going to change my own tires got some questions

I have watched a few youtube videos all say to use windex when breaking the bead and setting the bead.
I got a set of irons and protectors.
one vodeo shows using c clamps to break the bead looks like it will work well.
has any one used the harbor freight bead breaker on MC tires (55$)
I can get the c clamps there too for 6$ each using 3 of them.

should i use windex to set the bead or get a gallon of tire lube ?

what do you tire changers use ?

may pick up a balancer too. I saw one for 60$ on line just balances not a truer.

 

Been changing my own tires on many different types of bikes for several years now. The XJ wheels are very straight forward...cast wheels and no tubes. I use the zip tie method (big wide ones from HF)...lots of vids on it as well.

I've used windex, soap/water, tire lube etc. Not a fan of the windex (dries too quick and I don't think the ammonia is good for rubber) I like the soap/water because it's cheap and easy, can't go wrong with tire lube sold at auto stores (Murphys etc). Whatever you decide to use...use plenty of it (slippy is good).

I thought of getting a bead breaker but a 6" C clamp or two is easier to store and combined with a couple of spoons IMHO works just as well.

I bought a tusk stand years ago from rmatv...I use it to static balance and I use it to measure runout (with a dial gauge on a magnetic stand) and make adjustment to spokes etc. I think it was about $40, a few years ago...can't be too much more now.

80% technique, 15% tools and 5% effort is the rule of thumb.

 

When I was a much younger fellow, I changed my own tires, too, using the spoons and edge protectors. It wasn't difficult. Now that I'm older, I found an independent motorcycle repair shop. I brought in the wheels, the guy removed the old tires, mounted the new tires I provided, and balanced them for $25 / each.

 

I have the HF bead breaker. I still try my bench vise and c-clamps 1st as the bead breaker is stored in the mezzanine above my garage. I had to get it out a month ago changing the rear on my KLR, it wasn’t coming off the bead with the vise.
I use watered soap for lube.
I know you’re not dealing with tubes but anytime you do this little tool is helpful

 

we have just 1 guy intown who will do tires you purchased off of the internet. open mon through friday 8 to 4 .
takes a week to get tires mounted and balanced
i need to change 6 tires , so I think I want to do it myself and spend the money on equipment.
I have a set of spoons
so just need a balancer setup

 

if you use "windex" or something make it the foamy kind, it stays put better. soapy water works good too, i'm just to lazy to go get it.
the whole trick is to keep the bead, opposite where your working, down in the center of the rim.
if your balancing it yourself, do the wheel first by itself, mark the light spot and use that for the tire dot

 

I have found that ArmorAll does a good job also. I made my bead breaker that I use for auto and motorcycle tires. Some heavy steel and a little welding and trial and error. Much easier to just buy something that works. When working with tube tires be very careful or you can very easily pinch a tube -- I learned that the hard and expensive way.

 

i saw a bead breaker made from a 2x4 and a wedge bolted to a garage wall stud. when done it folded up next to the stud....gone

 

Getting off no problem. Rear tire went on well rear seated fine. Front tire another story , hard to seat. Yikes, resorted to starting fluid and a match. Wheel jumped about 6 inches. Not recommended but worked for me. Now have 900km on tires no problem balanced them too. Shinko, my second set, first went on a xs.
good luck

 

Do a bit more homework. There are some things that only become evident with experience, and the fells that contributed to the linked thread have a lot of experience (including changing tires while on a trip).
Neduro's Tire Changing Class

The initial posts are about tubed tires, but continue reading for more about changing tubeless.

My bead breaker is me. Stepping on the edge of the deflated tire (valve core out) usually does the trick. Be sure to support the rim with 2x4, especially if you have dual discs on the front.

I tend to steer people away from using anything but tire lube when replacing a tire. All of the substitutes have downsides that just aren't good for the long-term servicability of aluminum wheels. Corrosion of the rim being chief among them.
A bottle of tire lube will last you almost forever, especially if you spring for a terrycloth applicator.
I use, Tire Changer Bead Lube Concentrate For Mounting/Demount MAKES OVER 1/2 GALLON mainly because it takes up a lot less shelf space than buying premixed.

 

Tire lube + bouncing the tire on the ground usually will get the bead to set enough that air will finish the job of seating it.
If not then use a ratcheting tiedown strap around the circumfrence of the tire.

It's best to fill the tire without the valve core when you're seating the bead so you get as much air in as quickly as possible. A "air dump" can be made from 3" schedule 40 PVC, a ball valve, and a few fittings. There should be an example in the thread I linked above. If not, just let me know and I'll see if I saved the plans.

 

I bought one of these as I had multiple tires to change and the cheapest local guy was now $50 per tire if I brought them in. I did manage to catch it at almost half the price it is now though.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FMJDNM7/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Local yammy shop here won’t mount anything tire not purchased from them. “It’s a liability if it’s not one we sold”

 

yup "how do we know it wasn't a reject tire or how old it is ?sorry liability our insurance wont allow us to mount them"
if they didnt rape you on the markup of the tires I would buy them there.

 

The date of manufacture should be on the tyres shouldn't it.

 

It’s where I get my tires from...... and mounted/balanced—- but I take the rim to them. I’m not gonna pay them to remove or install the wheel.... lol

 

yes it is. just excuses because of the low profit on changing tires

 

I change my own tyres too. My cousin said his motorcycle club bought a tyre changing machine everyone uses which is good.

 

removed my first tire yesterday. have to clean the inside of the rim.
tire was a very old perilli cracks in side walls tread coming off from from tire . rubber was very hard,
very odd wear pattern center was high sides were very low it was like the bike was ridden in circles all the time.
need to replace the wheel bearings . speedo side is very worn.

I used a bar clamp so I could get my 6 inch c clamps on tire. broke loose as soon as i applied some lube the bead then spin the tire on rim and both beads were free.
used 3 tire irons first side came over rim easy enough second was a bit harder spun the tire and it slid up and over the rim once i got about1/3 of it over the rim.

put rim on a makeshift balancer. a couple of jack stands leveled off . valve stem was always returning to bottom as expected

went to harbor fright and picked up some 8 inch clamps 7$ each. for the next tire.

 

wheel weight question. I did notice on my rims with oem wheel weights there was all ways 3 weights which are 3 different sizes.

all the videos on balancing use 1 weight static balancing I think its called. are the 3 weights from spin balancing?


which weights are better the clip style or the glue on style? local auto parts store has both styles.

 

That is the worst BS answer, and I avoid buying anything from any shop that claims potential liability as a reason for not offering a service to every customer that comes their way.
There is no more liability from mounting a brought-in tire than there is from mounting one that they sell. The only motive is putting short-term profits above expanding their customer base.

 

1. One weight is from balancing the wheel alone. The second and third were probably placed by someone who did not have the time or patience to find just the right spot for the exact weight needed, so used two in about the right place to get the job done.

2. Clip-on weights are easier to put on and to reuse, but offer no other advantage over stick-on weights. I've used both. If you go with stick-on, clean the wheel really well (must be snooth and grease-free), and place a strip of gaffers tape over the weights after you get them placed so they don't fly off should the adhesive fail.

 

when you ask for tire quote it is about 100$ more than an online purchase before mounting and they still have to order them.
probally from the same vendor I get them from.

 

I DO see it as a legitimate reason.

1. I don’t guarantee ANY Carb rebuild if someone insists on supplying their own kit. I order strictly from LEN. That way, if something is wrong, I can correct it.

2. I don’t warranty ANY instrument repairs using parts that someone wants to supply themselves.

3. The only differences are 1)that I’m willing to do the work with full understanding that I can’t guarantee parts that I didn’t get, and 2) if a carburetor or a musical instrument suddenly goes bad, it’s typically not a matter of the user suddenly being DEAD.

 

Balanced mine. Went well. Rear 3/4oz front nothing. My first shinkos on the xs were good to balance too. Glad to hear they are going on well. What make tire?

 

Well they won't be bringing anything back then.....

 

When i take parts to a service station they install them and tell me if the part fails it will cost me labor to have new part installed. If they supply part and part fails when under ware nty the reinstall new part free of labor charge. I am ok with that.

If my tire fails I would not expect a free install of replacement tire if I supplied tire. Refusing to mount tires but will balance them if I bring it in mounted is just crap.

 

Rim balancing pre tire install.
Do I want to balance rim like a tire? So that the valve stays where ever I rotate it to?

 

Carbs are far more complex than tires though. Refusing to do a job because of "liability" is far different from refusing to warrantee a job. The mom and pop dealerships still know how to provide service, but they are becoming rare. You do make fair points however.

 

You want to balance it so the wheel never (or as close to as possible) stops in the same place when you give it a spin.

 

The reason to put the rim on the balancer before installing the tire to to find the heavy spot of the rim...no balancing happens here.
Just mark the spot on the rim that is the heaviest (always comes to rest at the bottom).
You will put the balance dot on the tire next to the mark you made on the rim. This is assuming the manufacturer of the tire has marked it as the light spot and not the high spot (don't see many manufacturers needing high spot markings anymore). What kind of tire?
Heavy spot on rim + light spot on tire = least amount of weight needed

After the tire has been installed, then you balance as k-moe suggested.

Unless there is another reason you would balance the rim without the tire installed. If so, please elaborate.

Or did I misunderstand the original question?

 

Some people balance the wheel to save time during future tire changes. If you know that the wheel is balanced you can go directly to balancing the tire without needing to find the heavy spot on the wheel.
It's just a matter of preference, and it's a practice that I don't use myself.

 

I recently changed the rear tire on my KLR.
The previous tire I had done at a shop.
I noticed instead of removing weights already there they just stuck more on 180 degrees out.
With this approach, a few more tire changes and my rear wheel would be spinning an extra pound of lead.
I just pulled it all off, runs smooth now but it is a KLR, 150 kph downhill with a tail wind.

 

Always helps to get the lead out —- lol

 

A while ago I bought a pair of cheap Black&Decker style Workmates, in a 2fer1 deal. It occurred to me they'd be useful for quite a few things, balancing wheels being one of them.


[video=youtube_share;ybDoVI6lUJ4]
You can see that Avon Road Bastd MkII was a bitch to balance. There was a total lack of light spot dot on it. Whether that means Avon are now producing tyres that don't need dots or it simply by-passed the QC stage where it should have been done, I don't know. I think it's a bit much of a coincidence that a tyre with no marking was a pig.

[video=youtube_share;8wWwso2f_lE]
The rear was easier.

 

I am doing the tires on my ZG1200. shinko 777 wheel bearings arrive tomorrow.
then onto my XJ tires

 

no, you just note/mark the heavy spot, then put the tire dot there, not at the stem.
your using the tire to balance the wheel, the valve stem is rarely the heavy spot

 

My new tactic is to do the hard work of taking it off and cleaning up the rim beads and getting everything nice and smooth... then the tyre shop fits and balances it for free (when I buy the tyre from them of course).
Yes, I'm getting lazy. (although taking it off is a bastard of a job, the way I do it)

 

That's not lazy!

 

FWIW we always use a bottle jack under my hitch ball on my truck to break the bead. The motion pro irons are a bit of a learning curve, but not too hard to work with. A cheap craftsman compressor is all you need for beading it up. Just let it run the tank full before trying g to get it headed up.

 

My local Cycle Gear charges $60/tire to mount & balance tires not purchased from them.

I’ve removed / remounted a motorcycle tire before with spoons at home and it was a monumental pita.

But $120 + valve stem cost has got me considering giving it a try again.

What are you guys using to balance the tires?

 

I static balance using either the axle itself or another chunk of round stock/pipe that is smaller than the axle. When you are off by more than 1/4 oz its pretty obvious. As you get closer you can bring the presumed heavy spot up to 3 and 9 oclock and give it a little push to break the friction. Then rather than the heavy spot directly on the bottom, you might be averaging the stopping distance from either side.

The first time I did this I was worried that I should be taking it somewhere to be balanced, and figured out pretty quick that it just isn't that precise an art. I can't detect any vibration on the road. I'm not racing either.

The original Yamaha clip on weights are nice if you have them, but a regular car tire clip weight snaps onto the wheel rib nicely and isn't an issue unless you're going for aesthetics.

 

It IS a pita but I still do it. I then take them to get balanced.

 

Thanks guys.

Unfortunately I don’t have the original weights. Both wheels had the stick on weights.

Mounting the tires myself, then having cycle gear balance them is an interesting idea. I know they’d charge me to balance them, but I’m not sure how much. As far as I can tell, there are no small motorcycle tire shops by me.

The front tire won’t be here until next week so I’ve got some time to ponder this..

 

I do my dirt bikes including my KLR650
On all of them I don't put any weights, the KLR I run at 130 kph everyday and there's nothing to suggest the wheels are out of balance.
I always put the painted dot at the air valve but I think that practice is so in case you have to remount the tire you put it back same place, if you have balanced it.
I bought a bike once, looked like every time it was balanced they just added more lead.
I swear I stripped half a lb of lead.
My street bikes I pay to have them mounted and balanced, never see more than a small piece of lead tape.

 

Another question related to changing tires:
What are your favorite tire irons?

I don’t have any of my own yet, but last time I changed a tire a borrowed my buddies set.

I used a motion pro “bead pro” to break the bead. I was labor intensive, but it certainly worked.

I also really liked the curved 15” motion pro tire iron he had to pry the tire off.

 

I built my own changer out of a Transit (light truck) rim.


And this is how I balance them...

 

Tire: balanced

Shop music: groovy

 

I have the pair of small motion pro spoons and really like them. For breaking the bead I use my bench vise. When working the spoons, I clamp a chunk of round in the vice vertically and drop the bearings over it.

I also typically use a couple vice grip C-clamps to pinch the sidewalks and keep the beads in the center of the rim when stretching the opposite side on.

Tires were once a mystery, but installing new rubber is one of my favorite things to do on the bike now.