For the love of Pete!!! Grrrrrrrrrrrr

[Firewalker]

So I ordered some new pilot activs.......decent price........ not great but good........ after being quoted a ridiculous price by the shop I decided to go the on line order route.

Time to install them.......shop quoted $140 to install them?  WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF???  This is on the bike....but it's still $70 if they were off the bike.  Seems like a friggin rip off from hell to me.  I completely negates any savings from buying them on line......plus shipping, back order.......cancel......get from someone else......shipping.  What a crock!!!  I miss buying race take offs installed for  $140 front and rear.

Anyone else going through this or am I just living in a bit of a fancy place???

[burning1]

 

Sounds like the dealer has a policy that encourages you to buy your tires there. For what it's worth, that's pretty typical. My local dealer asked $30 per tire, with the rims off the bike. The same change would cost $15 each if I bought my tires from them.

[T1z3R]

i usually pay £5 to get a tyre fitted.
buy some irons and do it yourself.

[the mole]

Firewalker, it might sound expensive but realistically I'd probably do the same if I was the dealer. He has to pay rent on the shop, pay wages, insurance, install the tyre changing and balacing equipment, pay to dispose of your old tyre, cover all the other overheads and then try and make a little money. The internet seller has much lower costs, so you get it cheaper but have to figure out the fitting yourself.
Caveat emptor!

[Firewalker]

I guess it's pay me now or pay me later........Just a drag...... I very rarely hire people to work on my stuff.......Can usually figure it out or maybe I am a cheap bastage!!! 

The install is free if you buy it from them........ahhhhhhhh

Just had to get that off my chest...... knocked on the neighbors door but they didn't want to listen to me gripe!!!  Teehee

[romulux]

Getting a tire on takes some finesse, but it's easy to learn.

Fit the tires yourself.  If you can't get the bead to seat, take it to the shop and have them inflate them for a few bucks (or free).

[jeremy_nash]

I mount all my own tires for that very reason, if you have a few friends that ride motorcycles, it would be worth it to go in halves/quarters/whatevers with them and get a manual tire mounter like from harbor freight, the changer, with motorcycle wheel adapter can be had for a little over $100

[twocool]

I mount all my own tires for that very reason, if you have a few friends that ride motorcycles, it would be worth it to go in halves/quarters/whatevers with them and get a manual tire mounter like from harbor freight, the changer, with motorcycle wheel adapter can be had for a little over $100

Yeah sharing the equipment sounds like the way to go.........I am a ceap ass and don't like toay the dealer......but sometimes i takes me 6 hours to do what th dealer could do in 1/2 hour.........tire is one of them...............but I still do my own by borrowing tools or using "cave man tools"....

OTOH..........Buying the tool, for whatever job it is, usually costs about 2 times what the dealer would do the job for one time...........so if you use the tool twice you have broken even, and any more than that you are ahead......and you have the tool to use whenever you want...........

I have never been sorry for buying a good tool....never!

Cookie

[Firewalker]

I mount all my own tires for that very reason, if you have a few friends that ride motorcycles, it would be worth it to go in halves/quarters/whatevers with them and get a manual tire mounter like from harbor freight, the changer, with motorcycle wheel adapter can be had for a little over $100

Yeah sharing the equipment sounds like the way to go.........I am a ceap ass and don't like toay the dealer......but sometimes i takes me 6 hours to do what th dealer could do in 1/2 hour.........tire is one of them...............but I still do my own by borrowing tools or using "cave man tools"....

OTOH..........Buying the tool, for whatever job it is, usually costs about 2 times what the dealer would do the job for one time...........so if you use the tool twice you have broken even, and any more than that you are ahead......and you have the tool to use whenever you want...........

I have never been sorry for buying a good tool....never!

Cookie

+1 on having the right tools!!!

[tt_four]

It doesnt have to be expensive. buy two 11in tire levers, some rubber lube from napa, some tire weights and a metal rod(or some dyna beads if youre not comfortable balancing) and watch some videos on youtube. you can make a bead breaker out of some 2x4s as well. i promise itll take you hours and hours the first time, but youll see on the youtube videos that with some practice you can do a wheel in4 minutes. i did my first set  in spring on the gs. took me all weekend. i just ordered a new set for the buell tonight so ill be doing my second set soon and can hopefully do it all on a saturday afternoon.

[wakdady]

i installed my pilot activs myself.
it was serious PITA!
the only tools i had was a bead breaker, tire balancer, tire irons, cam buckles.
i cut off the old tire and it was not easy, but do-able. i only wish i had rim savers because i scratched my rims pretty bad in the process. this is what i did;
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=299597

[tt_four]

I tore my paint to pieces. It was a cheap paint job though. I'm glad my current wheels are just silver. That makes me wish I had ordered some rim savers though. I definitely wished I had some last time, and completely forgot to order them this time.

There were times when I remember thinking it would've been so worth it to pay someone $20 a tire to do it, but I made sure to focus on the long term goal knowing that practice would make it easier, and I just had to get over the first hurdle. I did end up just cutting the tires all the way around though. As much of a pain as it was, it was much easier to get them off, plus I never would've found out how far you have to push a tire in to get it off the bead. I was wrestling with the tire for like 3 hours thinking it was off the bead before I found out it wasn't, at all.

[Toogoofy317]

Yeah, the dealer is the same down here. At least there is MMI near by and they will usually do it real cheap because the students need to learn.

Mary

[bassmechanicsz]

I have a dealer by me that charges $60 a tire off the bike, another one that charges $40 a tire off the bike and then their is a little mechanic that works primarily on dirt bikes, quads, lawnmowers,  motorcycles or any other small engine that charges $25 a tire.  Also you have to get rid of your own tire from all of these places unless you pay them an additional $5 for a disposal fee.

So compared to the prices near me i wouldn't say that $70 to install 2 tires is really that out of line.  The $140 on the bike is ridiculous but it is easy enough to just bring them the wheels off of the bike.

[mass-hole]

When I bought my new tires about a month ago my local dealer told me it was $70 a wheel because I didnt buy the tires from them. I told them to get lost and went home and did it myself. Great learning experience, and although it was pretty tough to do the first time, I think that I would have no problems doing it again and could probably do it in half the time now that I have it figured out. One thing I would suggest is if you do it yourself, get tire irons that are longer than 6 inches . . . .

Jay

[Firewalker]

I hear ya....I am on the road for work so all of my tools are at home in my shop.  Had to buy another set of sockets/wrenches to do my carb work last week.  Painful to buy another set of what you already have two sets of.  Ahh well, such is life.  I guess it's the going rate to have it done then.  Will be happy to just get them on so I can trust the bike a little more.

Thanks for the input on the thread.

Scott

[The Buddha]

Look around, tars should be no more than 10-15 installed wiht the rims off. Balance is not needed, and it add $5-10. Modern tars are very well balanced, and its a GS ... so balance is a waste of $.
Cool.
Buddha.

[tt_four]

When I used to get them replaced it was $20 per tire if the wheel was off the bike, $40 if it was on, and $6 per tire to dispose of it. It's just as easy to stick them in a garbage bag and stick them out on the curb. The pathetic lazy garbage men here wouldn't take my tires when I put them on the curb, but they took the the next week when all I did was put them in the bag. No only are they lazy but they're not all that smart either.

It was definitely tough with my 8" tire levers. I went to HF and bought a 24"er for $5 so I'll be ready this time, haha. I was only looking for an 11-12", but I figured I could cut this one in half for the price.

[mass-hole]

I would love to get a set that are 12" or so. I think it will be a while before I need to change them though. What kind of life do people get out of Sport Demons. Daily commuting, no knee dragging?

Jay

[romulux]

8" irons are plenty.

If you need more leverage, you're doing it wrong.  It shouldn't take much force.