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?
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.
Quote from: Susuki_Jah... 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 $200.
Yeah, service is expensive. My GS needs quite a bit of work and I've chosen to do it myself, and have been chipping away at the needed tasks as the parts come in. I just dropped off my front wheel with a new Maxxis tire for the dealer to mount (the bike came with a Maxxis on the back, so I chose to have a matched set then will replace both when the rear wears out again). Here it's 24$ 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 $300 but if I had had the dealer do it it would have been probably triple that. For the cost of the dealer changing the chain and sprockets I can do it myself AND buy a chain tool, which I can always re-sell on Ebay.
wouldnt birk tires be just like car tires when it comes to mounting and balancing. yea I can do it myself , ive even put car tires on myself but I would rather have the tires digitaly balanced. that means they have to have a machine to digitally balance the tires right? and it doesnt take 15-20 mins to do a tire more like 5-10. a car tire is alot more to work with so I dont see the logic in costing more for a bike tire. I'm going to search around I think I can find service cheeper. I do alotof mechanic work and I understand how long certain things take. but I do not agree with over charging people for somthing there not doing. Visors for my helmate used to cost 15$ now the raised the price to 25$ for the same visor within 4 months. I will never understand the logic but whatever.
Quote from: LizardQueenYeah, 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.
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.
Quote from: dgyverPaying 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 .
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.
Quote from: Rema1000I 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