Tyre Change DIY

Hi there

I am looking to start changing my tires at home. Looking for advice for best tyre changing lube.

thx.

I use windex on my Mx tires. I would be worried about gouging my rims with the tire irons on the duck even with rim protectors. I have also changed hundreds of Mx tires.

i use carnuba wax

Im also interested in doing this myself this year. I also need input on tools and a stand.

I was in the same boat couple years back and after I looked everywhere I came to the conclusion that you are not going to save any money and you are taking the risk to mess up $1000 plus rims
the tire machine that is closed to what the dealer used is the Nonmark tire change is like $800 that is just for you to take the tire and put it back in the rims, next you need to balance it so you need to buy a machine for that $200 with the adapter for ducati plus you need the weight and a couple other hand tools you can easily spend over $1000. for a basic set up and the biggest problem is YOUR FRIENDS coming to your house asking you to change their tires for FREE ( like you got the ....... machine for free) so... just go and buy the socket to remove the tire, 2 pitbull stands,a torque wrench good for 160nm, and the front axles aligning tool. Take the tire off go to your local Honda dealer (why Honda?) simple there are more human than those ....... from the ducati dealer and only going to charge you $25.00 to remove and balance your tires not like a ducati the dealer that charges $50.oo
Bottom line you need to change 40 tires to come even,that's if you don't .... up your rims.

No machines required. Bead breaker, levers, rim protectors, balance rig, tyre soap, spare weights.
Bead Breaker Kit - Abba Stands, UK £81.50
Wheel Balancer - Abba Stands, UK £96.95
Single Sided Adapter - Abba Stands, UK £30.50
Tyre Lube - Abba Stands, UK £9.95

Total approx. £220/$330

I've been using this rig for over 15 years, and it paid for itself in tyre changes last year alone. Never marked a wheel either. Only tyres which I detest, but still do, are certain brands of dirt/mx rubber, which can be a real pita due to carcass stiffness.

Thx guy but keep advice comming I am not worried about my rims my 1199 is track only and I have 2 sets of scuffed marchesinis. That being said I don't want to ruin them either. I was thinking to give harbourfreight tyre changer a chance. A guy I know does the job done in less than 10 minutes on his modified harbourfreight changer. Anybody had experience with harbourfreight?

I'm been riding bikes since 1975 and have been doing track days on a fairly regular basis since 1995.

When I started doing track days, I soon realized that spending an extra $100 per set of tires and a couple of hours of inconvenience of missing work to get down to a dealership was enough justification to get my own setup.

At the time, circa 1995, NoMar hadn't started in business. The defacto standard reasonably priced tire changer was the Coats 220, at that time about $500 delivered, now they are close to double that.

So I bought the Coats 220 and used it for about 18 years, never had to replace anything on it and sold it for $450.

I can't count how many tires I changed on it for myself and friends.

So although the initial costs can seem a little high, over 20 years, it's negligible and the convenience to being able to change tires when it suits you is priceless.

The Coats was ideal if you have limited garage space. Being slim, I could store it flat up against a wall. In use, I would bolt it to a sheet of 4' x 4' x 3/4" plywood. I later split the plywood into two 4' x 2' pieces to minimize the storage width when placed up against a wall.



About 3 years ago, I decided to upgrade the tire machine and purchased a Derek Weaver pneumatic tire changer, about $1200 delivered, about the same price as the NoMar professional manual changer.

Although it's physically larger, it takes up no more floor space that a walk behind small lawn mower.

It makes changing tires a breeze.



When changing tires:

If you mail ordered tires and they come shank wrapped, remove that to allow the tires to expand to their normal shape as soon as possible. I had one set of tires that I guess must have sat in shrink wrap for a while at the place I bought them from, so the tire was a little squashed. For this situation, I use a dirt bike inner tube and inflate it and sit the tire in the sun for a while to get it back to proper shape.

I try and warm the new tires by pacing them in direct sun light for about 20-30 minutes before mounting, this makes them a bit more pliable and easier to mount. Dunlops used to be the toughest to mount with stiff sidewalls, but the Q3's are much easier.

If I have to mount a tire in winter, not very often, the tire can feel like brick, so I've used my tire warmers, for a short period, to warm the tire up.

I use NoMar tire lube, bought a small tub of it about 5 years ago and I'm still using it.

The NoMar "Yellow Thingy" makes mounting much easier (see video below).

When airing the tire up to seat the beads, leave the valve stem out to get max air flow.

If a bead will not catch to start holding air, I use a large ratchet strap, around the circumference of the tire and this usually forces the bead into contact with the wheel.

When mounting the tire, if it gets tight, make sure you get the opposite side bead down in the wheel well and use plenty of lube.

The lube will dry in about 5 minutes and not make your tire slip on the rim.

I static balance with weights. The first time I take tires off new wheels, I usually put the tireless wheels on my static balance to find the heavy spot. I then mark this with with a sharpie on the inside of the rim.

Most tires have a dot, sometimes red, yellow or white. This indicates the light spot on the tire and is usually placed next to the assumed heavy spot on the wheel, the valve stem.


When balancing, you can see if a wheel has a definite heavy spot as the wheel will rotate quickly. If this happens and I have to apply more than an ounce of weight, I'll break the bead again and rotate the tire on the rim to try and minimize the weight needed to balance.

When balancing, temporarily stick the weights in place with duct tape until you find out how much weigh is needed.

This is me changing my 1098 wheels on my me tire changer for the first time, so it was still a bit of a learning experience.

A couple of tips I found useful when using a pneumatic tire changer, first, even though the clamps have tiny nylon protectors, there's enough exposed metal on the clamps to catch your precious wheel on, so to counter this each clamp is covered in a thick hiking sock. Second, while clamping up the wheel, there is usually a gap between the tire and the rim where the clamp will slide in. Now I've found quite often, this is the case for three of the four clamps, so you have to be careful with that fourth clamp, which you can't see as this is under the tire and wheel. To get around this, I use 4 blocks of 3/4" thick nylon, about 1 1/4" long. After I break the bead, I use a Delrin tire iron an inset a block between the bead and the rim at 3, 6, 9 and 12 o'clock. This gives me a nice gap for the wheel clamps to slide in. When you remove the first bead, all these block just fall out.

You'll see the socks in my video, at the end, but using the nylon block came later. I stated using wooden blocks, but these would disintegrate after a while.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reMj5H2UShc