Anybody change their own tires? I just did my first set and was like murder. Hopefully the next sets will go on much quicker.

 

Don't buy the one from Harbor freight....I have F'ed up rims now and it still didn't get my front tire on. There is a video on youtube that shows how to change it in a matter of minutes. I'll see if I can find it.

Edit: Found it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AerHAYs435s

 

Too late for the harbor freight thing. I used plasti dip to coat all the parts that touch the rim and I bought a No-Mar mount/demount to minimize scratches. It didn't work 100% (scratch-wise) but it's fine for me.

 

yea like beefcake said, you get better at it the more you do it.... I remember the first time I tried, couldn't even brake the bead.... you learn tricks that makes it easier, watch someone thats good at it and you'll pick it up quick, at least I did

 

I watched a bunch of videos (youtube and no mar) to get an idea but I forgot some of the techniques as I did this over a couple days. Those guys who can do it under a minute are nuts. Now I can see if I can balance these bad boys with the HF tire balancer.

 

Don't balance with weights ... use this stuff called NuMag. It's ceramic beads and they are a little piece of heaven. Just plop in the bag and they perfectly balance the tire every time you go out. No weights to throw.

And the harbor freight tire changer is da bomb for the price. Prolly changed 50 sets of tires on mine. I used the plasti-dip on the grippers and also the irons and no scratches. Use rim protectors as back-up but usually not necessary.

Don't remember who was busting their head breaking the bead but the bead breaker on the tire changer is more than adequate for bike tires. Again, plasti-dip is a nice scratch saver.

Now I give you the secrets to easily (usually in about a minute) mount the new tire:

1) Lots of soap. The stuff kids use to make bubbles is the very best crap out there. And you can get a gallon of it for a $1 at the dollare store.
2) If you are new to installing tires then you will find that getting the tire half mounted is easy. Hell, enough soap and I can hold the tire over my head and slam the first half on. It's the last bit of the mounting that causes people to bend rims or screw up the beading surface.
3) The trick is to make sure the first half does not bead on the bottom of the rim. If you notice the rim has a valley down the middle of it. Make sure the bottom ring of the tire is in that vally. Do that and the top will pop in with almost zero effort. If you don't, and the bottom ring beads up, you will never get the top part on without screwing something up.

When I first started changing my own tires I made up some blocks that held the tire up about 1 3/4" but now I've gotten coordinated enough to use my belly and knee.

 

You have a link for the Nu Mag stuff?

 

I got 'em from ebay but can't find them there anymore. There are a lot of listings for dyna beads (same thing). Need 1oz in front and 2oz in back.

Edit: And if you don't wanna wait for them to come in you can get a bottle of the beads and feed them through the valve stem after it's mounted. However, this is a tremendously tedious task ... not to mention a pain in the ***. But I run them in the bike and on the wifey's Expedition and they are absolutely the best thing I've ever used. Do not understand why they work but a guy at work who rides told me about them so I was game to try and sure glad I did.

 

Maybe for the next wheel change I will try those out. Although the HF balancer and sticky weights was pretty easy.