Changing your own tire?

[bikedave99]

I'm about to put some new rubber on my bike. Do any of you guys change your own? I've done it before on dirtbikes but never on a road bike. Is there anything especially difficult about doing it on the Vmax? I would have it done but would just as soon do it myself for the saving and being able to perfrom other maintenance at the same time. Any tips and trick?
Thanks!

 

[Frosty72]

I just took my wheels in to the dealer. It's not much for mount and balance.

 

[lankeeyankee]

I must admit, I do take my rim and tire with a new tire to have it mounted by the ................. hmmm dealer :bang head: god I hate that word!!
The reason I dont buy tire irons etc from Jc Whitneys is.
1) I dont want my rim to look like its been chewed on.
2) It wont be balanced and my VMAX shakes enough as it is.
3) I dont know but they charge me 15.00 mount and balance, well worth all the bitching and cussing that it would take with tire tools. Son this isnt your daddys dirt bike wheel. LOL:rofl_200:

 

[bikedave99]

I must admit, I do take my rim and tire with a new tire to have it mounted by the ................. hmmm dealer :bang head: god I hate that word!!
The reason I dont buy tire irons etc from Jc Whitneys is.
1) I dont want my rim to look like its been chewed on.
2) It wont be balanced and my VMAX shakes enough as it is.
3) I dont know but they charge me 15.00 mount and balance, well worth all the bitching and cussing that it would take with tire tools. Son this isnt your daddys dirt bike wheel. LOL:rofl_200:

Who you calling son!?! :ummm: Ha ha, yeah i figured it would be a bit stiffer than ye ol dirt bike tire. Alright alright I'll get it done for me!

 

[one2dmax]

Our dealer charges like $40 for a carry in wheel to M&B. I just have it done by a friend at a auto tire place. If they have a rim clamp machine for custom wheels it will work just fine. They set the rotating hinge are to just clear the wheel so nothing actually touches the wheel. They don't balance it but out of all the tires I have been through I think I have only had to balance one and it was probably a defective tire. I do leave the weights on that were on from before. Line up the dot on the tire with the stem.

Sean

 

[bikedave99]

Well, i was debating between ME880's and the shinko's and the decision was made by the available tire. I wasn't able to find available Metzler's so I went with the shinko 170/80-15 and 120/90-18. With free shipping and a $5 off coupon (hey, every little bit helps!) they will be at my door for $165, not bad. We will see how they wear, i know lankeeyankee likes them but I wasn't able to find any objective data on longevity so we will see. I've the got the bridgestone spitfires on there now. I'll have to take it to someone to have them put on for 32.50 a tire i believe. Hmmm... wish i had a friend like your one2dmax!

 

[lankeeyankee]

Well keep us posted on your Shinko Tourmasters, maybe once you have them on you will spread the good word about this tire.
In my expierence with wear on the shinko is about the same as the ME880. I get about 3000-4000 on a rear tire. Those that get less than 1500 are either doing front style brake burnouts or running a tire over inflated (Check with SS on tire psi) I run 21PSI in the rear with mine on the stock wheel.
I know with the shinko 15" you arent going to lay 200FT long burnouts in 2nd gear, you will have major ass road rash watching your VMAX ghost ride down the road ahead of you if you try within the first 1000 miles on it!
Let me know how the front is as far as high speed smoothness I am currently running an ME880 on the front but the sides are starting to show some wear.

 

[bikedave99]

Thanks for the info, i will keep you posted as learn more. I just have to play the waiting game for the tires to just get here...grrr...

 

[44 magnum]

I just have to play the waiting game for the tires to just get here...grrr...

Hey Dave did you have trouble finding your Tourmasters? Everyone around here was telling me they were backordered 'til September. I felt fortunate to have found a set in Oregon, but I too am waiting. UPS says they'll be here Tuesday.

 

[bikedave99]

Hey Dave did you have trouble finding your Tourmasters? Everyone around here was telling me they were backordered 'til September. I felt fortunate to have found a set in Oregon, but I too am waiting. UPS says they'll be here Tuesday.

I found them at motorcycle-superstore.com, i had a problem with my billing address apparently, never had it any other time, been using the same one for years now!:bang head: The 170 rear was in stock and the 120 front had about a 3 day lead on it but i was assured they should ship by Monday or Tuesday.

 

[bikedave99]

Well, I did get the tires finally, about a month ago. But in the meantime, there have been a few changes in my life, namely the institution of marriage.... so I have been a little behind. :clapping:

I got the tires mounted and had them sitting in my garage until I got the rest of the work done on my bike. This past weekend I got it all buttoned up and got the wheel put on only to realize that front tire was put on backwards rotationally!:bang head:

I did a bit of reading on this and it definitely necessitates a change but my question is, can I drive the 10 miles (max 55mph) to the guy who changed my tire to have him redo it, or do I need to pull the wheel and take it to him?

 

[dannymax]

Well, I did get the tires finally, about a month ago. But in the meantime, there have been a few changes in my life, namely the institution of marriage.... so I have been a little behind. :clapping:

I got the tires mounted and had them sitting in my garage until I got the rest of the work done on my bike. This past weekend I got it all buttoned up and got the wheel put on only to realize that front tire was put on backwards rotationally!:bang head:

I did a bit of reading on this and it definitely necessitates a change but my question is, can I drive the 10 miles (max 55mph) to the guy who changed my tire to have him redo it, or do I need to pull the wheel and take it to him?

Dave, I asked this same question on an earlier post, "the rotation is set to dispel water only and running it mounted backwards won't harm the tire," is what the guys told me.

The bike shop did the same thing to my front tire, charged me $74 to break down, wire brush the bead (because of a tiny leak), remount (backwards) and balance, and I brought the tire and wheel in! :bang head:

That was a couple months ago and I noticed a week ago it was backwards. That's when I started making the stuff to handle my own tire changing and balancing. I put a post in the tire section.

As foolish as this stuff looks, it works. :clapping:

danny

 

[bikedave99]

Really? So... no issues running backwards for a little while? I was reading some technical stuff about the plys being bonded for only one direction and stuff like that. Run it backwards, and it easier to separate the plys...?

In any case, yeah, I too will do it myself next time. I found a great article online for doing it yourself which looks strangely familiar to your setup. Except this guy used a steel car wheel... Are we talking about the same set of instructions?? Ha ha!

Oh, I also meant to ask, those bearings that you got. They are 17mm inside diameter correct? You got them on ebay, but are they pretty uncommon in size for hardware stores?

Thanks Danny!

 

[dannymax]

Really? So... no issues running backwards for a little while? I was reading some technical stuff about the plys being bonded for only one direction and stuff like that. Run it backwards, and it easier to separate the plys...?

In any case, yeah, I too will do it myself next time. I found a great article online for doing it yourself which looks strangely familiar to your setup. Except this guy used a steel car wheel... Are we talking about the same set of instructions?? Ha ha!

Oh, I also meant to ask, those bearings that you got. They are 17mm inside diameter correct? You got them on ebay, but are they pretty uncommon in size for hardware stores?

Thanks Danny!

Dave,

When I asked the guys on the forum they told me rotation direction is only to match the water shedding grooves. I looked for the thread but can't find which one it is.

My local Ace didn't have the bearings that would fit so I mic'd the front axle and found it was 3 or 4 thousandths smaller than 14mm, went on ebay to get the cheapest ones I could find (in case they didn't work). Got lucky, they just slide over the axle, no slop and have no noticable drag so the wheel spins freely. I listed the id of the bearings, and the seller, I would recommend getting the same ones as different make bearings probably have differing drags and may not work as well.

Oh yeah, the article you're referring to is the same one I used, just thought it would be easier on danny to have the changing thing off the floor. Looked around.....hey, there's a garbage can--perfect!! Like I said, it won't get "Best in Show" but who cares!

Keep me posted, I'm interested in your progress, this is a new deal for me too.

danny

 

[Rusty McNeil]

The Yamaha dealer here charges $18 per wheel wether it's on the bike or a carry in, the other independents are about the same. or close....

So that's an extra $36 bukcs plus tax every tire set change....

A guy here locally, one of the Vmaxxers, hosts tech days when we get bikes ready for the trip to Bandera, he has the tools and a static balancing stand and a box of weights and it takes about 30 minutes to change one from start to finish....

They balance fine that way...When the shop spins mine on the elctronic machine they rarely have to add any weights anyhow......

I didn't persoanally do it but it didn't look that hard to me.....

I think he paid about $75 for the tools, the stand, and the weights.....

If you put a lot of miles on a bike it can really reduce costs when rear tires sometimes only last 3000-5000 miles if ridden hard.