Tyre changing - sorry!

[pablo666]

I've read on here where people are buying their tyres on line etc. and changing them themselves
Pocket bead breakers et al
My question is, surely the tyre will need to be balanced? That would need taking to a tyre fitter, so where's the advantage? Is there that much of a financial saving?

 

[Possu]

Makes sense if you're also able to balance to your own tires.....

Tyre changes can be done at leisure when it suits you, not the tyre fitter. In addition, it's a worthwhile skill, without which, we'd have been unable to carry on riding down a mountain in the Pyrenees on this tyre:

Fitted an 18" tube from my KTM in the 17" GS rear wheel without removing the wheel from the bike (because we had no wheel removal tools). Took 45 minutesstart to finish, a little less than your average roadside recovery outfit could have done at 7pm at 1,500metres up a Spanish Mountain.

 

[dazco]

Ive started fitting my own tyres at home, i use knobblies so dont realy see the point in balancing and havnt had any adverse effects yet.
saves me about £12 per wheel in fitting cost and all the sarcastic comments from the fitters about buying the tyres from them.
Also save around £15 per tyre by getting them on line, It all adds up you know

 

[michael d]

Who says you cant balance your own tyres ? i invested in a marc parnes balancer ,precision engineered piece of kit

www.marcparnes.com

cheers mike

 

[terayon]

Yep, you can buy all the weights you need off the Internet, the same ones your tyre fitter will use. You can buy a bead breaker and a wheel balancer

I have one of these for breaking the bead and helping me to take the tyre off


And a wheel balancer from Abba with the single sided kit for the rear wheel.
I also buy all my valves, tyre soap and weights from http://www.tyrebaydirect.com

 

[oblertone]

Never tried it ...

... myself, but this bloke makes it look easy

 

[terayon]

yeah he makes it look easy as he uses tubed tyres, like to see him try the same technicque for breaking the bead on a tubeless tyre

 

[pablo666]

Thank you for the response, it makes facinating reading, especially the balancing tool. I can see how it allows you to spin the wheel/tyre set up, but how do you determine where to put the weights, and if it's in or out of balance?

 

[terayon]

Its easy, you spin the wheel basically just give it a little push, then let it come to rest. Then mark the Highest section of the wheel (this is the lightest point), then you move that point to about 2 o'clock and let it drop or rise, if the Highest point comes back to the top, you then add a little weight to the bottom (just masking tape it on), you then continue moving the lightest point and adding weight until the lightest point doesn't move or it settles anywhere (never in the same place). And thats it. About 5 mins max a wheel

Once you have the points for the weights to go you then mark it and place weights on permanently. I used tyre chalk to mark with. You can get everything for a tyre workshop supplier as my post above

 

[terayon]

Another tip.
Most tyre manufactures mark the lightest point of their tyres on the carcass (metzeler use 2 red dots), if you check for the heaviest point of the wheel before you put the tyre on. And then line up the heavy point of the wheel with the lightest part of the tyre, most often than not you don't need any weights at all, or very little.

 

[earthmover]

I've changed my own the tyres on the bike ever since I bought it. Thats two sets of TCK's and one of Tourances. I break the bead with a bench vice and a piece of wood, and I "balance" them by lining up the dots, if I remember. Not had any problems yet
(If you don't count dropping the bike onto its belly plate with no wheels on, and having to enlist the help of two blokes to lift the fecker back up )
HTH
Mark

 

[Possu]

(If you don't count dropping the bike onto its belly plate with no wheels on, and having to enlist the help of two blokes to lift the fecker back up )
HTH
Mark

That's why I remove one at a time.........

 

[earthmover]

That's why I remove one at a time.........

I do now!
Mark

 

[Timolgra]

(If you don't count dropping the bike onto its belly plate with no wheels on, and having to enlist the help of two blokes to lift the fecker back up )
HTH
Mark

You probably had to be there

 

[pablo666]

Well, with all your encouragement, I ordered a new rear Tourance and some levers. Wheel off --- no problem. Bead breaking-----spade don't work. Bought G clamps. 3 hrs later got old tyre off. Cleaned wheel---no problem----putting new tyre on ------can't do it after 3hrs struggling. It seems like theres too much of the tyre left over the rim to ever possibly lever over the rim. My back is aching and I'm fed up

Methinks I will take it out for a drive and try and find a tyre fitters that is open on a Sunday

Any advice about getting a tyre back on??

 

[davegs]

tyres

When changing a tyre put the whell on top of a dustbin (or similar) to support it, if you hve "too much left over" you have not gotr the bead pusshed down far enough into the deep part of the wheel rim. You will find the dustbin type support a great help. (plus a decent pair of levers).
dave gs.