I have a lathe I can use.... I can see buying that harbor freight changer. Might just split it with a buddy and we will be set. Is the balancing hard? I can weld/fabriate whatever is needed, and have acess to a ton of bearings.

 

Google will hep you find lots of write ups and links to the stuff I am mentioning below.

I have all of $75 in my stuff for changing tires....I don't have a stand, Ijust do it on a towel on the floor of my garage.

Dealers charge more for tires than mail order and still want 25-40 a piece for mount and balance...it pays back fast. I do it for buddies from time to time and it pays for a track day here or there.

balancing isn't hard....until you get more experience, its just slow. You'll be able to judge by how fast a tire drops how much weight it needs. You only need to statically balance cycle wheels....since the imbalancedoesn't overhanga steering axis.

Anyway, Nomar sells their cones for like $10..but they are plastic...I made mine from 6061 alum. Cones go from 1/2" ID to 1 1/8 ODover a couple inches. Put a #10-24 or 1/4-20thumb screw on the large end. Get a 16 inch piece of 1/2" steel rod ($5), and some low friction sealed bearings to put on the ends ($7). Some guys would set this on a pair of jack stands, and that will work fine....I made a small stand for mine. More accurate balancers (telefix/part unlimitedfor example)have the shaft sit in a pair of rollers...they use a very small bearing with a large roller...so bearing friction doesn't impact the reading on wheel balance as much.....but unless you are cutting weights in half, this is splitting hairs...a dealer will round up or down from what the balancer read out tells them.

Don't forget lube...it makes all the difference in changing a tire...... Napa sells Ru Glyde.

Check out the Mojo Lever...I hear its a big improvement over the Harbor freight bar...lokes OK, but for $10 more I'd get theNomar demount bar.

 

Sorry for bringing up an old thread. Did you do it yet Telgren? I just wanted to say its cake to change a tire. Me and a buddy just did 4 tires with nothing but a few tire spoons and some soapy water. I accidentally put mine on backwards so I actually had to do my rear twice. Off-On-Off-On in about 15min (that was the record for the group by the way). No balancing, rides like a dream, no shimmy no shakes.And wowwhat a difference some new treads make. Forgot how easy these bikes are supposed to fall into a corner.

 

question...i chnged the back tire no problem...but how do i get the front rim off??

I have race stands and jacks, but they either block the front axle from coming out or the jacks are too wide and i can't remove the rim.,\

Any suggestions?

 

sounds like you need to rotate the front fork supports 180 degrees. A T-rex stand (and many are similar)canlift the bike evenif the supports are swivled wrong...