tyre changing woe's

Hi folks
Bit of a rant really, bought some Pirelli angels for the ST of eBay, paid 170 quid for them so happy with that, I went round a few places to get them changed over.............. what a bloody piss around, half don't touch bike tyres and the half that do won't touch my new rubber cause they didn't supply them....aaahhhgh!!

Prices are amazing too, 40 quid at one garage, it takes minutes to do, then another said 30 quid "but I can't balance them" what bloody use is that!!!

So totally passed off with rip off merchants so I'm going to make a simple wheel holder and bead breaker and do it myself, not because I'm tight with the cash, id rather do it myself and put the money towards the next tyres.

I find as I get older everything simple seems to get harder, is this progress, don't think so folks.
Any thoughts

Cheers
Chris

Over here you can get a simple tire changer from Harbor Freight for less than 100 USD. It ain't pretty, but it has a bead breaker and I've changed a bunch of MC tires with it.

To a certain extent I agree with what you said. And I have made a life style of buying tools the first time I do something myself and save money every time thereafter.

On the other hand, I am a self employed electrician, and you have to look at the shops you are talking about from the proprietor's point of view. The mechanic/owner has a fair amount of money invested in tools and the shop, and has overhead which costs him money for every hour he is open. He has also invested a fair amount of time learning his trade (let's avoid the discussion topic of doing this at his customer's cost) and being paid less while doing so.

If you bring in the tire and wheel, he spends time talking to you, doing the work, billing you, and later, doing accounting, paying taxes, etc. Why should he do a stranger a favor when he could be earning money to put food on his table, pay the rent, etc.?

I saw a mechanic today - he told me up front before the visit that he could not work on my bike for at least 6 weeks because he was booked up, but agreed to look at it to help me diagnose the problem. I drove my bike to his shop, he stopped working on a customer's GW and spent most of an hour listening, poking and prodding and finally reached a reasonable diagnosis of the the problem. He wasn't going to charge me, and when I asked he named a ridiculous sum (about the same as a 6 pack of good beer). I gave him cash for just about what I later found out was his hourly rate - and he tried to give me back everything above what he had asked for. Now, I want this guy to remain in business - I want him to be around when I need him. And, since I'm self employed I am sensitive to his costs and value his time and expertise. As our relationship develops over time, I expect he will do me small favors and I will reciprocate as I am able. I would be honored to call him a friend - but the reality is ours is a business relationship. Enough said.

Have someone break them off and mount yourself with zip ties. Zip ties work! Its how I mount my tires now. My shop charges what I believe is a fair price for tire and mounting, but the things always required air within 2, sometime 1 day. I clean the rim better! There are some tires that don't like mounting with zip ties, don't know about Pirelli angels.

https://www.st-owners.com/forums/showthread.php?147987-New-Tire-Mounting-Method-(Tie-Wraps)

My local tire merchant is pretty fair, but the add-ons always mount to 20% after the cost of the tires. I finally got tired of the whole rigamarole and decided to do my own. I did my OWN tires on all my Airheads, but gave it up when the local guy was only charging 10$ to mount and balance a tire on a wheel that I brought in. The only problem was that one has to drop off the wheels and come back for them. The place was about 20 miles away, so it was about 80 miles to get a set of tires mounted.

Add to that, I was wasting valuable tread on the front tires, which of course never wore as much as the rears, but I hated making TWO trips down to get a set mounted.

I bought some tire irons from Harbor Freight, and a bunch of large Tie-Wraps. I also bought a very reasonable wheel balancer, a Pit Boss unit. It proved to be much less of a job than I figured. The old tire ( A Bridgestone BT023) was hard to unmount, but the new one, a Michelin PR4 GT was a breeze. I had laid it out in the sun, all tie-wrapped up, and with a little bit of lube, and a grunt or two, it slipped right on. No tire irons were needed to get it on. I was surprised it was that easy. Balancing took about 10 minutes. I re-mounted the wheel, and took it for a ride. That was 4k miles ago, and no problems.

I highly recommend trying it yourself.

Some folks have made a bead breaker with a long 2x4 piece of wood attached to a wall beam in their garage. Once the bead is broken, you can 'tire iron' it off and on the rim. If you have concerns about scratching the rim, make some rim protectors out of dishwashing or other thin plastic bottles. Balancing can be as simple as two jack stands to reset the ends of the axle on.

Uncle Phil said:

Some folks have made a bead breaker with a long 2x4 piece of wood attached to a wall beam in their garage. Once the bead is broken, you can 'tire iron' it off and on the rim. If you have concerns about scratching the rim, make some rim protectors out of dishwashing or other thin plastic bottles.

Click to expand...

I tried this and the boards did break the beads, had to sit on the fulcrum. It required a lot of pressure. But I scratched the rim when the tire iron bit through the rubber hose along the rim. If there's a trick to tire irons it I don't know it. Maybe, reverse zip tie it off with tire irons and lube?

I balance the tires with used bearings on the axles on top of jack stands. Works like a charm. I bought a couple of reusable clip on weights from http://www.hondaparts-direct.com/ They ship internationally.

;1935667]Got tired of taking rims to local honda, so bought a tire changef, it is easier.[/quote]

Fancy! How does that thing remove a tire? The machines I've seen use a bar levered into the bead.

caddyman said:

.........then another said 30 quid "but I can't balance them" what bloody use is that!!!

Any thoughts

Cheers
Chris

Click to expand...

In the last 15 years, riding over 30,000 miles a year, with at least 50 tire changes, I've never balanced a tire. I one time balance the empty wheel and have never had a problem. Manufacturing processes have improved ........

TPadden said:

In the last 15 years, riding over 30,000 miles a year, with at least 50 tire changes, I've never balanced a tire. I one time balance the empty wheel and have never had a problem. Manufacturing processes have improved ........

Click to expand...

Sort of my position. If you think about it, how long do you think the tire wears 'perfectly' even once you are on the road? I balance the rim and call it good also with an occasional 'recheck' if I think about it.

Thanks for all the replies guys, I'm going to make a bead breaker this week will post some pics later, received the weights via eBay so good to go.
Chris

Bit of an update, done away with making a specific machine, I broke the beads with the vehicle lift at work, then used my tyres irons and the job was done.

On another topic I changed the rubber cush drives, made quite a difference to the feel of the bike, not as snatchy on acceleration and deceleration, the old rubbers were pretty worn.

Cheers
Chris

Yeppers, the trick is breaking the bead. Once you're past that, tire irons can do the rest - although it is a bit of work!

klaproth said:

My local tire merchant is pretty fair, but the add-ons always mount to 20% after the cost of the tires. I finally got tired of the whole rigamarole and decided to do my own. I did my OWN tires on all my Airheads, but gave it up when the local guy was only charging 10$ to mount and balance a tire on a wheel that I brought in. The only problem was that one has to drop off the wheels and come back for them. The place was about 20 miles away, so it was about 80 miles to get a set of tires mounted.

Add to that, I was wasting valuable tread on the front tires, which of course never wore as much as the rears, but I hated making TWO trips down to get a set mounted.

I bought some tire irons from Harbor Freight, and a bunch of large Tie-Wraps. I also bought a very reasonable wheel balancer, a Pit Boss unit. It proved to be much less of a job than I figured. The old tire ( A Bridgestone BT023) was hard to unmount, but the new one, a Michelin PR4 GT was a breeze. I had laid it out in the sun, all tie-wrapped up, and with a little bit of lube, and a grunt or two, it slipped right on. No tire irons were needed to get it on. I was surprised it was that easy. Balancing took about 10 minutes. I re-mounted the wheel, and took it for a ride. That was 4k miles ago, and no problems.

I highly recommend trying it yourself.

Click to expand...

An easy compromise to make it ONE trip instead of TWO...........block under oil pan raising front wheel a bit off ground leaving back wheel off ground a bit......remove both wheels at same time.

Or a little scissors jack with a board across it works nice also ... ;-)

Brant said:

An easy compromise to make it ONE trip instead of TWO...........block under oil pan raising front wheel a bit off ground leaving back wheel off ground a bit......remove both wheels at same time.

Click to expand...

What I meant was, one has to take them down, drop them off, and wait for a call to go get them. The tire guy doesn't do that as you wait. He is the cheapest around, and always has a few bikes ahead of me. So, you drive down, drop them off, go shopping, or come home...a few hours later, he calls you, and you go get them. 4 trips in all...80 miles. I usually remove the front wheel, put the axle back in, support it on a jack stand, then remove the back one.

caddyman said:

On another topic I changed the rubber cush drives, made quite a difference to the feel of the bike, not as snatchy on acceleration and deceleration, the old rubbers were pretty worn.

Click to expand...

How old were the cush drives and how many miles were on them when you replaced them? (I ask because mine are at 10 years and 82K miles.)

Motofisch

My bike has 66500 miles on the clock, its a 1999 model ,the cushy rubbers were well worn as in they didn't take much effort to remove from the hub, the replacement rubbers are stiff and I needed to tap them in.

I had thought that the prop spines may have excessive play but changing the rubbers had removed a lot of the play.

Cheers
Chris