Mounting tires

[falconbrother]

Over the years I have owned a bunch of bikes.  This is my second Valkyrie.  My last few bikes were Harleys.  As a general rule I have ordered tires on-line and mounted and balanced them myself.  However, these Valkyries have a big rim on the back.  Once when I removed my rim and took it to a shop to buy a tire the guy that mounted the tire said that it was a bear to get that tire on the rim, and he had all the proper equipment to get it done.  So, I haven't even tried to mount a tire on these rims.  But, I'm cheap and I want it when I want it and I don't like to wait. 

On our last few bikes, Electraglide, Heritage ST, 3 sportsters, a 1400 Intruder, 750 Virago, 450 Rebel, 600 Shadow, etc, etc..  I mounted my own tires.  They were easy to do, for the most part (in warm weather). 

Does anyone here mount your own tires on your Valkyrie rims?  I'm running Cobras right now.  I'll bet breaking that bead is a trip..   

[Daniel Meyer]

I have...it's no more trouble than any other if you know what you're doing.

Nowadays I think I'm getting lazy as I just run it over to the Goodyear guy, hand it and the new tire to 'em and say, "Put *that* on *there*." (anybody with a mag-wheel or "no-touch" machine can do these wheels).

[northernvalk]

I've heard that a big smokey burn out will help get the old tire off 

[hubcapsc]

I've done it many times, using good spoons, and a few times using wimpy
short dirt-bike spoons.

Changing the low profile tire on my 1800 Valkyrie, though, kicks my *** ...

The local Suzuki shop changed my last tire (an Avon), they have pretty
plane jane run-of-the-mill equipment... he didn't say it was particularly
hard...

No matter what, it is probably good for you to be the one who takes
the wheel off and puts it back on and sweats the details on spline lube and
reassembly order...

-Mike "when ladies get old they can wear purple... guys can get their tires changed  "

[Dr K]

I change my own I shut the garage door so the neibors don't think I am yelling and cussing at my wife   

[Hooter]

It's not bad, but I have invented new words doing it. I don't have neighbors very close so no one hears me.

[MarkT]

I've done all mine for 15 years or so.  HF machine, get their really big tire irons - I have 3 - a no-mar bar or mojo lever (these have plastic protectors on the ends), some good tire lube, and Ride-On to balance it.  I buy the latter in the ATV formula, it's MUCH cheaper than the bike stuff and it's the same.  Yeah somebody will pipe up and say it's not and I say good for them if they want to pay $16 for 8oz when I pay $20 for 32oz.  Been using it for years and it both balances the tires and stops leaks.  I just stocked up again, bought a gallon.

Watch the you-tube videos on how to use the HF machine and the special levers - set your tires in the sun as they work easier when soft. Make up some little wood blocks to wedge the tire's top side down into the valley while mounting. Have an add'l bigger block of wood if you need to provide a fulcrum against the side of the wheel, to finish prying the last bit on. I just had my wheels powder coated and with care added new tires for Inzane with nary a scratch.

[Ramie]

My dealer charged me $39 to mount the tire, balance it and depose of the old tire.

[flash2002]

This guy as the right idea.

                   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-bfGCkUmC8

[hubcapsc]

This guy as the right idea.

                   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-bfGCkUmC8

I tried really hard to do that. I'd need the gorilla to do it with our large cruiser tires...
The feller in the youtube is using bigger zip ties, but since I had the beads touching each
other all the way around with my smaller zip ties, I'm not sure it would have made
a difference. The youtube guy has a smaller tire and it looks like he rode all the tread off of it
all the way around until it didn't have anything left to fight back with.



I ended up mounting that tire with my dirt bike spoons... I didn't have my big spoons at the time...
I used to rig up a 5 gallon bucket and push the tire off the rim instead of pulling it off... after
I got my big spoons I started "pulling" the last part of the tire off the wheel with a big rubber mallet 



After fighting the low profile tires on my 1800 a couple of time, now I take the whole
bike to the Suzuki dealer down the street. Last time (a few weeks ago) he matched
the Internet tire price and charged $50 extra for doing the whole job.

Of course we don't want to take our 1500s to a dealer, we need to do all the spline
lube and proper reassembly stuff, so for my last 1500 tire I took the wheel to the
Suzuki shop and was charged $20 or so.

-Mike

[..]

My dealer charged me $39 to mount the tire, balance it and depose of the old tire.

Good price for a dealer.