Originally Posted By: SlipperyPete
Originally Posted By: maverickfhs
Planning to change motorcycle tires.
Was wondering if anyone has any advice/tips/suggestions? I am planning to use dynabeads or Air BB's for balancing.
Any other tips for valve stems or tricks for putting a new tire on?
Thank you
Pay no mind to those who seem to think tire changing is some sort of dark art. It ain't rocket science.
From Amazon - Get a bag of 24" heavy duty cable ties, a tire balancer that consists of a rod and two cones, and stick on wheel weights. You can set the ends of the balancer on jack stands or chairs.
Get a jug of RuGlyde from NAPA. Anything wet will work to some degree, but nothing works as well as actual tire lube.
Put 8 cable ties equidistant around the tire and tighten them until the beads are touching. Lube the beads of the tire and the edge of the wheel and push the tire onto the wheel. If it doesn't go all the way on, just get as much as you can and let it sit about 30 seconds. It'll go then. Put the valve stem back in and bounce the tire around the entire circumference to start the bead, then use a compressor to seat it. Balance the wheel and reinstall. Mounting and balancing are covered thoroughly on Youtube.
Use a small screwdriver to open the locks on the cable ties and you can re-use them 10-15 times. You can buy everything for about the cost of paying the dealer to do two tires. Michelin tires will pretty much fall onto the wheel, while you will probably have to let Metzelers sit a little while to let the tension of the partially mounted tire and lube pull the off side completely into drop of the wheel. Everything else seems to fall somewhere between those two brands. I use tire irons to remove the old tire.
It really is that easy and you can't mess it up. As long as you hear two pops when you seat the bead, the tire is on.
Thanks very much. I truly appreciate it. Yeah, I'll buy tire lube just because instead of paying for two tires I can literally get them done for a price one one and still use all tools/lube for as long as I wish. Thanks again for the advice.