First DIY tire change - Wow! Thank you!

[finallyabeemer]

After years of paying others to change tubeless tires for me, I tried using what I learned here to do my own:

- Harbor Freight changer (mounted to big sheet of plywood)

- Mojo lever

- Marc Parnes balancer

- Lubricants and how to videos from No-Mar

 

To summarize: Piece of cake! It was even easier than changing tube style dirt bike tires. I will be trying the mojo lever on dirt bikes from here on out.

 

A sincere thank you to everyone who has posted suggestions and ideas. Mounting tires was the ONLY routine service thing I still had to rely on others for. I have a buddy who mounted for 1/2 the going rate so I was slow to change over due to the rate of return being so low.

[ianboydsnr]

After years of paying others to change tubeless tires for me, I tried using what I learned here to do my own:

- Harbor Freight changer (mounted to big sheet of plywood)

- Mojo lever

- Marc Parnes balancer

- Lubricants and how to videos from No-Mar

 

To summarize: Piece of cake! It was even easier than changing tube style dirt bike tires. I will be trying the mojo lever on dirt bikes from here on out.

 

A sincere thank you to everyone who has posted suggestions and ideas. Mounting tires was the ONLY routine service thing I still had to rely on others for. I have a buddy who mounted for 1/2 the going rate so I was slow to change over due to the rate of return being so low.

 

 

nice one, you cant get the harbour freight motorcycle attachment here in the UK but you can get the stand, but I still change my own, and its good to be able to change them when I want to, I have the mojo lever and the Marc Parnes balancer

[Lawman]

Congrats!

 

I have all that stuff too and more and it's still an S.O.B. for me...

[Ben_Ricci]

Congrats!

 

I have the same equipment and my first effort ended up aborted and I relied on the dealer. I still have all the stuff and will probably be needing new tires again in the summer, so if you can pass along any tips or useful links, I'd appreciate hearing them. Tell me about the video from No-Mar. Thanks.

 

All I can see is I had a helluva time getting my first tire off and pretty much swore off ever trying it again--and I don't necessarily consider myself mechanically inept.

 

[finallyabeemer]

Here's the videos:

http://www.nomartirechanger.com/V2/videohome.html

 

You can view on-line or have them send them to you on a DVD. A picture is worth a thousand words... and these videos teach the techniques like a personal mentor!

 

The No-Mar changer is a SWEET machine, doesn't require replacement of wheel clamps and would make this job even easier. But it costs more than I was able to afford this year. Someday though...

 

Oh, wheel clamps - Since I have access to a pretty complete machine shop, I made my own out of some scraps of Delrin I had laying around. The HF clamps are pretty sketchy to say the least.

[finallyabeemer]

Part of a response I sent to a PM regarding some difficulties mounting rear tire that may be of interest to others:

 

I did have a little bit of struggle getting the second bead on (chasing the overlap around - it was coming off as fast as I pulled on!), but a quick wrap with a tie down fixed that. Also helped to keep pushing wayyyy down into center drop and encouraging sidewall to kinda tuck in (again, exactly as shown in NM video - check out video #30 for tips on difficult wheel)

 

Key factors to my success:

the Mojo bar

No-Mar tire mount lube paste

Leaving tire in sun for over and hour to make it as soft as possible (learned that from doing dirt bike tires)

[ianboydsnr]

I do it pretty much how the Goldwing tyre is removed and mounted, using a few blocks of wood, to make sure the bead is in the center, and regulary checking that opposite where the demount bar is, that both beeds are in the center, I also use the blocks to stop chasing the overlap around the tyre, untill I got more experience, I used tyre irons and rim protectors (cut up shampoo bottles) to good effect, but even then it only took an hour to do

[xbubblehead]

This sounds like a good investment, How easy is it for someone who has never changed a tire on their own? Well more to the point, is the balancing portion difficult. The video of the tire change seemed to go pretty easily. I know he is a pro but it seemed easy enough with the right gear.

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

Well more to the point, is the balancing portion difficult.

 

Balancing is probably the easiest part. You'll need a static balancer; see www.marcparnes.com for some slick equipment. After that, it's simple:

 

• Mount wheel on balancer.
  
• Allow wheel to settle with its heaviest spot at bottom.
  
• Temporarily attach some weight to the light spot (exactly 180 degrees from heaviest spot) with some kind of tape.
  
• Gently spin wheel, let it settle to a stop. if it settles very slowly into a new location each time, then the wheel is balanced. If there's an obvious heavy spot, add/remove/relocate weight as necessary.
  
• when balanced, clean rim thoroughly and permanently attach the required weights.

[xbubblehead]

Thanks Mitch, sound pretty straight forward and I feel silly. I have learned so much from this site. Changing the tires, much like changing the oil, should be something that I feel I should be able to do in my own garage Plus it keeps the cost down to a min.

[finallyabeemer]

I had never changed a tubeless street bike tire on my own before. I had done a few dozen tube style dirt and street tires.

 

Having someone around who has done it before would accelerate the learning curve dramatically! I did it on my own and had no problems, but I already knew the basic concepts and common challenges.

 

On balancing, I also recommend having a chair, some tunes, beer, and a cigar! I had nowhere to go and time to kill, so I spent an hour on them. The front is balanced to within a 1/4 oz now. Does it need to be? Nope. Was it challenging to achieve that? Yep!