Hey. I'll be swapping my tires on my bike pretty soon. I know of some people that do it on their own, any suggestions?

I don't have any special bead breakers or anything, but I know people are pretty ingenuous when it comes to saving money. Ideas?

 

Getting the tire off the wheel is not too tough with simple tools. You can use a couple of 2x4's to press down on the tire to break the bead. Search the web and YouTube. I'm sure there you'll find some helpful information.

Getting the new tire on the rim is the more challenging part. Holding the rim still while wrestling with the tire and tools can be pretty tough. I did a couple and decided I wasn't going to be doing that anymore.

I ended up buying a used NoMar tire changing system off either ebay or CL, I can't remember. I have 5 bikes currently and at about $60 per bike for installing tires, it can be expensive. I consider the NoMar an investment. I've had it about 9 months now and I've installed 3 sets of motorcycle tires and 1 set of car tires. I'm about 2/3 of the way to covering the costs.

 

Yeah, its be great to have one. I've seen them before and they are neat little jigs. I've seen a video of a guy using zip ties to squeeze the tire together to get it on and off. Kinda neat method, not sure if anyone has tried it though.

 

I actually did try the zip tie method lol.. it definitely helps, combined with a tire spoon I swapped the rear out pretty easily. You'll want to have some sort of rim protector too as it's pretty easy to tear up the edge of the wheel with the tire spoons.

The main problem I ran into is that most shops here have a flat fee for mounting/balancing and will not give you a discount for balancing only, so it might not save any money if you need to pay to have them balanced after.

 

You only need something as basic as this to balance your wheels.

Motorcycle Wheel Balancer : Amazon.com : Automotive

 

i have both of those DYI (the balancer and the bead breaker). you can get them for like $20 each on ebay


still the hard part is getting the tire on. and it's really hard to get it on there without scratching the rim....


if you don't care at all, then a screwdriver will work to get it on.

i know some swear by the ziptie method - it never worked for me.



what i would do (and what i DO do now), i get the tire off and then i take the bare rims and new tires in and have them mount them.


and if you're worried about balancing, get dyna beads!

 

Some Cyce gear stores will mount and balance tires for a lot cheaper than a shop. I mount my own tires, then take it to them for balancing. It's FREE... but i do tip the guy a few bucks and try to buy some chain lube or something from the store.

 

Thanks for the tips guys. Again, I've left getting the proper tools too late, so I guess this time around I'll have to pay to get it done. My dad just got a new rear for his valkryie, but ordered new rims for the bike, so it will be over a month before he mounts it. Maybe I can do a bit of convincing that its an investment to get a no-mar . Convincing him to buy tools is suspiciously easy...

 

Cyclegear used to charge $20 per wheel here in S. FL, but a couple years ago raised it to $30. For me that was the breaking point. Here's the set up now in my garage. The tire balancer is on the right by the white jug. I had just finished mounting new Dunlops on the F4i we recently aquired.