Any of you guys change your own tires??

[tt_four]

Do any of you guys change your own tires?

It's nothing I would've ever assumed I should do at home, but I was in the bathroom, flipping through the GS repair manual that now lives on the back of the tank, and the one chapter described how to change your own tires. Is this really a good idea? Balancing them looks way simpler than I would've guessed, and I was a bike mechanic for years, so i've changes more tires than I know what to do with, so I'm sure I could handle pulling a tire off and putting a new one on. I'm sure I could even buy some nice tire levers, rim guards, rim weights, and the supplies to build that balancing stand they showed, and still come out saving more money than if I payed to have a tire put on. The only thing I wasn't sure about was the constricting band that you're supposed to wrap around the tire and inflate to press the beads up against the rim? never seen one of those. I'm also curious what keeps the air in the tire to even put enough pressure on the bead to hold it against the rim to seal the air in. I picture all the air going in through the valve, and straight out through the tire and rim. All of the bicycle tires I've changed have had tubes, so it's already sealed. They do make mountain bike tires that are tubeless, but I've never messed with one. If you put a compressor on it, is it assumed that enough air will blow in that the bead will just press up and form a seal? I always thought the tires were actually glued to the rims or something, but it doesn't appear so.

Anyway, if this is something that a lot of people do themselves, all the while I've just been the sucker who pays to get it done, I'd like to hear about it so I'd be more likely just to do it myself next time, not just because I hate letting someone else work on my stuff, let alone hand them money for it, but because there aren't really any bike shops near my house, and the last thing I want to do is take 2 motorcycle wheels on the bus to the nearest shop.

Thanks!
Josh

[AccidentalF]

I change my own all the time...because i work in a bike shop.  Without the proper tools it is a hassle. I did once change the rear on my TL1000 on the floor with irons, but I couldn't balance it and it was tough.  It CAN be done, yes, but unless you either buy/make a changing stand and balance stand it is (IMHO) worth it to have them mounted when you buy them.

[Atkins]

I changed mine last year and it wasn't all that difficult.

A couple of links that I found helpful:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7546109776315225781

http://www.clarity.net/~adam/tire-changing.html

The air compressor will set the bead. You can hear two distinct pops as each side gets set in place.

[dohabee]

I changed mine several months ago for the first time.

The only problem I had was breaking the bead, everything else was pretty easy.

[applecrew]

 

I do mine by myself as well.  I spent about $10 to build the bead breaker - it's way more effective than I thought it would be!  I'm not completely happy with the balancing (too much internal friction in the wheel bearings), but it's good enough for now.  The next time, I'm going to build a better stand.

Overall, it's pretty easy.  The only real difficulty (and it wasn't really that hard) was setting the bead - I used a tie-down strap around the tire, using the lever to tighten it down to compress the crown of the tire - this forces the beads out towards the rim.

I'll not even think twice about doing it again.  Difficulty, on a scale from 1 to 5: 2.5, only because it can get a little physical. Technical skills required are minimal.

[ohgood]

+1 for the info here.

i'll add:

dishsoap (starting the new tire, helping slip the bead on while blasting with air)

good tire levers

patience

it only takes a few minutes, the bead breaking is the hardest part, but if you have 2x4's and a steel bumper, it's a snap. don't bend your disk !

[birdman561]

A "C" clamp and some wooden blocks can break a bead.
I like WD-40 to seat beads but no one else approves ....
A messy, last resort to keep air from escaping while you are trying to
seat the beads is to get as close as you can  with a strap, and then pack
heavy axle grease in between the bead and rim to seal it. It will hold
enuff psi's for a short period to get the bead to catch the rim.

If you notice the bead sliding into postion , duck & run !!!!!!!!

[drincruz]

+1 for everything covered here.

you don't even need to bother buying fancy rim guards. just use cutouts from a plastic orange juice container. or any plastic bottle you have really. i've got 1 tropicana and 2 from a bottle of lotion. the only thing that i did buy was the tire irons.

g'luck!

cheers,
~drin

[qwertydude]

WD-40 works good to seat beads but since it does soften rubber also it may make them harder to unseat later on. I used to do WD-40 on my scooter but sometimes even on tiny wheels it would be difficult to break the bead when seated with wd-40, my GS goes to the pros they only charge 15 bucks to mount and balance.

[tt_four]

So I finally got around to trying to change my tires. I pulled my front wheel off first, did what I could to break the bead with a C-clamp(think I'm gonna try to make something better, or get to HF and put out the $20 for their bead breaker, which I should've bought when I was there last time) but i've still had a miserable time trying to get that tire off the rim. I mean I'm literally getting no where with it. The tire is so tough that I just feel like I'm going to break a tire lever and get a chunk of metal stuck in my torso, so I back off. All the videos I watched on youtube, guys are able to kinda push the tire around to push it away from the rim, but I can't really get mine to do much. I squeezed the new tire, and it's way softer than the tire on my rim, which for all I know could be 15+ years old, and is just super stiff from being old, but who knows.

I'm gonna stop by an auto parts store today for some tire lube, I read somewhere else that napa sells some good stuff, so hopefully that'll help, but to be honest at this point I think I'd be easier just to cut the old tire off. Is that getting a little bit irrational?? I used to be a bicycle mechanic for years, so I've changed hundred of tires in my time, and even though they're skinnier, it's still the same process. I've fought off some of the most stubborn tires I could imagine, but this thing's got me beat, and I don't like feeling like a failure!

[TonyKZ1]

I mount my own tires, here's the stuff that I use. It's available at NAPA and other places, it's called Ru-Glyde. Here's a link to a FAQ about mounting tires over on the Ninja 250 site.
Tony

[tt_four]

Thanks, that's actually the name I read in the last site I was on, so that's what I'm hoping to find. There's 2 auto stores right around the corner, so I'm gonna see what they have. One is an advanced auto parts, and I don't remember what the other is, I'm hoping one of them has something. The one I was in the other day didn't tire tire levers, so I'm not too sure if they'll have rubber lubricant, unless it's in some other section of the store, like the general lubricants or something like that.

You still have the 250? I had one of those years ago, that thing was a blast to ride!

[gsJack]

I changed my own tires for about 10 years and only bought one long curved lip tire iron to do it and used that along with a large screwdriver I had for prying the tires off.  Had an old Escort I used for a beadbreaker, just put the tire/rim under the side, placed the jack base on the tire close to the rim, and started jacking.  Broke loose easily every time then turned it over and repeated on other side. I used the liquid dishsoap for lube, just squarted some on a rag and wiped it on tire bead and rim.

[O.C.D.]

I would not advise cutting the tire off.  I have done this and although it seems fairly easy, it is not!  I ruined two Sawzall blades and part of a good rim on a Jeep doing this.  The bead is the hardest part to get through.  But that was due to impatience.  A bike may be easier?!

[tt_four]

Hmm....  well I looked on google and there's a Napa about 3.5 miles away, so I'll either drive up after work and get some of the lube and a longer tire iron, or else I'll go do it this weekend, but either way, cutting that tire off is starting to sound like a fun project either way. Haha, hearing you say it's not easy makes me really curious. I'm trying to figure out what kinda tool would work. I bet a high speed cutting wheel would just make a mess with the rubber. A sharp knife might be the best bet but it'd still be tough, and I'd probably lose a finger or two. No reason not to try! If I can't get it off I'll just go back to the original plan of prying it off like normal, as long as I didn't hurt the rim from trying to cut it off.

My only real fear in this, is if i try to do something stupid like cutting it off, and then can't pry it off the right way later, I'm gonna have to carry the wheel into a dealership and have a mechanic pull it off, and I'm going to have to explain why the tire has cut marks, melted spots, holes drilled, and whatever else I come up with in the process, then they will laugh at me, and my self esteem will be blown. Haha.

If I can't get the front tire off the right way I'll try taking the back tire off first, then come back to the front. I wish my bike was running and I didn't have neighbors and a V&H exhaust so I could just go in the street and spin the back tire until I ripped straight through it in a smoky cloud of glory.

[brianut]

A simple way to break the bead is this:

ride bike to the end of your street, stop, remove air then ride very slowly back to your garage.
My friend with a KTM 950 Adventure and TKC 80 dual sport tires that are really stiff said this worked awesome.
I have not done this but after trying for hours he found this method online somewhere and said it took longer to let the air out than to break the beads.

[dohabee]

Interesting, I wonder if it only works on certain sizes.

I was riding with my brother and he got a flat on his gsxr, which had a 185 rear tire.

We were stuck in the middle of nowhere and rode on the shoulder for about 20 miles to get to a tire shop.

The tire was completely flat because he put a 4 inch slash in the tread doing a burnout on a rocky road but the bead never broke.

[black and silver twin]

I change my own motorcycle tires but not car tires. I have a manual tire change machine and balancer from harbor-freight. its not that easy or fast but it is cheap in the long run, and if somethings wrong you can only blame yourself.

[jeremy_nash]

I change my bike tires at my friends house.  he has the manual harbor freight tire changer and balancer kit.  works great.  I have changed more tires on it than he has, lol

[the mole]

I've broken a bead by lying the wheel flat on the ground and then driving my car over the tyre as close as possible to the rim.