Does anyone fit their own tyres? What about balancing?

Marc Parnes wheel balancer

just taken a look at this.. and all I can say is; you can tell it's an American idea. :augie

I love the fact there's a different one made for, it seems, every bike on the planet... nice marketing though.. change your bike and you need to buy another one. marvellous. (makes me wonder how my local tyre man copes with only the one)

every toolkit needs one. put it next to your canbus fluid analyser ® and Lentini zero=zero discombobulator ©. :D
 
You probably didn't peruse the finer points of Marc Parnes site, if you already have a wheel balancer and you purchase a different bike, you only require the appropriate cone(s) for your new bike's wheel hub.

As for the Late Rob Lentini, well, if you actually had machines during the time the first 1080cc flat twins came out, perhaps you would think slightly differently.

Mick.
 
Out of interest how do you all crack the bead on a tyre if you are on the road and cant get to a garage.

Is it possible to crack it on a BMW tyre by hand or do you carry a large G Clamp or other such instrument?
 
Mick Fagan said:
As for the Late Rob Lentini, well, if you actually had machines during the time the first 1080cc flat twins came out, perhaps you would think slightly differently.

Mick.
Click to expand...

I did... this is how I know of the man, I was a member of the mail serve forum thingie on the micapeak site. And yes, my first GS did surge this was cured by the dealership. I showed them a printoff of the zero=zero procedure and the mechanic looked at it, laughed, handed it back - then fixed the bike. :thumb2

oh and I was flamed by the yanks on that site for daring to suggest this fault was fixable without all that longwinded nonsense. (I didn't care - I thought it was hysterically funny)
 
mdw403 said:
Out of interest how do you all crack the bead on a tyre if you are on the road and cant get to a garage.

Is it possible to crack it on a BMW tyre by hand or do you carry a large G Clamp or other such instrument?
Click to expand...

This was in March on our way to Normandy, the 90 degree valve adapters we'd been nagging the old git to remove finally showed him why when it removed the entire valve stem! We had to remove the tyre, replace the whole rubber valve assembly (I carry 2), replaced the tyre and then found a puncture that was instant fixed with vulcanising plug kit (also carried).

Puncture.jpg


Plug.jpg


Two options...

1.
Lay the wheel on it's side and walk around the edge, it should crack.

2.
Lay the wheel down as before and use the side stand of a bike to push the tyre down, pretty much someone sits on the bike and uses the stsnd as a press while you move the wheel around untill it pops. This works VERY well, but is no good if your on your own as you can't move your bike!:blast

Oh and you need lots of CO2 canisters to inflate, I carry 12 and use shampoo or wet soap to help create a seal when repairing tyres at the road side, also helps get the tyre on.
 
I carry a Tyre Pliers bead breaker attached to my handlebars, required it twice in the last 9 years.

Regarding dealers fixing the surging problems, maybe in your country the dealers either had or understood how to fix the surge and set the TPS correctly, but down here and in other parts of the world, this was never completely successfully fixed by many dealer shops.

The fact that in my state, which is approximately the size of GB, there were two official dealers only at the time, didn't help matters either. Also I had a friend working outback, his nearest dealer was a minimum of 1,500 Klm's away. Rob's fix on the matter helped him enormously.

Rob Lentini himself understood that his longwinded (your word) description of how to address the problem, was meant for the complete dummy. In this aspect I would think he was more than successful in that the home mechanic with very little equipment could in a round-a-bout manner, do what the computerised workshop did in minutes, but at a (sometimes) indecent cost.

I did exchange emails with him over some issues, relatively unassuming person, was my impression!

Mick.
 
Off topic I know. I used the Rob Lentini zero zero method a couple of years ago, having fallen off the end of both the Haynes and Clymer manuals while attempting to fit a throttle body that had the stops disturbed, my options were at that time, pay someone to trailer the thing to a dealer 60 miles away (who would want in the order of £120 odd for a new throttle body plus labour to fit it,) or have a go myself, the procedure is pretty wordy, but when reading it its best to put yourself in Rob`s shoes, these bikes were new technology and covered in magic juju, he must have been a very bright guy and the wordiness is most likely his attempt to describe what he had found out the hard way, it worked for me anyway :thumb2

Stewart
 
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Mick Fagan said:
You probably didn't peruse the finer points of Marc Parnes site, if you already have a wheel balancer and you purchase a different bike, you only require the appropriate cone(s) for your new bike's wheel hub.

As for the Late Rob Lentini, well, if you actually had machines during the time the first 1080cc flat twins came out, perhaps you would think slightly differently.

Mick.
Click to expand...


Actually most are just the same cones, its only the odd bike that needs a different one, get the 14" spindle version and it will do most normal swingarm bikes, then get the extra cones like the 1150 rear or the 1200 rear :nenau
 
Stewart H said:
Off topic I know. I used the Rob Lentini zero zero method a couple of years ago, having fallen off the end of both the Haynes and Clymer manuals while attempting to fit a throttle body that had the stops disturbed, my options were at that time, pay someone to trailer the thing to a dealer 60 miles away (who would want in the order of £120 odd for a new throttle body plus labour to fit it,) or have a go myself, the procedure is pretty wordy, but when reading it its best to put yourself in Rob`s shoes, these bikes were new technology and covered in magic juju, he must have been a very bright guy and the wordiness is most likely his attempt to describe what he had found out the hard way, it worked for me anyway :thumb2

Stewart
Click to expand...

He was Stewart. When I described what Robinsons had done with my bike on the mail list. I received a couple of emails from him wanting further information on the 'fix' - I had no idea what they had done.. at that time I was far less interested in the mechanics of the bike than I am now.. besides which it was under warranty. I gave him their details and that was the last I heard from him. He was very polite as I recall... but this was a long time ago.

Have to say though that the bike was in the dealership for about an hour.... and the fix must have taken rather less time than that to perform.

And really its because of that experience that I tend to mock the zero=zero procedure. (not the man himself)
 
Anyone care to recommend a set of tyre levers? I'm looking at getting a set of Karoo 2's from mttyres and debating having a crack at changing them myself.
 
mr_magicfingers said:
Which size do you recommend, shorter or longer (350mm)
Click to expand...

Set of three here but you only really need one short and one long (with the curved end).

I've changed my own tyres for years and these levers are the best by far. As far as balancing I use an Abba balancer which works very well.

Dave

IMG_0112.jpg
 
Thanks for the advice. Found the set cheaper here or I can buy them individually.

What's the reason for the shorter one, why not just have them all the same size.

Also, any other tools needed other than tyre soap of some form, g-clamp for bead breaking, hosepipe for rim protection and a valve tool to get the valve out. I have a small compressor but doubt it'll be up to setting the bead, but I have a garage at the end of the street with an airline. No power in my garage to run the big compressor I have at the moment.

This made it look relatively simple, but we know how that can seem.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZI8dNPbBlMo&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZI8dNPbBlMo&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
 
The longer one levers and the shorter holds. No reason why you can't use two long ones. A 12v compressor is enough to seat the bead, Tourances normally seat between 30 and 40 psi. I use WD40 to lubricate. Oh and your list covers the lot.

Dave
 
mr_magicfingers said:
Thanks for the advice. Found the set cheaper here or I can buy them individually.

What's the reason for the shorter one, why not just have them all the same size.

Also, any other tools needed other than tyre soap of some form, g-clamp for bead breaking, hosepipe for rim protection and a valve tool to get the valve out. I have a small compressor but doubt it'll be up to setting the bead, but I have a garage at the end of the street with an airline. No power in my garage to run the big compressor I have at the moment.

This made it look relatively simple, but we know how that can seem.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZI8dNPbBlMo&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZI8dNPbBlMo&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
Click to expand...

Hey mate, I just picked up three tyres levers and three rim protectors from M&P for about 15 quid... Still waiting for the tyres to turn up to try them out... One point; the rim protectors i purchased are like semi-flexible nylon which will slide around the rim nicely adn alot harder than hose pipe? I know people say they use that but these protector are miles away from rubber hose!? The three levers are sold seperately and roughly 11 inch's long. Certainly stong enough nice finish with a light hook on one end and flat bar the other. Only concern it that both end are relatively thick considering the small gap they will get stuffed into. Nothing that my bench grinder cant adjust of course :thumb

On another note I have decided NOT to go with dynabeads. Although I like the idea it would cause an issue if i need to use some form of puncture repair or active preventative?

Baz
 
Dellis said:
He makes a bit of a meal of it to be honest.

Dave
Click to expand...

HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA "a BIT of a meal of it"!? :D At 4 mins 38 seconds he needed to use another lever to finish the last part thats always a pain. I had to check the timer on the video to make sure it wasnt jumping? It was like 'ground hog day' :augie

It also looked like the opposite side of the tyre was partially located on the rim opposed to being located in the center to create the slack required.

Maybe paid by the hour? Certainly not working the tyre change in a live paddock :D
 
thanks all, ordered a set of tyre levers and valve tool, and will order tyres later today. Should be an interesting new thing to learn.

J.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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