Mounting Tires

[Nurple]

Any special tricks for mounting tires. I would save $90 by doing myself. But How? Tubeless mag front and back. Any help would help...The new forum has a good look.

[chipdog4]

The hardest part to changing ANY tire is breaking the bead loose. Since these are motorcycle tires, put it into a shop vise and compress the SIDEWALLS in. Usually, only one side will break, so then place a block of wood against the wheel on the broken side and get the other side. From there, its simply prying the old tire off and sliding on the new one with dish soap. Oh yeah, install a new valve stem.

[missyd]

How do you balance the wheel 'at home'?

[chipdog4]

When I change mine, I'll take them to the local cycle shop and get them balanced. I guess I could balance it at home with a bubble balancer.

Doesn't someone sell a cheap balancer that is basically a horizontal rod? Then the heaviest part of the wheel rotates to the bottom. Then put weights at the top.

[Nurple]

I could probably afford to pay for balancing. However, I am interested in finding out about the bead. Where is it exactly? how do I know it is broken?

[gwcrim]

I bought a bead breaker. But you can use C clamps or even a vise. Invest in a GOOD set of tire irons and be generous with the soap.

The only tires I've balanced are the ones on the race bike. At 180 MPH, I thought it a good idea. But on my street bike (that has been to 140 MPH) I don't bother. Haven't had a shake or shimmy yet and I've done quite a few tires, both front and rear.

Try it unbalance. If it doesn't shake, your OK. If it does, take it off and have it balance.

[moe]

Mount the tire with the spot painted on the side wall next to the valve stem.

Get the wheel and tire dynamically balanced at a shop. It will be more accurate. It is possible to balance it yourself by placing two knife edged straight edges parallel in a elevated level plane at a width a bit wider than the wheel. Insert the axel into the wheel and lay the axel across the straight edges.

[AZbiker]

I recommend buying the long tire irons with the curve on the end, and maybe dipping the ends in tool dip if they start to mar your rims.

At school, we had a tire "stand" made of a steel drum with plastic coping around the edge. Good for getting leverage with the irons, at least on spoked wheels. I only changed mags on a Coates 220. It was a stand with a pole in the middle made for changing tires. I believe Harbor Freight sells one that is similar.

The "bead" is a thick circle of rubber that holds the edges of the tire on the wheel and seals to hold the air in.

1. Remove valve stem core.

2. Break bead on both sides of tire.

3. Pry the bead off the wheel with the irons. It helps if you put the part of the bead that is 180 degrees from the part you are prying on in the center part of the rim (the drop-center). It will make more sense once you're looking at the wheel. Start on the top bead, then do the bottom bead.

4. Lube up new tire and install in reverse of removal, with the yellow dot on the sidewall lined up with the valve stem.

5. Seat new bead by filling up tire with air (with the valve stem core still removed). The sudden rush of air will hopefully seat the bead, just make sure the bead is nice 'n lubed. If you don't have a compressor, I'm not sure this would work.
If you don't have a compressor and are still stubbornly insisting on changing your tires, there is another method of seating the bead that is kinda dangerous.
**I have NEVER done this before, but I've seen it done once. Personally, I wouldn't try it.**
Put the core back in your valve stem, spray starting fluid around the wheel into the tire carcass. Then hold a lighter near the bead. The starting fluid should pop the bead right on the wheel. Or I guess it could blow you to pieces if you use too much.

Anyway, this is just what I remember from school. I live in an apartment, so I get my tires done at the shop.

[XLinAL]

Also, when mounting the new tire, be sure that the rotation arrow is pointing the right way. Motorcycle tires have direction specific treads.

[toe]

See

http://www.clarity.net/~adam/tire-changing-doc.html