anyone change their own tires?

1807 Views 9 Replies 7 Participants Last post by Loran in Npvl IL, Jul 13, 2006

bkyser

Discussion Starter · Jul 10, 2006

Do many of you change your own tires? A person I know at work is looking into buying the Harbor Freight tire changer with motorcycle attatchment. He doesn't own a wheel balancer, and doesn't seem to think that it is that big of a deal.

After seeing some kind of video, he said that if you line up the yellow dot ( on Dunlop tires) with the tire valve, it should be relatively well balanced?

Do any of you change your own, with just a set of "spoons?" What do you do for balancing.

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norsseman

· #2 · Jul 10, 2006 (Edited)

This may be the video

A previous post in this section by LORAN has the way cool video link.

Looks entirely doable, the Harbor Freight tire changer may be
OK, but a tire can be changed for far fewer bucks. Also a
MC tire bead breaker is available for less than $40.

epper:

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free wheel-e

· #3 · Jul 10, 2006

i would agree, a bead breaker is all you realy need for our size tires. the tire changer might be a little overkill for a job you might do once every two years. don't forget to get wheel protectors. i also read that if you align the dunlop tires with the valve, you are in good shape , balance-wise. you can also use Ride On tire sealer. ppl say that will balance the tire too.

ride safe

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93VN750

· #4 · Jul 11, 2006

I rolled my wheels with old tires and the new tires into local Honda dealer.
They charged me $21 + tax to dismount the old tire, new valve stem, mount new tire and balance them.

For $ 50 for both, I couldn't see buying the hardware to use it every couple of years at most.

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Ernie

· #5 · Jul 11, 2006

The guy I get my tires from doesn't charge for fitting as long as I take the wheel off myself & put it back on afterwards. He charges for balancing but I have never bothered & have never had any trouble with vibration or anything. Maybe I have just been lucky? He's only a small motorcycle dealer working on his own but he's very good. Most of the bigger tire companies here in the UK generally charge for tire changing.

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hyperbuzzin

· #6 · Jul 11, 2006

HERE'S the thread with the video.
I have the HF tire changer and like it. You can read what I said about it in the linked thread.
If paying $50 for each set of tires changed, the changer is payed for after changing 2 sets.

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93VN750

· #7 · Jul 11, 2006

hyperbuzzin said:
HERE'S the thread with the video.
I have the HF tire changer and like it. You can read what I said about it in the linked thread.
If paying $50 for each set of tires changed, the changer is payed for after changing 2 sets.

I agree with the economics of 2 changes and its paid for. Its still one more thing to store in the garage.....the space has value too. I may ride 3-4K miles per year, so my change intervals will be longer than most.

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hyperbuzzin

· #8 · Jul 11, 2006

93VN750 said:
.....the space has value too.

I have mine screwed into the floor of the garage with concrete anchors. When not in use, I can unscrew it and move it out of the way.

There is also a similar one out there somewhere that mounts to a 2" receiver of a trailer hitch.

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norsseman

· #9 · Jul 13, 2006

Very simple and inexpensive Bead Breaker

Here is the simplest, most affordable and portable Bead Breaker I have
seen devised yet.

http://www.webbikeworld.com/t2/bead-breaker/motorcycle-tire-bead-breaker.htm

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Loran in Npvl IL

· #10 · Jul 13, 2006

norsseman said:
Here is the simplest, most affordable and portable Bead Breaker I have
seen devised yet.

http://www.webbikeworld.com/t2/bead-breaker/motorcycle-tire-bead-breaker.htm

Great find. Picture is worth a thousand words. That was what I was trying to describe in my post:
http://www.vn750.com/forum/showthread.php?p=9064#post9064

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