Anyone change their own tires?

s.ga.rider

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Dec 23, 2019
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272
Location
South Georgia
I've changed my own for years. I've used tire irons, had a nomar for a while and now have a rabaconda. The nomar doesn't work well with off-road tires but does well with street. The rabaconda does both well with irons too. Plenty of you tube videos to help you out.
 

Tenman

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Dec 7, 2013
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2,102
Location
Natchez Ms USA
If I could get it done for $25 I wouldn't have bought the Rabaconda!!! ====== I hear you. Before I found this guy 3 miles away. I broke mine down with a c clamp and mounted them on a bucket with tire irons. I've put tires on the ground and put a 2x6 on edge of the tire and run my F250 on the board to break them down. Caveman style
 

stutrump

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Jul 25, 2013
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942
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london uk
Changed my own for the last 15 years, which equates to about 45 pairs of tyres.
Never bother balancing them...no need. I know folk that do 180mph on a race track without balancing them.
Never had a problem in 15 years and loads of miles.
Labour is expensive in uk so fitting your own tyres can save almost £60 on a pair of tyres.
If I was rich though I wouldn't bother..just give the tyre shop the business and enjoy chewing the fat with them whilst they do the work
 

Kruzzin5

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Oct 14, 2019
Messages
415
Location
Newmarket, Ontario
Never bother balancing them...no need. I know folk that do 180mph on a race track without balancing them.
Never had a problem in 15 years and loads of miles.”


strangely enough, my rear wheel did not require any weights. The wheel was perfectly balanced.
 

BLW

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Sep 19, 2020
Messages
48
Location
Reno ,Nevada
I have changed my tires for a very long time, I just dont trust other people to work on any of my stuff. I was worried about scratching my shiny black tenere spoked wheels so I went the extra mile and added a few new tools to my arsenal for this job. I have always just pried and poked at the tires with breaker bars and tire irons until the bead finally gave up. This time I went down to Harbor freight and bought their bead breaker (54.00)(one of the reviews was a guy with a FJR, saying how easy it worked)and it did work very well and didnt scratch the rim at all. I have a transmission oil drum just like one of the other members had a picture of in this thread that I have always used to change tires on. This time I put a cinder block in the bottom and a few other bricks I had laying around and made a bracket so I could bolt the tire to the barrel and it worked beautifully , I didnt wanted the wheel flopping around and getting scratched .Half the reason I got those tools was because I had gotten Mitas eo7s and I had heard how hard they were to mount, they werent any harder than any other tire I had done. I used Dyna beads to balance my tires and they worked fine, they are beads you pour in the tire thru the valve stem . I am going to do a more extensive review on the Mitas's and the Dyna beads.
 

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Sierra1

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Nov 7, 2016
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14,819
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Joshua TX
. . . . strangely enough, my rear wheel did not require any weights. The wheel was perfectly balanced. . . .
I'm thinking you got lucky. It's not so much the wheel needing to be balanced. . . . it's the big honking chunk of rubber on the wheel that usually needs the balancing.
 

Kruzzin5

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Oct 14, 2019
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415
Location
Newmarket, Ontario
I'm thinking you got lucky. It's not so much the wheel needing to be balanced. . . . it's the big honking chunk of rubber on the wheel that usually needs the balancing.
Yes I understand. The wheel with the NEW tire was perfectly balanced. I thought it strange as well.
 

Kruzzin5

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Joined
Oct 14, 2019
Messages
415
Location
Newmarket, Ontario
I have changed my tires for a very long time, I just dont trust other people to work on any of my stuff. I was worried about scratching my shiny black tenere spoked wheels so I went the extra mile and added a few new tools to my arsenal for this job. I have always just pried and poked at the tires with breaker bars and tire irons until the bead finally gave up. This time I went down to Harbor freight and bought their bead breaker (54.00)(one of the reviews was a guy with a FJR, saying how easy it worked)and it did work very well and didnt scratch the rim at all. I have a transmission oil drum just like one of the other members had a picture of in this thread that I have always used to change tires on. This time I put a cinder block in the bottom and a few other bricks I had laying around and made a bracket so I could bolt the tire to the barrel and it worked beautifully , I didnt wanted the wheel flopping around and getting scratched .Half the reason I got those tools was because I had gotten Mitas eo7s and I had heard how hard they were to mount, they werent any harder than any other tire I had done. I used Dyna beads to balance my tires and they worked fine, they are beads you pour in the tire thru the valve stem . I am going to do a more extensive review on the Mitas's and the Dyna beads.
I had Dyna beads in the Mitas tire and it worked very well.
 
R

RonH

Guest
I never balanced a tire on a motorcycle up til about 10yrs ago and never had a problem. Once I bought a decent balancer and have nice balanced tires I can't say I can feel any difference or get higher mileage, less cupping or anything else.
The thing I thought was kind of interesting, I mounted and balanced the big rear wheel/tire on the Goldwing and it took near 2oz to balance, then after the tire was worn out I thought it would be interesting to see if it was still balanced. It was 2oz out of balance in nearly exact opposite side, so removing the original weights returned the balance to nearly spot on, so balancing at mount does not mean it will stay that way forever. Despite this, of course I never could detect the balance had gone downhill over time. This is where the beads are supposed to help and constantly balance the tire, but my mind goes by logic, and can't quite logically imagine the beads doing much of anything.
 

Kruzzin5

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Joined
Oct 14, 2019
Messages
415
Location
Newmarket, Ontario
I never balanced a tire on a motorcycle up til about 10yrs ago and never had a problem. Once I bought a decent balancer and have nice balanced tires I can't say I can feel any difference or get higher mileage, less cupping or anything else.
The thing I thought was kind of interesting, I mounted and balanced the big rear wheel/tire on the Goldwing and it took near 2oz to balance, then after the tire was worn out I thought it would be interesting to see if it was still balanced. It was 2oz out of balance in nearly exact opposite side, so removing the original weights returned the balance to nearly spot on, so balancing at mount does not mean it will stay that way forever. Despite this, of course I never could detect the balance had gone downhill over time. This is where the beads are supposed to help and constantly balance the tire, but my mind goes by logic, and can't quite logically imagine the beads doing much of anything.

i have heard others say they never balance their M/C tires and also had no issues. My thought would be vibration at higher rpm and potential wheel bearing issues?
 

BaldKnob

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Aug 11, 2012
Messages
776
Location
SENC
Once you pull the tire off, the beads fly out everywhere.
Not always... I reuse mine all the time. After releasing the bead on one side, slowly lift the tire up and over then release the other side. Beads stay, mostly, in the bottom of the tire. Do the same lift/over when spooning the bead over the rim.
 

stutrump

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Jul 25, 2013
Messages
942
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london uk
Kruzzin5
I can report NO vibration at high rpm's and no wheel bearing problems. In fact, my rear bearings are still good and original at 138,000 miles.
Haven't balanced tyres on 5 different bikes and over 400,000 miles now. No problems with any of them
 

Kruzzin5

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Oct 14, 2019
Messages
415
Location
Newmarket, Ontario
Kruzzin5
I can report NO vibration at high rpm's and no wheel bearing problems. In fact, my rear bearings are still good and original at 138,000 miles.
Haven't balanced tyres on 5 different bikes and over 400,000 miles now. No problems with any of them
138,000 MILES on original wheel bearings is incredible! I replaced my wheel bearings on my V Strom after 45,000 KILOMETRES!
 

Revz

Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2020
Messages
80
Location
Central Minnesota
I have changed my tires for a very long time, I just dont trust other people to work on any of my stuff. I was worried about scratching my shiny black tenere spoked wheels so I went the extra mile and added a few new tools to my arsenal for this job. I have always just pried and poked at the tires with breaker bars and tire irons until the bead finally gave up. This time I went down to Harbor freight and bought their bead breaker (54.00)(one of the reviews was a guy with a FJR, saying how easy it worked)and it did work very well and didnt scratch the rim at all. I have a transmission oil drum just like one of the other members had a picture of in this thread that I have always used to change tires on. This time I put a cinder block in the bottom and a few other bricks I had laying around and made a bracket so I could bolt the tire to the barrel and it worked beautifully , I didnt wanted the wheel flopping around and getting scratched .Half the reason I got those tools was because I had gotten Mitas eo7s and I had heard how hard they were to mount, they werent any harder than any other tire I had done. I used Dyna beads to balance my tires and they worked fine, they are beads you pour in the tire thru the valve stem . I am going to do a more extensive review on the Mitas's and the Dyna beads.
Have you had any problems with dyna beads in your rims. I’ve used them in tube tires and like them.
 

WJBertrand

Ventura Highway
Joined
Jun 20, 2015
Messages
4,516
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Ventura, CA
Kruzzin5
I can report NO vibration at high rpm's and no wheel bearing problems. In fact, my rear bearings are still good and original at 138,000 miles.
Haven't balanced tyres on 5 different bikes and over 400,000 miles now. No problems with any of them
I've read others that do the same. Just don't bother with balancing by any means, beads or otherwise. I just can't bring myself to skip it though. Those that claim the beads work great may get the same result skipping them.
 

stutrump

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Jul 25, 2013
Messages
942
Location
london uk
Kruzzin5.
Yes..it's incredible. I changed the wheel bearings much more regularly on my previous bikes. I've been through 3 pairs at the front but the rears are still good. Having said that, I will change them soon anyway
 
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