Your bike is too old for us to put tires on...

?!?! what?!?!

local shop in town told me this.
i am not against doing it myself...but I never assumed these so called "master technicians"( their words from the shop's website) wouldn't work on old bikes.

maybe a safety issue?? i don't know...

first shop wanted to charge me a total of $128...i think they said "on bike". give me a damn break.

guess i don't get to be lazy. just need to make time now to take them off so they can charge me 80 bucks to mount and balance them.

get to learn something new. car tires were easy enough when i used to do the car stuff...haha.

needed a little vent here.

Try a gas station with a mechanics shop. Sometimes they will have the adapter fot the tire machine to change and balance motorcycle tires. I know the one near me mounts and balance motorcycle tires for $20 each providing i remove the rims from the bike. Also try a Harley shop they will change older bike tires for you. Just don't tell them it's from a Kawasaki.

My local Cycle Gear store will mount & balance for $20 per wheel, but the wheels have to be off the bike.

i've found a couple other smaller places to call for the mounting/balancing (one a harley fancier upper place).

i don't know that we have any of the gas stations with the shops in them around here though...i'll look in to it though.

thanks for input!

at least i found a good local price on some 404s.

not sure where you are at, but I am sure there is a bike shop that will replace the tires, it does help if you purchase them also, I have found that if you bring your own in it will cost more and when something goes wrong they are not going to want to work with you.

tjhiggin wrote:

My local Cycle Gear store will mount & balance for $20 per wheel, but the wheels have to be off the bike.

That's the going rate.

well, i found a local shop that'll do them on the bike for 50 a wheel. a bit high looks like...but it'll do for this time around.

best price i've found around for just the balance is 40...so i don't mind the extra 10 for a bit of peace of mind.

in the future this will be a job i do on my own...in the future...haha.

next set of kicks.

thanks all.

When I was in the dealership we would change tires on everything. It is real nice when a new bike comes in with tubeless mags; it is a 30-minute job beginning to end. We would do any vintage bike, BUT in the the dealers defense I can guarantee you that in the recent past an older bike, lets say a KZ came in they accepted it and, first off the axle is rusted in, the threads ripper off the end cause a cotter key was rusted in, the bearing, sprocket, swing arm bushing and chain are bad. The old tire was 30 years old and hard as a rock, the rim had tire locks that were rusted on, they ended up cutting the tire off, the customer wanted them to reuse the inner tube and put duct tape on for a rim strip, the customer refused all other work then complained about waiting so long and the high bill, when the tech just wasted 4 hours on a "half hour" job, remember that fella is doing this for a living. It is easy for the service manager to say, "no, the bike is too old, we won't work on it" it is not good PR but that is the way it is at alot of places.

flht-- good point on the taking longer than normal-- thats the main thing about older bikes-- some can be a pain for sure just to get off--

we change anything though-- If you buy tires from us-- its 25 on the front and 35 on the back if still on the bike-- off the bike-- its $15 each.

IF you bring tires to us-- its $35 and $50 on the bike or $25 off the bike. Another dealership close to us won't change anything older than 1990.

A Friend of mine here runs a small bike-shop,and if you purchase the tire from him,the installation is free,as long as the wheel is off the frame.

It doesn't matter how long it takes him either.
Lets just say,he sells a LOT of tires!

It's the smaller shops like this one,that offer these services,to get the customer into the shop,and from there,hopefully a return customer.
You don't see service like that too often.

A1 Cycle SalvageB)

Mine were $125 a piece. Mounted, balanced off the the bike with new tubes and rim strips. They won't do any work on the motor or electrical but they will install chains and sprokets, shocks stuff like that.

I get my tires and mounting from my used parts guy. Less than $140 to remove both old tires, mount and balance both new tires, including new shen ching tires. This is wheels off the bike. I don't know what he'd charge if you brought in your own tires or change on the bike. Brother was charged $100/wheel, to replace on bike, for his goldwing, just service, @ another shop.