Yet another stupid tyre question...... or two....

[walti]

Having got ripped off over a pair of Tourances recently, I've been looking at the online prices and wondering about fitting them myself...

The questions are:...

How important is balancing of tyres on alloy wheels?
How do you prevent marking the rims? (never a problem with the steel rims I used to fit myself...)

 

[Big Lee]

I bought my tyres & got a local garage to fit them even though I got ripped off to the tune of £30 for fitting both it was stil £40 cheaper than if they supplied & fitted them

IIWY I`d just get a professional to fit them

 

[RayS]

Fitting tyres

Hi Walti
I with some minor assistance from Noddy (!) fitted TKC's to my Adventure in March and didn't balance them, but we were careful to put the green (or is it yellow?) spot close to the tyre valve.
To protect the rims you can buy plastic rim protectors from M & P for £2 -£3, but we actually used the corner section cut from a square plastic milk bottle to protect the rims. This dodge worked fine and the tyres then did 5000 miles on a trip through Spain & Morocco, occasionally at high speed without any balance problems being noticed by me.
So go for it. The problems by the way are not the balancing but rather breaking the bead on the old tyre and seating the bead on the new tyre. But there are ways around those difficulties!!!!
Cheers
Ray

 

[silver dream machine]

Just my 2 cents

But money over safety seems to be the issue.

At least get a tyre fitter to fit and balance the tyres,he will have done many and will know what he is doing (yes some do not give that impression)
But use a reputable company (I use Micheldever tyres in Hampshire and they are superb)

If you fit it yourself you may think you have done a good job,but if for example it is not seated properly,the resultant failure could be catastrophic.

Safety over money is my view