So I am in need of a front tire on my 01 F4i. I ordered the tire off the net. I thought about trying to take it off myself, but the motorcycle jack I have only jacks from the bottom and I don't want to take the fairings off. If I took the bike in to the dealer how much do you think they would charge to take the tire off and mounting and balancing? It's too late to call so i'll take opinions until then.

 

oh i did mine myself. What I used was a 6000lb tie down strap, thanks to the U.S. Army. And I ran it through the triple tree and hung it from the rafters of my garage. I took it to a Honda dealer, got it mounted and balance for 20 bucks a tire.

 

Around here most wont mount the tire unless you buy it from them. Other shops around do it for about and hours labour.

 

Actually my buddy goes to MMI and told me to do that exact same thing, but I don't have any rafters to hang the strap from. What about a cherry picker? Like what you would pull a car engine out with?

 

Oh, and one more thing, my buddy that goes to MMI told me that it doesn't matter if a motorcycle tire is balanced. That it gives you like .01% better gas milage?

 

yah you can use a cherry picker.

 

tell your friend he needs to get a refund from MMI if thats what they are teaching them
it has nothing at all remotely to do with gas mileage, if a tire is not balanced (especially on a sportbike) its very possible the wheels will vibrate, severity depends on how off they are
sometimes the wheel weights won't need to be changed, but you'd be an idiot to not have it balanced unless your just in a huge pinch

 

The place I usually go to charges $15 per wheel if you bring them in, $30 if you don't. They recently started charging an extra $10 per wheel if you don't buy tires there. Guess who doesn't change my tires anymore?