I will never again

[srteach]

I will never again try to remove / install tires from the rim myself again. I will remove and reinstall the wheel / tire assemblies from the bike, but nothing else with them. I spent two days levering the old ones off and the new ones on. Front went off and on easy (2 hours), rear took more than 8 hours between two days. I chipped the chrome on the rear wheel, too. ;
I did service the final drive. It had a leaking o-ring and was very low on hypoid oil.

Now I have a quiet (didn't know it was noisy) final drive and new rubber on the road.

[..]

very low on hypoid oil.

That's worrying 

[RonW]

try using a duckhead lever.  videos.  ebay.

[Craig9409]

I usually take them off the bike and pay a shop to do the switch.

I was in Florida for Bike Week 2021 and I was in a hurry. My brother and I both had our Indian Chieftains ready to head from his house in Kissimmee up to the Speedway Hilton for the full 10 days of the rally. I was doing his 20,000 mile service ( he isn't mechanically interested, inclined nor trained) and I discovered a nail in the face of his rear tire. He contacted the Indian dealership in Sanford, 3rd on his call list and yes, they had a full set of the Dunlop Elite 5 tires on the shelf. In fact they had two sets. They also said they would stay late to put them on for us. Mine were getting pretty close to the indicators too so we both made the ride up there. They had the tires in stock, and they gave us priority since we are both National and Orlando Indian Motorcycle Riders Group Elite members and He's the Vice President of the Olando Indian riders group. I winter there so I belong to Orlando as well as Auburn herein WA. The bill came to ~$1000 per bike for front and rear. But, all he and I had to do was sip their free coffee.

The moral to the story is you can save a lot of money sourcing the tires yourself. Then removing them if you have the wherewithal to do it, then just paying a shop to mount and balance them. But, in our case, we had no way to remove the rears, we had no time to source them and we were stuck. We paid the big money.

I now have a full lift table with a rear tire drop out, a couple scissor jacks of different sizes and the ability to get them off any of the big bikes I own. Still, I think I'll farm out the mounting and balancing. I remember I had quite a fight with a dirt bike rear knobby several decades ago... I wouldn't want to go through that again and then how do you balance it? Plus the risk of damage to the wheel using tire irons. Like sheet rock, some things are best farmed out in my opinion.   

[Bagger John - #3785]

When I get my new shop organized, a tire mounting/dismounting machine is going in.

I have everything else (including balancers) needed to do the job.

I was fortunate to have a couple good (reasonable) dealerships nearby who would mount and balance off-the-bike wheels. Alas, time and tides wait for no one...nor does retirement. Sadly, those businesses are gone.

[RonW]

When I work on the front wheel, I suspend the calipers using a solid copper electrical wire instead of letting the calipers hang by its own weight. I highly doubt a dealership would observe these type of steps. Perhaps, they use a torque wrench. Perhaps, not.

[Bagger John - #3785]

When I work on the front wheel, I suspend the calipers using a solid copper electrical wire instead of letting the calipers hang by its own weight. I highly doubt a dealership would observe these type of steps. Perhaps, they use a torque wrench. Perhaps, not.

When I worked professionally in that space, I did.

But I was always one who could RTFSM.

[Bret SD]

Last tire change I did my own tires and put a car tire on the back, all with minimal tools. The trick is to get both tire beads Into The Well of the rim, if you don't do that you'll never get the tires off.. or on.

Some people like to tie the tire with heavy zip ties once the bead is broken, I didn't have to do that, my method was just shoving the beads in by hand as I worked the tire. Some small vise grips and rags to protect the rim will keep you from losing progress as you work your way along the rim of the tire.

[GWS]

I did my front and rear tires with an inexpensive bead breaker jig and a set of spoons, both from Amazon. Less than $100 and I'm set to do my bike and my nephew's bike for as long as we'll be riding. The spoons came with plastic protectors for the rim. Nothing to it. Static balanced them with a contraption I rigged up with sawhorses, a steel rod that fit perfectly through the wheel, and a set of half ounce weights from Harbor Freight (and a fair amount of patience). She rides smooth as silk.

Like everything else, I wasn't sure I could do it until I did it.

[acejr71]

Last tire change I did my own tires and put a car tire on the back, all with minimal tools. The trick is to get both tire beads Into The Well of the rim, if you don't do that you'll never get the tires off.. or on.

Some people like to tie the tire with heavy zip ties once the bead is broken, I didn't have to do that, my method was just shoving the beads in by hand as I worked the tire. Some small vise grips and rags to protect the rim will keep you from losing progress as you work your way along the rim of the tire.

I agree wholeheartedly.  I just put a set of Avon Cobra's on front and back. New brake pads, new seals on the forks, new orings in the rear.  Lot s work but I did it all myself so saved a ton $$.  I agree with the tires.  A real PITA if you don't get the beads in the well.  I used large zip ties to collapse the tire some and it went right on.  Getting them off required more muscle to break the beads off the rim.  All in all would do it again to save the $$$$$$.

[Avanti]

The key to mounting and dismounting a tire with ease is to use x-tra seal/x-tra slik.

[..]

BB's.

2 oz in the front

3 oz in the rear

I take them with me when I go to the independent tire store up the road with wheel and new tire.

[Ramie]

It's been a couple of years but my local dealer charged me $39 to change the tire, balance it and dispose of the old tire after I brought him the rear wheel, new tire and metal valve stem.  Well worth it for me.

[RonW]

I've found sawzalling the old tire off speed things up.

[jdp]

I found a tire machine from a small shop that was going out of business for $500 and it does motorcycles and car tires, just need a good air compressor but it’s paid for it’s self and then some, I made a lot of new friends too

[SPOFF]

Valkyrie tires are a piece of cake. Mounted my last rear tire in 6 minutes using 20-inch irons. But off-road tires are a different matter. There's a reason I buy a four-pack of inner tubes for every dual purpose tire I order on-line. Went through three tubes trying to mount this last tire. It's mounted, holds air. I hope it's still inflated in the morning. 

[RonW]

Valkyrie tires are a piece of cake. Mounted my last rear tire in 6 minutes using 20-inch irons. But off-road tires are a different matter.
There's a reason I buy a four-pack of inner tubes for every dual purpose tire I order on-line.


Maybe those long 20-inch tire irons make it easier on the Valk. You might try a breezer tool for the off-road bike tires.

[psckam]

I did the remount myself ONCE as well. Now I take my tire and rims to local shop and they change and balance for $30. a piece.