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Any one change their own tires?

5K views 37 replies 17 participants last post by  AimoPaukku 
#1 ·
So with $500 for the paint, $250 for the exhaust, and $55 for the wheel being money well spent but money spent none the less I've emptied my bank account and not getting paid again for 2 weeks. I need to move my original tire off my old rim and install it on the new one.

The fear is that its $35-$45 to pull a tire at the local shop and I'm not sure if that is to remove than install and balance the tire on the new rim. Thats fairly pricey and means no golf next week.

So I searched you tube and found a video of a guy doing it in literally 2 mins worth of work. It was somewhat legit as he was teaching some sort of race school. He used 2 tire irons from harbor freight that are $6 a peice and some plastic to protect the wheel.

I am curious if anyone on here has done this and if you'd recommend giving it a try. I don't want to mess up the tire because it has less than 2000 miles on it but I don't want to spend $70 if I don't have to. What do you guys think, good idea? bad idea?

Plan to polish the parts tomorrow or sunday and be riding monday by the way, with pics a plenty.
Thanks
Tom
 
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#2 ·
Sounds like you are talking about scudman? He does make it look easy, doesn't he? :D

There are several of us doing it ourselves with a variety of equipment. BTW, the plastic bottle protectors scudman recommends work much better than the store bought ones. :D

It is not what I would describe as easy, but if you follow his tips it is doable. The hardest part for me was breaking the bead on the rear. Now that I made a beadbreaker kludge, it is easy.

The HF irons are the better ones on the market. They also sell a tire changer and I know of at least one forum member that uses it.

Scudman also has suspension videos. I linked to them in another thread a few days ago.
 
#3 ·
What O&D said. I would only add that it's more likely to be 2 hours than 2 minutes. Also that it's a very useful skill to have & you'll get faster with practice.

Cheers,
-Kit
 
#5 ·
I don't bother. My dealer gives me a heck of a deal on tires mounted and balanced. In, chew the fat and have a cup of coffee and out I go.
Leave tire changing to you young pups. I've changed enough of them in my life.:D
 
#6 ·
Ditto what dolson said. I started to do it myself but gave up (after starting to scratch the rim) and went to my local independent guys. They charged me $10 per wheel to dismount/mount my tires.
I would have to change a lot of tires PER YEAR to justify changing them myself with the proper equipment.
I had just purchased a nice Marc Parnes balancer so I balanced them myself.
 
#14 ·
<...>They charged me $10 per wheel to dismount/mount my tires.<...>
It's $50 per here in NYC; if it was $10 a pop I would surely pay a shop to do it!

Cheers,
-Kit
 
#7 ·
I have done several and not found it too difficult, I would like to congratulate 3banger on his workshop ability "top work", definately easier with a purpose built rig, the balancing is easy as well. The trouble is, as I get older bending down to remove a tyre is getting harder (2 damaged discs in lower back) and I always get a quote for my tyres fitted now!

In a roundabout way of answering your original post, yes I have changed my own tyres, but I now work on the theory of "work smarter not harder", get someone else to do em! (haggle on the price for fitment)

Just my 2c
Regards
Ozzyfzr
 
#10 ·
I ride with a group of 5 other motorcycle instructors (I am one as well). We went together and bought a no mar tire changer. Works slick and easy. You can find it by a google search, they have video's on the website. I think it cost us 125 each or something like that. I have changed my front and rear, and others have done the same. Our area it costs 80.00 to change front and rear, as a minimum.. some places are even up to 100+ for doing a set. So it works out pretty quick that we are saving money. The second set is half price, then after that, changing is free. We have even though about charging other 20.00 to do their tires for them. Fair deal, half price of the shop price.

Dr. T with another idea for the box.
 
#16 ·
No-Mar tire changers are awesome! If you can get a couple guys to go in on one, the price is not too bad. They have a new model out, called Cycle Hill (from No-Mar) that is even more reasonable priced to compete with Harbor Freight. They are located here locally, near me, and I've seen the factory. They machine the products right there. Great product. Too bad I haven't convinced any friends to go in on one! BTW---you can get a mount that allows this system to be setup using a trailer hitch, that way you can share it around and/or take to a trackday or whatever.
 
#27 ·
So here is what I've decided. I don't want to wrangle with a 190 rear for the first time and ruin my new rim. The shop near me will swap it for $30 so I guess I'm going to bite the bullet and take it in tomorrow.:(

OnD- yeah it was the scudman vids I was watching. Since I'm in need of a new front tire next pay day I'm going to give it a go on the front. I searched the forum and found a cheap and easy solution to a bead breaker using a pair of 2x4s and I'll see how it works.

I dont want to start a new thread so curious to know if anyone has or would use a set of track tires used for one track day as there street tires. The reason I ask is a buddy at work races an R1 with the same size tires and has a stack of front and rear tires in his garage he wants to move for $50 a piece. I good option for me if it is safe because its A-cheap and B-gets me back into a 180 rear. I'm a little leery on using them with out any solid info on them and hope the likes of DaveM can provide a little info.
Thanks
Tom
 
#29 · (Edited)
In the last year started changing my own tires mostly out of convenience and cost as the dealers and shop's costs have become expensive and I wanted to develop the technique. What I have learned...

Within a short drive theres a good fellow with a basic nomar changer that we sort of pitch in and help together with a few bucks changing hands for supplies and some amortization of his investment. Sure there are liability issues but no one's yet drawn any blood or poked their eye out and most around here are not d*cks. A nomar changer would be a great addition to a co-op garage but there is some technique involved so you don't hurt your wheel/tire or the changer.

Even still, I mostly do what I can by hand using my Flintstone methods (2x4 bead breaker, tire spoons, scud plastic protectors) since it is quicker than driving across town. What I can't do myself I drive over to the friends changer. There are some fat, stiff rear tires I just cannot, nfw, completely do by hand. The last fat rear tire I changed I could not even break the bead. 120 front vs 190 squat rear tires are night and day imo.

I use the same 2x4 bead breaker method everyone else does and have broken a 2x4 on a 190/50 on a 6 inch rim that I could not break the bead at all. And I have plenty of gravity on my side. This bead broke handily on a nomar changer.

I can change a front tire on the floor without having a stroke, without scratching a rim, but it takes me about an hour at my glacial pace, beverage stops, double checking, and propensity to clean things as I go :D. Scudman's rim protectors are easier than the heavy ones that clip on by a wide margin. I have slightly more trouble getting the the last bead of the new tire on the rim, but maybe it's just me running out of gas - it would certainly get easer once I come up with a rim holder at waist level.

It seems to make all the difference to have something to hold the wheel up at waist level to rather than rolling around on the floor. Most times on the nomar you can pull the 2nd lubed bead off the rim by hand because the rim is held down tight. I don't really have room or budget yet, but a HF changer looks like a nice compromise and if you make a few changes it won't scratch your rims. I have seen guys get the HF top part only and mount this on a bench but they lose the built-in bead breaker in the other part.

Scudman does make it look easy (warm/worn flexible little bitty front tire? old rim? practice? outtakes?), but I would like to see him try that on a new, squat, fat, stiff, cold 190/50 BT016 rear :eek: All these youtube videos are not done on little front tires like this you might have noticed. No way can I do one like this 190 by hand with my skill and I have tried for an hour... or two. Maybe you can? A basic nomar has it done in 3 minutes. Watch the vids from nomar on doing fat rear wheels and imagine doing with little spoons and my low skill level.
 
#30 · (Edited)
Excellent post, djw. Maybe I feel that way because I agree with all you've said. :D No way can you wrestle a rear hoop off a rim bare handed. Scud's videos are quite optimistic, but they are educational.

This afternoon I'll take some pics of my trailer jack bead breaker. I was thoroughly surprised at how easily it works.

And putting the rim at waist level is definitely easier than the floor. I drilled a hole in my bench top for a section of threads-all which I use to hold the rim securely to the bench top.

With the trailer jack bead breaker, the HF spoons, the OJ plastic bottle rim protectors, and holding the rim on the bench top, I can pop a tire and install the new one, with lots of bead lube, in about ten or fifteen minutes easily. Balancing is a different story If you are exacting, it can take a while. Remember, I've always said that I don't do much, but it takes me a long time. ;)

Why do it myself when the shops do not charge excessively? Because I do not like excessive wheel weights on a rim, and I always think I can do anything better than a hurried tech, but mainly because I enjoy doing things myself. Others might think I'm sick......and once in a while I have to agree with them.:D

If I was smart, I would pop for the HF changer combo or any of the others that have been suggested. I have read that using the NoMar bar with the HF changer is a good set up.

PS......I try to set the new tires out in the sun for a few hours before mounting them. I don't know if it helps or not and have been tempted to forgo doing this since it tends to make the tire lube dry too fast. If you do warm the tires, just remember to keep slopping the goo on as you work it.

PPS......Might be preaching to the choir, but if anyone contemplates using a set of the store bought rim protectors (clunky and too thick!) make certain that you have a string tied to them. If you do not, they are guaranteed to fall inside of the tire.
 
#31 ·
Hey all. For all that feel the No-Mar is too expensive, well I agree! Unless you can buddy up with others anyways. Just wanted to remind everyone that No-Mar has a newer model out to compete with the HF one. It goes by the name Cycle Hill and still uses alot of the No-Mar technology/pieces (the mount/dismount bar being the key). A little cheaper, but still out of my range right now.
 
#32 ·
As promised, pics of my cheapo home brew bead breaker. The number of ways to kludge up a bead breaker is proportional to the number of people doing their own tire changes. My method was dictated by what I had in my junk pile. Others have devised their equally efficient rigs by using just a bit of creativity and self reliance.

It consists of a trailer jack and an angle iron frame bolted to a work bench leg. The work bench leg is bolted to the garage floor. The trailer jack is the type that has a flat triangular plate instead of a side clamp. The wood block is a loose fit and serves as a reaction fixture since the jack is not permanently connected to the angle iron frame. I put a bit of a radius on a section of 1/4" steel plate and welded it at an angle into two slots on the bottom of the jack tube so that the force is vectored toward the rim recess. The bottom of the plate was rounded and finished relatively smooth.

The jack is inserted into the angle iron frame from the bottom which then allows the triangular plate to press against the frame and exert pressure down on the tire bead as the jack is cranked.

The angle iron frame folds down when not in use. So far, the max size it has been used on has been a 190. It works so effortlessly I think it would pop the beads on my F250 truck tires. ;)

Machine Toolroom Workbench Tool


Bumper


Finger


Hardwood Wood Floor


Lets see some pics of other rigs so that I can see how cave man I went. :D
 
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