SURVEY: How Do You Change a Tire?

A tire changer would be nice, but I do all mine myself manually since I was 13 yrs old. My dad was not real mechanical, so we kind of learned to do our own work by age of 8 :laugh: so that's 35 yrs now. There's really no secret, mount one side of the tire over the wheel, there's a mark on the new tire for balance reference, line this up with the valve stem. Bead locks if used installed next. Need a small screwdriver or other tool to push through the holes to push the rubber band up enough to get a hold of it, then slip the beadlock through the hole, then the rubber band over the beadlock. Put the tube in and tighten the stem so it stays straight, put air in the tube, then remove the valve core. Put some kind of tire lube on, not soap and water as this causes corrosion. Lever the tire on, put air in the tube and pray for a few seconds. Holds air, sigh of relieve, then fill up till it seats on the wheel. Yes sometimes a bear to get seat, but eventually it's seated and all done. No need to balance, just ride away. I know balance is essential, I've read it, I don't do it and have not had one problem yet in 35 yrs.

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I take the wheels into the local bike shop. If I buy the tires from him and the wheels are off the bike he will do them for free. Otherwise if I bring the bike in then it is $20 a wheel to do it.

The tire prices are reasonable. I did feel bad since the last time he changed a tire for me one of his rim tools broke.

I've done everything else on my bike but change the tires myself. Saves me some hurt fingers, and alot of swearing.

twinkryder in answer to your guestion it usally has a lot to duue with the make of tire used i often found tires like avons will use a lot more weight than say a bridgestone or a dunlop the ones that always seem to take the least seem to be metzlers im sure that has something to due with the way the carcuss is seamed together this might be a quality issue i'm not sure.what i do if the tire is looking like it might take an excessive amount to balance you might want to turn the tire on the rim 180 degrees that will usalley lower the amount used i won't do that unless i have to use more than 3 ounces of weight.years ago i thought the same about the rim locks so i weighed a whole bunch that i hadto see if they could cause an imbalance problem i didnt find 2 that were even close to the same weight. also you could try just balancing your wheel it self i can guarentee it won't balance out perfect it self. i was told years ago that the reason the rim locks were even put in was the legal department and engineering departments were scared about possible problems because of the unheard of at the time power levels that were going into this bike.

timebomb33 wrote:

the first thing i do when i'm changing tires on a freshly bought z'r is shitcan the bead locks they are not needed unless you are restoring the bike. then it makes tire changing easy. like don said put one side on, then put baby powder on the tube so the levers will slide off the tube instead of bite in to the tube. i always put the valve stem in the hole and then put the nut on a few threads not tight, the spread the tube around the rest of way. when that is done i pump the tube up so it straightens the wrinkles and folds out. then i put the valve core back in and put a bit of air into the tube so you have a tougher time pinching it with your levers i normally like to use the michilen type levers as opposed to the straight levers i have 3 that i normally use when im doing a tire. MAKE SURE TO USE PLENTY OF LUBE IMPORTANT ON THE BEADS OF THE TIRE.if i'm at home i use dish soap,in the shop we use tire lube do not use grease or any type of oils they can break down the rubber in the tube and tire.then start working the free side onto the wheel. you should be able to get about 1/2 or 3/4 of the tire on to the rim before you ever have touch the levers. make sure the bead you have just put on stays down in the drop center of the wheelthan take small bites of the tire no more than 2" or so and work your way around the tire. until you get it all on. if it tightens up and you find yourself forcing it take smaller bites and double check that the tire is down in the drop center. you should have it on. turn the tire by hand until the valve stem straightens out then tighten the nut. put the air to it and bead it up. try not to use more than 40 lbs in it to bead up.if it dosen't go right away empty the air and break down the beads relube again it should go now. hopefully this helps you out. now i have to rest my finger that was tough with one finger

ditto! one finger typing?i knew i shoud of patented that technique!which one do you type with?i prefer the middle one :laugh:

i go between the index and the middle it depends on what i'm i seem to prefer the middle one in most situation's how much do i owe you for patent infringement plummen.

now i know how al gore feels about the whole internet thing!:laugh:

Timebomb33, a friend of mine whose run an auto alignment shop for years is the one who told me about dynamic balancing which is taking half of the original weight used to balance and place it 180* from where it was. This did help, but still not good enough (1\2 my 50 mile a day trip to work is at 50mph which is where it's the worst). He also told me about rotating the tire 180* and rebalance (these are apparently tricks for large truck tires but the priciple is the same for all tires). I'm hoping that between ditching the bead locks, rotating the tire 180*and balancing the rim first before mounting the tire(or a combo of these) will get things smoothed out. It's good hear that others have heard of these balancing tricks.

I've talked to others who ran the big kz's years ago and said they had the same problem then and just switched to the mag wheels to get rid of the problem. For me I like the look of spokes and I've had other bikes that had spokes and NO bead locks and they were very smooth.

And yes my wheel bearings, swingarm bearings, steering stem bearings(roller)and shocks are new. The back end of the bike is like a pogo stick at 50mph but then smoothes back out at 60 to over 100mph.

I WILL figure this one out this winter.

has your wheel been trued up?some tires take a lot of weight to get them to balance also .back in the 80s when carlisle sold a lot of tires i had one that i couldnt get to balance on the front no matter how many times we tried,switched tires and never had a problem again.

Old Man Rock wrote:

Off to Harbor Freight tools.... :laugh:

For under a $100, you can go this route.... The cheap one is just a little over the $30 per tire fees...

Now our wifes would ask "Honey what do you neeed that for" and our replies would be, "Sweetie, you miss understood where I don;t need that tool, I WANT that tool"...

Plummen, help me out here brother, Homer with drool! :laugh:

OMR

just do like i do,buy the damn thing!:laugh: if she complains too much then us this approach! :laugh:

I say "Hey Vinny put dis on dat!". I go have a coffee and when I come back the magic man has worked his magic. For his second act he mysteriously makes a $20 disappear from my wallet. It's sort of a symbiotic relationship. Next time I think I'll only stay for one act.