Take your bike to an expensive shop... toss the man your keys... and tell him you want new tires.

Hell, that was easy!!


Well, for those of you who are real men (and ladies.. ), you could just do it all yourself.
Tires are expensive enough, so $60 per tire for a mount (with the wheel off!) is a significant savings.
I'll change my own, thanks...

My front was cupped to hell last season, but since it passed inspection (barely), my cheap *** didn't change it like I should have. I bought a new qualifier with good intentions, but didn't swap it until today. The old tire was just getting too skiddish in hard corners, and slapping pretty bad if I took my hands off the bars. Enough was enough.

First, put the bike on it's center stand. Then use a jack to pick up the frontend. I used my floor jack with a small piece of wood, and jacked up the front of the engine.



Now, take off the front wheel. I could try to explain it, but the manual actually does a good job on this one.
Basically, you just loosen the calipers first and free them up, then take off the axle nut, loosen the pinch bolts on the forks, and slide out the axle. Take the collars off of each side of the hub and you're set.

Next, remove the valve core from the valve stem. I couldn't find my good core remover, but instead used a cap off a bottle of "slime" tire sealant that I use on my lawnmower tires.

Now for the good stuff!

You're gonna have to break the bead on the tire first.
The best way to do this is to use some pieces of 2x4 lumber for leverage. Use 2 small pieces to set the wheel on to keep it off the ground (watch those rotors!)
Use another small piece to actually break the bead. One end on the side of the tire, the other end straight up in the air. Use a long piece of 2x4 as the lever. One end in your hand, one end under something heavy (I used the wheel of my truck), and the middle on the top end of the bead breaking piece.

Here is a pic to kind-of show what I mean.



Now that you've broken the bead, you need to get the tire off. I run some furniture polish on the lip of the rim for lube, then use a pair of tire irons (hook up) to pry the bead up in two or three places. I always put a piece of thick plastic between the tire iron and the wheel to keep the wheel from getting scratched up. They make "wheel saver" type pads for this, but I cut up a lid off a plastic coffee can.



Once you have the top bead off the rim, do the same to the bottom one.

Now that the tire is off, it's time to put the new one on. Make sure you are trying to put it on in the correct orientation. My wheels have direction arrows right on them, but if yours don't, make sure to take notice of how the old one came off. Also, most manufacturers make some type of mark on the tire that shows where the lightest part of the tire is. Dunlop uses yellow dots (more like smears). Line these up with the valve stem to even the weight for balance.



Now lube the edges of the rim and bead. Push the new tire onto the rim. The first bead is easy. Goes right on with a little pressure. Now, start the second bead. Once you get it about halfway on, push in hard on the part you already have on to try and make some slack for the tight part you're about to push on. Making this little bit of slack is important. You can hold the slack there with your knees (it's the only way. you'll need both hands).
Now, stretch the rest of the bead on with the FLAT ends of the tire irons for leverage, and push the tire as hard as you can. This part takes a little muscle. Let's just say that there is a reason people use machines for this, but it can be done by hand...
Just don't do it so hard that you rip the tire!! Ripping the tire is bad. If you can't do it with smaller tire irons, you're probably not doing it quite right (not getting enough slack).



Now that the tire is on (hopefully), replace the valve core, and start filling it with air. You'll hear the bead set (pop) twice around 30-40psi.



Mount the wheel back up, and you're good to go!



I went out and scrubbed this new qualifier a bit, and then took some easier corners. (don't want to run it too hard for the first 50miles or so)
It feels like a totally different bike. Super smooth, and NO wobble when I take both hands off the bars. Sweet...

I took it up to 135mph with no shake, so I'd say it's pretty well balanced. If you want to balance it at home, go for it. Or you can get it balanced before you mount the wheel. It's cheap enough to have done. I just didn't want to pay the $60 to have the tire changed... (and that quote was with the wheel off!)
**** them. I'll do it myself.

 

Yep, it definately belongs in the how-to.
I plan on updating it with some better pics and tips. It's hard to take pics when all the good stuff usually requires two hands. I need a helper on the camera.

Also, I just did this whole thing pretty fast. Could have done better.

As far as the price, you're right. I called three shops. The average cost with the wheel off the bike was like $57. They were all from $50-$60!
I thought that was crazy, too. Thing is, if you leave them on the bike, they'll charge you about another hour's labor for wheel removal/reassembly @ $40-$50/hr. That's what the shop said.

 

$60 per tire off the bike?!?!?! Did they kiss you afterwards? Yikes. I guess I found a good shop. They only got me for $20 ea and that included valve stems and all disposal fees ect.

I tried tried a rear tire on my CR250 and not only destoryed a brand new $100 tire, I mangled the tube too. I had to admit defeat on this one. For $40 out the door I'll pay the man. haha, but $120.... I may have to give the old college try once again.

 

I know, $50-$60 each is insane. I think I even said to the $60 guy "Hell, your wife doesn't even charge that much!!"....

I have a buddy who runs a tire shop. I didn't think to ask him because I haven't talked to him in a while. I'm sure he'd do it for me for a couple beers...I'll have to look him up. Forgot all about him until just now.
I like working on my bike, though, so it doesn't bother me to do it.

I've changed many dirtbike tires through the years, too. They can be a pain sometimes....

 

I found a couple of pics on the web- the first one shows a little better how your homemade bead breaker works, and the second is a little higher tech version.

 

Thanks, pacojoe....very nice...

I'm gonna be out in Philly next week. I'm headed to Strathmere, NJ for the week, then probably to Atlantic City for a few hours, and over to my sister's house in Philly.

I was gonna try and hit up a Phillies game on Fri. night (playing the Red Sox, right?), but damn those good tickets are getting rediculous.
I got a few tix year before last, but I got 'em cheap. Ticket prices suck..

You know of anything good going on in the city next week?

 

Nice work!

My local dealer only charges $20 to change the tire but that's with the rim off the bike.

 

Thanks, Imo!
Yep, that's what I expected was about $20 max if I did the work of taking the wheel off.

It's so stupid for these people to be charging so much. It's like 2mins on a machine.
Maybe I could rent their machine for $5 per minute...

BTW, I ran this tire for a couple hours today, and man what a difference! I forgot what a good tire felt like. Steering is so much lighter and tighter. Very nice.
It's nice to know that with my hands off the bars, there is no more instant crazy bar shaking/slapping. It just glides straight as an arrow, like it's on glass. I thought I had everything else straight, and kept blaming the tire. Now I know I was right.

 

Phillies tix are a tough buy these days. That's what happens when you're the defending champs and are in first place, plus interleague play against the Sox- that game is sold out. As to what's going on- nothing special that I know of. I'll probably be at Dirty Franks bar at 13th and Pine in center city. Stop on by. Ask for Marc with the banana bike- the doormen know me.