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
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.
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.
I changed mine several months ago for the first time.
The only problem I had was breaking the bead, everything else was pretty easy.
:cheers:
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.
:thumb:
+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 !
A "C" clamp and some wooden blocks can break a bead.
I like WD-40 to seat beads but no one else approves .... :nono:
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 !!!!!!!! :icon_eek:
+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
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.
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!
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 (http://faq.ninja250.org/wiki/Mounting_%26_balancing_tires_yourself) to a FAQ about mounting tires over on the Ninja 250 site.
Tony
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!
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.
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?!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Noob question, but what about balancing? I mean, I don't know how much a bike tire has to be balanced..wouldn't it have to be put on a machine and weights added and such? :dunno_black:
Piece o' cake: http://www.google.com/search?q=diy+motorcycle+wheel+balancer
I just use the axle through the wheel sitting on a couple of jack stands.
Harbor frieght has a decent looking balancing stand, but it's $60, which is too much for what it is. It would definitely be a good deal someday when it's on sale for $40. I figure someday I could catch both parts of the tire changing setup on sale too, but at the moment I'm fine with trying to do them on the floor.
Quote from: dauphinc on February 23, 2010, 10:14:29 PM
Noob question, but what about balancing? I mean, I don't know how much a bike tire has to be balanced..wouldn't it have to be put on a machine and weights added and such? :dunno_black:
Technically it is the wheel that needs to be balanced. Most motorcycle tires have a mark to be aligned with the heavy spot on the wheel. The heavy spot is not necessarily at the valve stem. I always spin the wheel without a tire to find the heavy spot and indicate it on the wheel Some tires do not have a mark, like Pilot Powers which can be mounted at any spot. After some experience, it only takes a couple of minutes to balance a tire. Manual balancers work the best. I have never had an experienced motorcycle tire guy who likes a machine to balance a motorcycle wheel.
Quote from: O.C.D. on February 23, 2010, 08:28:11 AM
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?!
Haha, I got tired of fighting with it and just cut most of the tire off. It was actually pretty easy, I just stood on it and sliced all the way around through the lettering with a razor blade, then flipped it over and did the same. The sidewalls were still on the rim, but getting the main part helped, and considering it's my first tire changed it let me see what I was actually doing. Turns out I didn't have my tire all the way off the bead anyway. I got one side off, the other is still being difficult but tomorrow I've got plans and some 2x4s to make myself a bead breaker and it should be a breeze from there.
I have this bicycle stand with the heavy duty steel plate base, so I'm just going to drill a set of holes half way down...
(http://www.sicklines.com/interbike2007pics/2008_ParkTool/2008_ParkTool_Interbike00.jpg)
and make myself something like this to bolt onto it. All I need to do is run to the store and grab about 4 long bolts, some nuts and washers and I'll be in business.
(http://ghostridethenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/extendo-handle.jpg)
Quote from: tt_four on February 27, 2010, 07:10:26 PM
Quote from: O.C.D. on February 23, 2010, 08:28:11 AM
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?!
Haha, I got tired of fighting with it and just cut most of the tire off. It was actually pretty easy, I just stood on it and sliced all the way around through the lettering with a razor blade, then flipped it over and did the same. The sidewalls were still on the rim, but getting the main part helped, and considering it's my first tire changed it let me see what I was actually doing. Turns out I didn't have my tire all the way off the bead anyway. I got one side off, the other is still being difficult but tomorrow I've got plans and some 2x4s to make myself a bead breaker and it should be a breeze from there.
I have this bicycle stand with the heavy duty steel plate base, so I'm just going to drill a set of holes half way down...
(http://www.sicklines.com/interbike2007pics/2008_ParkTool/2008_ParkTool_Interbike00.jpg)
and make myself something like this to bolt onto it. All I need to do is run to the store and grab about 4 long bolts, some nuts and washers and I'll be in business.
(http://ghostridethenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/extendo-handle.jpg)
your bead breaker looks good and strong. very inventive
That one in the picture isn't mine, it's just a random one from online, that's just the general plan I'm gonna go with, except I'm going to use some 2x4s. I'll try to post some pictures of it when I'm done though. I still have to make a balancing stand, which I think will be very easy aside from finding a rod that's actually the same size as the axle, since I don't have a lathe to be able to make sliding cones to use on a smaller one.
Alright, so I didn't end up needing to make the bead breaker yet. I'll definitely make one before the next time I need it, since all I need to do is get to the hardware store to grab 3 nuts/bolts/washers. I just wedged the long 2x4 under something and popped it off that way. I finally managed to get both tires changed, but good god was the difficult. I scratched the crap out of my rims too, but they had been repainted black, and I can't say how great of a paint job it was to begin with, so I'll just repaint the spots I scuffed up. I also got all my new fuel lines setup. Currently I'm waiting for the glue to dry on the rubber blocks on the bottom of the tank, since the new tank I got didn't come with any, then I just need to balance the wheels, temporarily spray paint the tail and front fender, and make sure all the random nuts and bolts are tightened, and my bike will be ready for the road!
Ooh, and that whole insurance/registration/inspection hassle..... There's a custom/chopper/cruiser shop about 6 blocks away, I'm just gonna try to cruise the back street and see if I can make it there for the inspection since I really don't want to deal with trying to have my dad come down some saturday just to load it in his truck and drive it 6 blocks. It's all downhill, I could just push it there if I have too, assuming it passes and I don't have to push it back home!
You guys are hardcore.
I've done tires by hand before and it sucks. I'm more than willing to pay the shop to do them. That's the only thing I'm willing to pay them to do, though.
Haha, as I was doing it I was thinking "there's no way this was worth saving $20 per tire", but from what I've seen on youtube, once you get some practice you can can remove and remount a new tire in a matter of minutes and barely even break a sweat, so it'll be better after a couple tries. There also aren't any shops that are convenient for me to get to. I also like knowing that I can find free tires down the line and install them just to burn then off... :thumb:
In general, paying for them to get done isn't bad, but I still don't want to do it. All the trouble I had with that triumph was starting to make me sour on motorcycles, so I figure the more I can learn to do myself, the better. The only way I'd ever take a bike to a dealership again is if I needed a tool that I absolutely could not afford or make, or if there was just some crazy problem that I could never manage to figure out without the help of a forum, but if that was the case, I don't trust a mechanic to figure it out either.
I always change my own tires. I use the Harbor Freight stand with the Harbor Freight Motor Cycle adapter. I have tire irons, but don't use them any more because the MoJo Lever tire long bar rolls the tires right off and back on in a snap. Even GoldWing tires and they are infamous for being tough. MoJo poly blocks also keep the rims from being marred by the wheel camps. There are better cycle tire stands, such as Cycle Hill and NoMar. Logs of video on youtube on how to.
prs
Yeah I've seen that stand at HF. I wouldn't mind picking one up someday. They're what, $60 a piece? That's the kind of thing I'll probably grab when they go on sale for $40 a piece, especially considering you have to buy those plastic blocks seperately, unless I can find some plastic and just make the blocks myself. I got the coupon for their cheap welder in my email this morning, and I spent the last hour browsing online about their mini lathes. God I hate that store. haha
Ive changed my own truck tires with a set up that my uncle had. It was always done in the middle of summer in Kansas, and was quite possible the worst thing ive ever had to do to my pickup, not trying to scare you, but yea, i wouldnt do it again. The bike shops here charge an arm and a leg to change tires, i dont know why though over thirty bucks im told. if you dont buy the tires fromthem
See the braces sandwiching the 2x4s on the bead breaker? Those are important:
(http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o287/_badguy_/bike%20stuff/DSCF3061.jpg)
I hadn't thought of doing it the way shown in your picture, so I just got some plywood and glued/screwed it together to replace the long part of the lever...been fine since.
Now that's some dry pine!!! I think I need to make one of those. They look fun. :cheers:
Quote from: badguy on March 02, 2010, 07:24:24 AM
See the braces sandwiching the 2x4s on the bead breaker? Those are important:
(http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o287/_badguy_/bike%20stuff/DSCF3061.jpg)
I've been using an 8-foot 2x6 stuck under the rocker panel of a car, placing a piece of scrap wood next to the rim, and put the 2x6 on the scrap. The first tire took all of my 170# with a 7:1 advantage. I could hear the 2x6 cracking. Beads on subsequent tires have popped a little easier.
I used an 8ft long 2x4, only because that's what I had and didn't feel like cutting it, but I probably only used 5-6 foot of it, and probably could've gotten away with 4. Did you have it so it was 6 inches vertical, and 2 inches horizontal?? I didn't have any cracking noise with mine.
If you just do it by wedging a piece of scrap under the 2xwhatever, you'll probably be fine...pretty sure mine split mostly because of the bolts through.
Oh yeah, good thinking. I wonder if I can find some large straps/hose clamp kind of pieces. I'd like to keep it something that I can easily pull apart and stand up in a corner as that's the kind of thing that will clutter up a basement real fast.
I'm thinking of doing this because all of the shops want to charge $100 plus to change my tires and that's if I bring the tires in. Anyone know a place in O-town that is cheaper?
Mary
That's ridiculous. Most places around here are about $40 per tire with the wheel on the bike, and $20 if you take in just the wheel.
I changed mine as well while I was taking a motorcycle maintenance course. If the facility has the equipment for removing the tires and balancing the rest is rather easy. The nice part of taking the course is that I'm more comfortable removing the tires, changing brake pads. I've pretty much done anything simple. Oil changes, filter changes, chain adjustments, etc. Once you've done it a few times, it takes less time and you become more comfortable making the minor adjustments.
just changed my first set of motorcycle tires ever bout a month ago, was a PITA but it gets faster every time you do it
Yep, I've been changing mine for a while also, and yes it get easier and quicker each time I do it.
Tony
haha, that's what I'm counting on. When I did mine it took foorrever. I spent hours trying to get the first tire off. Once I got past that point the rest was easy. I actually ended up just cutting the first one off. I cut straight around the center tread, and once the two sides were seperated they came right off.
I also noticed that the first large amount of time I spent trying my tires weren't actually off the bead, they were just pressed in slightly, which you wouldn't know until you have a tire off once and know what it looks like inside the rim.
Since them I picked up a 24" tire lever from Harbor freight, so I'll be ready for next time. Haha. I know it's overkill but I was looking for a 1 foot lever, and this one was only $5. I thought about cutting it in half, but it's more fun this way.
If you're using a lot of force to get a tire off or on, you're doing it wrong.
You can remove and mount a tire solely with 8" tire irons and it shouldn't be overly hard at any point.
That's what I used to get mine off and on, were 8 or 9 inch, can't remember which. The main problem I had first was that I thought the tires were off the bead, but they weren't, and I had no idea until I actually cut it and saw how wide that part of the rim was. Also, I have no idea how old the tires were, but they were definitely a minimum of 10 years old, and they were pretty stiff. They were much stiffer than my new tires, and I don't think that helped me out either. I also need to get some rim protectors. I did a bit of damage to the paint, although luckily for me it was a crappy paint job to begin with.