Well i bought my GS about a month or so ago i put over 2k miles on it since ive had it gave it, its first oil change recently and my rear tire is starting to get very very worn. It didnt help the that tire was almost flat in the center from lack of twisties when i got it. I put a change to that :icon_razz: but now it really starting to look worn and time for a change. So i plan on getting some new tires and i was wondering if its hard to put ones on urself? The local bike guy wants to charge me to $180 to do it after i get the tires and thats redic.
my bike shop charges 20.00$ a tire to mount/ballace them if you bring them in off the bike
Quote from: Jlittle on January 24, 2008, 12:20:27 PM
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The local bike guy wants to charge me to $180 to do it after i get the tires and thats redic.
Do I understand correctly?
You mean 180 $ ONLY for the change job, excluding tyres???? :o
jeez loise that can't be right
It is not too difficult to change tires. Having proper tools is needed. There are some thread on home made bead breakers. Using tire irons does risk chipping paint, even with rim savers. For the cost of several changes, I bought the equipment to change and balance them myself. The 110 front is a pain though.
bubba has a good point. if you buy tools when they are on sale over time you will pretty much have all you need. unless you are like me and just end up creating a maintenance monster ;)
Copied from my recent post on another thread:
I changed my own tires for years. Only needed one long curved lip tire iron, one large screwdriver, and an old Ford Escort. Toughest part of the job was breaking the bead to get the tire loose from the rim. I used the car jack as a bead breaker, put tire/wheel under side of car, placed jack base on tire close to rim, and jacked it up. Poped loose quickly every time and then tuned it over to break other side loose.
Pried the tire over the rim with the iron and stuck the screwdriver in to hold it there while I worked my way around the rim with the iron. I used liquid dishwasher soap on a rag to lubricate taking tire off and putting new one on. Did quite a few tires that way, never balanced them and never had a problem with them. Premium tires need little lead, the weights are mostly for the cast wheels. I left the oem weights on.
Gave up changing tires myself about ten years ago at age 65 when I thought I was going to croak changing one on a hot August day. I've carried wheels in since then and paid $20-30 per wheel in this area for mount and balance. Worth it. The place I get tires now if they have what I want charges $25 each for mount, balance, new valve stem, and old tire disposal and I live to ride again.
oops i ment 80$ not 180 didnt catch that, but yea i work in a garage we have machines to break the beads on tires, car tires that is but i can see it working the same on a bike. Also we have a balancer too
I pay 20 bucks a tire, front or back. $80 is a rip.
I do ALL my own tires. with a C clamp, and some strips of rubber, you can do almost anything on a tire. I took a junk car tire, cut some strips of the sidewall, and use those for between my prybar and screwdrivers, and the rim. My prybar mind you is a 3' long one, so it makes pulling the tire off a SNAP.
its pretty easy once you understand how to do it.
Dealers are definately not always the best.
|You find you often get the apprentice in the workshop doing the basic jobs like tyre changes.
On my last tyre change they scratched my rims about 1 third of the way round :mad:
80$ to do both tires....is that taking him the bike or just the wheels?
Sounds like shop rate for an hour maybe. Believe it or not a lot of business's are in business to make money, not friends.
As a business have to pay your employee(s) , you have to pay his tax and insurances, the buildings electric, various other insurances and a bunch of other things just to open the doors. You're bringing tires to them to be mounted? I've been to places where they wont even do that...(you have to buy the tires from them....claim it's liability issues..but..err..Anyway). They want/ need to make money to keep the business running successfully.
I understand why they want the money they want...I want to make more money...(have to...we all know how much crap is costing and going up now..)
Having said all of that.....:
The dealership I go to-- I go fairly often and get a frequent fliers discount in parts. So I usually buy my tires through them (with the discount and no shipping I pay pretty much what I'd pay online---- I know all the techs and the service writer/manager at the dealership... I slide my wheels into the one guy and he does them both for 30-40$- mount and balance . The shop rate would make it a good bit higher...
I may eventually get a "tire machine" myself... but lack of room in my garage and my lack of urge to actually change them myself trumps that 40$ everytime...
So $80 is a bit stiff carrying them in off the bike...
I brought my tires and wheels to a local CycleGear store, and it was only like $25 each to have them mounted and balanced.
I think the price quoted must be ride in ride out, not take the tyres in off the bike.
That said if you have a car take the wheels off and take em in to get em fitted, if you dont just pay the ride in ride out fee, if its not extortionate.
Even with riding in it will take em 15-20 mins to take them off the bike, new tyres, re-balanced and back on the bike, which would take you most likely a couple of hours. Plus you prolly don't have the right stands to hold the front of the bike off the floor and you'll end up bending, damaging, scratching the wheels trying to put new tyres on. Much easier to take it to a shop. One of the only things i ever get a shop to do on my bike hehe
Ah ok, 80$ seems much better, even though it looks a little too much for me, still.
But maybe it's a matter of different prices/markets on one Atlantic's side or the other.
Me, I paid (yesterday) 100 rear + 75 front = 175.00 € = ca. 257 $ to have my new tyres (Michelin Pilot Activ's) mounted and balanced on my GS.
Fair amount, I'd say.
I looked at the listing prices on a site beforehand, and those were the tyres' prices, so in a way the tyre guy didn't charge me for the job, only tyres. Overall, I'm satisfied.
Forgot to mention, ride-in-ride-out obviously.
I do tires at Cycle Gear all day long lol. The tire machine we use is hydraulic and works great, we also use a speed balancer. We charge $20 bucks with the tire off the bike, balancing is always free. If you want to attempt it yourself, its not hard just protect your rim. Just make sure you buy a valve stem if yours is cracked, just cut your old one out, cycle gear sells em for 2 bucks each. But when doing the tire, help balance it out easier, make sure and line the dot on the new tire up to the valve stem on the rim, it distributes the seam.
After all is said and done and beaded, take it to a local cycle gear if you have one and they will balance it for free, or hit up a local shop to make sure its done correctly. Not sure if automotive balancers can do the smaller 3.5 rims of bikes.
To break the bead you can always use the old 2x4 and a truck method we use for four wheel repairs :) :). Lay the wood on the tire and drive up it, lol. Real simple, once you break it in one location sometimes you can work it off by hand. If you want to get into doing it on your own alot, get a set of irons and spoons, not to expensive and a very good investment.
Quote from: Daniely on January 26, 2008, 12:51:13 AM
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But when doing the tire, help balance it out easier, make sure and line the dot on the new tire up to the valve stem on the rim, it distributes the seam.
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The stem is not necessarily the heaviest part of the wheel. It is best to find the heaviest part of the wheel prior to mounting the tire and balancing, especially if they have been repainted. I have wheels that were close to 90* off, with factory paint. Less weight can be used.
Yea that would be the ride in price, 30 a tire for bringing them in. Ill prob just bite the bullet and take it in. The balance we have is too large for a bike rim like said in the previous post. Now i was wondering how difficult is it to remove the wheel from the bike and put it back on correctly?
Easy as pie,
Bike on centrestand, remove axle bolt, lay it out in the order it came out of the bike with the spacers in the correct places. Rear wheel will just drop out - i dunno on your bikes if you have the brake arm to remove but someone else will chime in for that.
Front wheel, you will need to now you have the rear wheel out, construct a study item, like a crate or bricks under the rear swingarm and weight the bike down onto the bricks so the front wheel is off the floor, as before remove bolts wheel will drop out, then place bricks under the ends of the fork tubes and let the bike rest back down at the front onto the bricks.
Done.
Much easier if you have front and rear stands but thats not likely :)
AH OK, well that doesnt sound too hard. I was curious whats that avatar pic u have that says 100hp mod? lol
Yea me and CndnMax bored out a GS motor and converted it to fuel injection and ran it with a power commander - dyno'd near enough 100hp it was about 97. something or other. The pic of it is what you can see from the top looking down on the cylinders with the power commander fitted.
Here's a picture of the minimum amount of stuff that should come off when you remove the rear wheel. I like to put everything on the axle this way for "safekeeping" while the wheel is away at the dealer....
(http://www.bbburma.net/MiscFotos/100_1443_RearAxleWithHardware.jpg)
For your peace of mind, you may want to pull a few additional parts that can sometimes fall out / get lost at the dealer's. I'm referring to these items from the Haynes manual diagram below:
- The rear sprocket (11) and the sprocket carrier it's attached to (10). They usually pull off fairly easily.
- Inner spacer (9). I found this rolling around the back of my car one day, after bringing my wheel home with the new tire on it. (I must have removed the sprocket that time, and then transported the wheel with the sprocket side down. It took me the longest time to figure out what that part was!)
(http://www.bbburma.net/Scans/Haynes_RearWheelComponents.jpg)
awesome, thanks kerry for that. Road in this morning to work and it started snowing on me by the time i got to work the roads were white scared the %$^& out of me. Didnt know how well it would stick to the road, ended up going around corners like a old lady LOL
Quote from: Kasumi on January 26, 2008, 10:48:35 AM
Yea me and CndnMax bored out a GS motor and converted it to fuel injection and ran it with a power commander - dyno'd near enough 100hp it was about 97. something or other. The pic of it is what you can see from the top looking down on the cylinders with the power commander fitted.
What he's not telling you is that he had to bore it to 1,100 cc's.
Hehe the side walls were so thin that as soon as we started it up it cracked the cylinders. But oh well, that was our 200hp mod out the window we decided to settle for 595cc and used an electronic fuel injection system of an old 600 ninja.
hahahahaha, i love my GS yea i know its not the fastest bike on the road but i can dream! People tell me to trade it in and get something faster but i want to keep it and get a second bike for alittle speed.
Is getting the tire off the hardest part? coz i need to put a tire back on the rim , and the motorbike shop removed the old one , when replacing my bearings ,
Any advice on to how 2 get it back on would be great :thumb:
This YouTube video shows you how to change a tyre yourself
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=anyY0UO5gqk
if you haven't got an air compressor to pop the tyre bead in place, just take your tyre/wheel to the local service station (gas station) and use their air.
Quote from: Kerry on January 26, 2008, 10:50:17 AM
For your peace of mind, you may want to pull a few additional parts that can sometimes fall out / get lost at the dealer's. I'm referring to these items from the Haynes manual diagram below:
- The rear sprocket (11) and the sprocket carrier it's attached to (10). They usually pull off fairly easily.
- Inner spacer (9). I found this rolling around the back of my car one day, after bringing my wheel home with the new tire on it. (I must have removed the sprocket that time, and then transported the wheel with the sprocket side down. It took me the longest time to figure out what that part was!)
Loss of spacer 9 is what caused the only wheel bearing failure I've ever had in over 360k miles of mc riding. I bought the 02 GS from a dealer with 4500 miles and a new rear tire on it and the right rear wheel bearing failed at 44k miles. Appearantly they lost spacer 9 when they replaced the tire.
Lack of spacer 9 will cause the load of tightening the axle nut to be carried thru the 2 outer bearings rather than thru the spacers and inner races as intended.
I don't remove the sprocket unless it's loose enough to almost fall out, best to balance with cush drive in place. Transport in car trunk with sprocket side up.
Quote from: gsJack on January 27, 2008, 08:26:41 AMI don't remove the sprocket unless it's loose enough to almost fall out, best to balance with cush drive in place. Transport in car trunk with sprocket side up.
Agreed; I don't usually remove the sprocket either. But if, as you mention, the sprocket is really loose and you have reason to suspect that the dealer staff isn't very "careful".... :icon_rolleyes:
The sprocket carrier should be removed to balance the wheel properly. I have never seen anyone (who knows what they are doing) balance a wheel with the carrier in place.
Quote from: dgyver on January 27, 2008, 03:00:26 PMThe sprocket carrier should be removed to balance the wheel properly.
I believe you
dgyver ... but this raises a question. If the carrier/sprocket can throw off the wheel balance, why wouldn't you want to do the balance with it in place? This isn't something I've thought about before, so I'm eager to learn something new!
Its diameter is small compaired to the larger diameter of the tire. So its rotating mass is much less.
Quote from: Kerry on January 27, 2008, 08:41:40 AM
Quote from: gsJack on January 27, 2008, 08:26:41 AMI don't remove the sprocket unless it's loose enough to almost fall out, best to balance with cush drive in place. Transport in car trunk with sprocket side up.
Agreed; I don't usually remove the sprocket either. But if, as you mention, the sprocket is really loose and you have reason to suspect that the dealer staff isn't very "careful".... :icon_rolleyes:
Quote from: dgyver on January 27, 2008, 03:00:26 PM
The sprocket carrier should be removed to balance the wheel properly. I have never seen anyone (who knows what they are doing) balance a wheel with the carrier in place.
I guess you're saying the cush drive should be removed in order to balance properly whether it's spin balancing a carry-in wheel or stactic balancing at home. I mounted my own tires for over 10 years without balancing and then started taking them in for mount and balance for the past 10 or so. I know I asked a couple times at first if I should remove the cush drive and was told they balanced with it in place, can't watch them doing it most places.
I really don't know if the wheel/tire will even fit on the spin balance machines with the cush drive in place. Maybe they always R & R it in which case it would be better to leave it safely at home so they can't loose that spacer between wheel and cush bearings. I remain proof that you're never too old to learn but you can get old enough to become a bit forgetful at times. :laugh:
Another good site with lots of information on how to change a tyre yourself.
http://www.clarity.net/~adam/tire-changing.html
I changed my rear tyre today.
I used the my folks caravan's weight controlled by the jockey wheel and a length of wood to break the bead on both sides.
I left the sprocket and disk break attached and supported the wheel of the ground on three lengths of wood.
I used a cut up shampoo bottle as rim savers to stop the tyre levers from scratching the rim.
Quote from: GeeP on January 26, 2008, 12:15:44 PM
Quote from: Kasumi on January 26, 2008, 10:48:35 AM
Yea me and CndnMax bored out a GS motor and converted it to fuel injection and ran it with a power commander - dyno'd near enough 100hp it was about 97. something or other. The pic of it is what you can see from the top looking down on the cylinders with the power commander fitted.
What he's not telling you is that he had to bore it to 1,100 cc's.
Did you guys write it up ? Are there any good links ? I understand it was 'just for kicks' or whatever, but I want to download it all and save it locally as pdf for future skits and gaggles. ;)
thanks
Il have to get in touch with him see about writing some notes up for you, we never intended to document it so there isn't that many picture but il see what i can come up with. Im on holiday from sunday for a week then starting a new job so il try and get round to it sometime after that and post it up for everyone.
Ok the front wheel was more tricky...
I highly recommend unbolting the front brake calliper (C'mon, it's only 2 bolts!!!)
and removing the disk from the wheel. (Use a long bar extension on your Allan key)
DON"T LET ANYONE PULL THE FRONT BRAKE LEVER!!!!!!
I broke the bead using the weight of the caravan again.
Removed the front tyre fairly easily, but getting the new tyre on was very difficult.
The front tyre was so much tighter, and stiffer than the rear. Really required a lot of muscle on the tyre levers (plus lots of patience, lube and home made rim protectors) to get it to seat.
The next problem was I didn't have access to an air compressor that could put a large volume of air into the tyre fast enough to cause it to seat the bead.
Ended up going to a car tyre place and asking if they could use their compressor to seat the bead. Even they had to use their biggest air compressor to get it to seat, I saw pressures of 100Psi on the gauge before "Pop Pop!" the tyre seated.
All in all, after my first ever tyre fitting experiment, I know how to do it now... but I'm not sure if its worth the effort and heart ache to do it yourself.
Oh, I also read "windex" (or other alcohol based window cleaner) is a better lube to use to help your tyre slide on and off the rim, because if evaporates when it dries unlike detergent, which leaves a film that will become slippery again next time it gets wet. You don't want your tyre spinning on your rim as you ride in the rain next time do you :icon_lol:
Hint:
Lube up the rim and bead with soapy water and apply air. Removing the valve core will increase the air flow if you have a small leak.
Barring that, put a ratchet strap around the outside of the tire and chinch it down a little until it pushes the bead against the rim. Air it up and go.