Changing Tires Yourself

[zoom45]

Does anyone change their own tires? I was considering buying a harbor freight tire changer because you can get the tires so much cheaper online. A buddy at work bought one and does his own. He usually gets the beads broken with it then does the rest by hand. He said you need to be careful because it's easy to scratch a wheel. :-/
Thanks,
Zoom45

Yup. I've got a 12" c-clamp to break down the beads and some tire irons and rim protectors. I just toss some cardboard on the floor & do it there. It's primative, but I really need the exercise. ;)

[zoom45]

I feel better already. What do you use to protect the rim?
Here's a video that shows an easy way to do it. I think this machine is about $500 but the HF is about $50.

Plastic rim protectors. Most places that sell bike tools sell them. I got mine from Bikebandit.com. My tire irons came from Motion Pro.

[zoom45]

There's 3 different videos here that show an easy way to do the change:

Originally Posted by zoom45

... I think this machine is about $500...

My c-clamp was $8.

[zoom45]

Do you also use a block of wood on the other side?

Yes. A 2x4 about 12" long. It has to rest against the wheel itself so you can press the bead down.

I'm not saying my method is easy. It's hard. But it works & it's cheap.

[oldbikers]

I have a harbor freight tire changer and it works just fine I do have the plastic rim savers and I bought a mojo leaver but have not used it yet. I just changed both of my tires and a rear tire on a HD. with no trouble.

[zoom45]

Where's the best place to get tires? I found some the other night for $86 plus $7 shipping. That was Dunlop D404.

The way prices seem to keep changing, I wouldn't want to guess. Dennis Kirk seems to be popular, and they promise $1 off anybody elses lowest price.

But you'll have to do some searching on the web to find that lowest price.

[aj]

Cadd,
when you do a rear tire change do you lube the swing arm as well? not sure how often it needs to be done.

[oldbikers]

I bought my metzelers from American motorcycle tire http://www.americanmototire.com/catalog/ I don't know if they are the cheapest I have bought tires from them several time so I didn't check this time.

Originally Posted by Aj

Cadd,
when you do a rear tire change do you lube the swing arm as well? not sure how often it needs to be done.

The swingarm, and the driveshaft too, plus change the gear oil. It's just too easy to do it all at once. Usually once per rear tire is enough, except for the gear oil. I do that at every oil change. It only holds about 50 cents worth of gear oil.

[ringadingh]

I have the Harbour freight tire changer as well, but only used it to break the bead. I then used tire irons to remove the tire from the rim. Thats because I didnt want to remove the wheel bearings to fit the centre post of the tire machine. I just use some pieces of an old Javex bottle for rim protection, it works good enough. Then I balance them with a home made balancer that I made.



If I had to do it over again just for the bike tires, I wouldn't have bought the Harbour Freight machine. I also change my own trailer tires, and I have four trailers, as well as my 8WD Argo ATV. So there are times I'll use the tire changer. For just the bike tires its not worth it in my opinion. I can have the old tire off and the new one on in about 15 minutes, using tire levers.