I can do it myself AND buy a chain tool, which I can always re-sell on Ebay.

[Susuki_Jah]

wouldnt birk tires be just like car tires when it comes to mounting and balancing. yea I can do it myself , ive even put car tires on myself but I would rather have the tires digitaly balanced. that means they have to have a machine to digitally balance the tires right? and it doesnt take 15-20 mins to do a tire more like 5-10.  a car tire is alot more to work with so I dont see the logic in costing more for a bike tire. I'm going to search around I think I can find service cheeper. I do alotof mechanic work and I understand how long certain things take. but I do not agree with over charging people for somthing there not doing.  Visors for my helmate used to cost 15$ now the raised the price to 25$ for the same visor within 4 months.  I will never understand the logic but whatever.

[Susuki_Jah]

Yeah, service is expensive. My GS needs quite a bit of work and I've chosen to do it myself, and have been chipping away at the needed tasks as the parts come in.  I just dropped off my front wheel with a new Maxxis tire for the dealer to mount (the bike came with a Maxxis on the back, so I chose to have a matched set then will replace both when the rear wears out again).  Here it's 24$ for mounting and balancing a tire.  I thought that was high, too, but couldn't find it any cheaper after calling around.

My bike also needs a chain, sprockets, rear shock, fork rebuild w/new springs, and front brake pads.  I bought a chain tool on Ebay for 65$ and will do the chain myself as soon as I get the tire back from the shop (can't get it out of the shed to work on the chain without it).   The forks will be as soon as I can enlist hubby to help me, and I'm still waiting for the brake pads to show up.  Still looking for a rear shock.

All these parts cost me about $300 but if I had had the dealer do it it would have been probably triple that.  For the cost of the dealer changing the chain and sprockets I can do it myself AND buy a chain tool, which I can always re-sell on Ebay.

hey, go to www.bikebandit.com I got my chain and sprockets from them. you might aswell go with a 15t front sprocket, it gives the bike so much more for just dropping one tooth in the front.  plus everything was really cheep with bike bandit.

[dgyver]

Paying someone else to do work for you is not going to be cheap, no matter what it is. They do have overhead and profit to make.

Everyone that I have had to mount &  balance mtc tires use a simple gravity balancer. Several commented on disliking digital balancers for not being as consistant and slower to use. A good tire guy can have tires mounted and balanced in less than 10 minutes. There is a lot more libility in having a bad mounted/balanced mtc tire as compared to an auto tire.

[Susuki_Jah]

Paying someone else to do work for you is not going to be cheap, no matter what it is. They do have overhead and profit to make.

Everyone that I have had to mount &  balance mtc tires use a simple gravity balancer. Several commented on disliking digital balancers for not being as consistant and slower to use. A good tire guy can have tires mounted and balanced in less than 10 minutes. There is a lot more libility in having a bad mounted/balanced mtc tire as compared to an auto tire.

dont get me wrong I know what it takes to do work for other people. I do work on cars for people I know the time and effort it takes for some things and the cost. But there always is the ability to compare and thats what I will be doing till I find a shop thats cheeper, if I dont though I will just change the tires myself and Balance them by eye.  Im thinking its the fact that the shop has no competition around them for a good amount of miles .

[Rema1000]

I think I found a shop that would do it for $12 two years ago, and one shop quoted $20.  But I do it myself now.

I put the axle through the hub and hold the wheel upright using a couple of 4x4s, and spin the wheel.   Anything will work, so long as it's steady, and mostly level.   I tape pennies (0.09 oz) to the wheel until it is balanced, then replace them with stick-on wheel weights.  

Last time, I got it balanced to where it needed just one penny in one spot; then I found that I could only buy stick-on weights as small as 0.25 oz., not 0.1 oz.  I decided that if you can't buy them that small, then it's probably not worth caring about.

You can do about as accurate a job as you care to do. Balancing is the easy part; getting the tire on/off is a bit harder.  Seating the bead of the new tire is probably the hardest part of doing it yourself.

[Susuki_Jah]

I think I found a shop that would do it for $12 two years ago, and one shop quoted $20.  But I do it myself now.

I put the axle through the hub and hold the wheel upright using a couple of 4x4s, and spin the wheel.   Anything will work, so long as it's steady, and mostly level.   I tape pennies (0.09 oz) to the wheel until it is balanced, then replace them with stick-on wheel weights.  

Last time, I got it balanced to where it needed just one penny in one spot; then I found that I could only buy stick-on weights as small as 0.25 oz., not 0.1 oz.  I decided that if you can't buy them that small, then it's probably not worth caring about.

You can do about as accurate a job as you care to do. Balancing is the easy part; getting the tire on/off is a bit harder.  Seating the bead of the new tire is probably the hardest part of doing it yourself.

they should be led weights right? and with a scale and a cutting tool you  could technically get it exact .

yes getting the tire on is very hard!! I did it a couple of times on care tires, definatly NOT FUN>

thanks for the info though with the pennies and all, definatly good to know