I might be able to help out a bit here.
I have a Hankook tire on my 1300. I also use the HF tire changer and have been changing tires with that for 2 years and MC tires for about 5.
I don't use the bar that came with the HF changer. I bought the
Mojolever and use his Mojo Blocks on the HF to prevent damage to the rims. How hard it is to mount the tire? It is a bear. Could it be done with regular iron. Maybe but it would not be fun. The Mojolever is about the same length as the HF stock bar so you might get it done with that. I just don't like the metal on the rims. The Mojo has plastic where it rides on the rim. I will say that the first side of the tire went on as easy as a PR2. I was thinking, hey this won't be that bad. Then I got to the other side and all progress came to a halt. Nothing I tried could get the tire on. I couldn't fold the tire enough due to the stiff sidewall to keep it in the groove to get the bead on so I just chased it around. I had my wife come out to lend a hand and that didn't work. In the end I used my biggest C clamp which has about an 8" opening to pinch the tire more to keep from chasing it around. I have read of others having to do the same thing. Another tip if you haven't done so already but take the 2 bolts out of the bracket that goes up and around on top of the tire. This prevents you from going all the way around the tire as you have to stop when you get to that bar. I pulled mine a long time ago and haven't had any issues. I have seen pics of others that did the same.
Now I have never removed a tire. Here is the challenge as I see it. In a MC tire you break the bead and then can get the spoons in there to pull the bead. Well on the CT I never set the bead. With the tire lube that I used it just popped into place. Maybe now that the lube is gone I may be able to get it to break and stay broken while I put the wheel in the changer and get the lever in there. I don't know what will happen when it comes time to remove it. I know it won't be fun. Worst case I have an Uncle that has access to a car tire changer which he uses to change his Goldwing tires. I will it there for at least removing the tire. If I do that much and I do another CT which I probably will, I will have him mount it as well. Worst case I will resort to cutting it off. I won't know about that until I get to that point.
As for static balancer. I copied the
Marc Parnes balancer. I saw one that another member had and liked it. Since I have a metal lathe I just made one with some 2" aluminum Bar that I had and some bearings. It works great. However I have seen some reports of the rear CT slipping on the rim. I kind of wonder if I feel the same at times. More so when I first mounted it. It really didn't take much weight to balance (1/2 oz if I recall) so it isn't a big deal but if it does slip a little then possibly something like dynabeads would be better in the rear wheel or rideon as they would balance the tire for you. Just an option.
The link that was posted above about the bent rim and brake issue. It makes me think they mounted the rim so the rotor was up when they were doing this. I always mount the rim with the rotor down so I don't put pressure on the rotor with the lever. It doesn't really matter which side is up or down. This doesn't help with a possible bent rim but would prevent damage to the brake rotor.
Hope that helps being we have pretty much the same equipment and I have mounted one before. I can't help with the dismount much yet as I haven't done that yet.
