Bit of advise needed from the wise, I'm thinking of investing in a bead breaker, wheel balancer, wheel weights and tyre soap with a view to doing tyre changes for myself and friends and forum buddies, mainly because i ride all year round and need to swap between winter and summer tyres also my mrs has her own bike, i like to do occasional track days and the competitive price tyres can be sourced on the interweb. As much as i believe in supporting local business, charity starts at home and not all bike shops are keen to fit tyres that weren't purchased from them. So my questions are :- Does anyone do their own ? How difficult is it ? Are these cheaper non professional units much cop ? I'm not trying to be a skinflint just more hands on and practical while not being held to ransom just to change my hoops.
used them before and other people have as well on my wheels. Scuffed them to bits. If I was looking for a machine, it'll be a proper one( hydraulic), you can pick em up for around 200-400£ on fleabay...
Couldn't be arsed with it all TBH when you can get tyres changed at a Trackday for a £5 a set. Not worth buying all the gear and all the faf for saving that amount of money a few times a year IMHO
I do it the initial outlay is a bit pricey but I aim to recoup over the years I like doing it myself makes you feel like you have achieved something
To right Besides I'd rather scratch my own wheels after local tyre place messed mine up last time and then told me they were like that when I brought them in !
I used to change my own tyres, bead breaking was the easy part, it's using the tyre levers and trying to keep the rim protectors in place that was a right pain! Try Googling Mojo Lever and watch the vid. It's a contraption from the States that takes all the messing out of changing a tyre. I've made one myself but haven't put it to the test yet.
Easy peasy. There's a guy in Barnsley who sell tyres bars on ebay for £60. I bought one in person, really nice chap. They make the job so much easier that i've since used it to change the tyres on the mrs 18" car alloys, although my BMW runflats are not so easy I'll post a few pics up when I can, but it's not dear and saves a fortune in the long run
ok tightwads This is along the lines of what I use:- Home made bead breaker. Mid was bolted to the side of my garage wall. Tyre bar. I had the small levers and rim protectors, but swear by one of these now and it absolutely does not mark the wheels. manual tyre machine changer bar alloy wheels car / bike | eBay Home made wheel balancer, uses bearings to balace the wheels sat on their axles. I use an Abba bead breaker now (about £40 I think), but factor in the soap and about a tenners worth of lead weights, tyre valves & puncture repair mushrooms/glue, then you have a full tyre fitting/repair kit for the cost of easily less than 4 tyre changes. Been doing mine for 2 years now on both cars, track/road bikes & moped.
I have virtually the same kit, bought the bar and made the other bits and it all works very well and yes it is very satisfying too.
Yeah I have an almost identical setup for bead breaking and I have bought a Mojolever from US after struggling with tyre levers (PITA IMHO) and the mojolever is the best thing since sliced bread I made a tyre stand using a 14" car rim which is bolted to a piece of 2" x 4" and which I hold in my bench vise while using it. I also have a Marc Parnes wheel balancer which is excellent. Here in OZ we buy tyres from Jakewilson.com in US for about 1/2 the local price, plus I just like to DIY for everything on the bikes.
yeah that's right I read something like that, now it's up to 1000$ that you don't pay and they want to make it from like 10$.... anything for money...... If everything in aus wasn't so expensive people wouldn't need to buy online decent place to buy then, as the tyres I race on here cost me 300€, and there they would only cost 360$Aus, which is alot cheaper, and that's including 65$ transport....
who does that for £5 a set then? the last track day i was on the tyre bloke wanted £45 to put my wets on????
I'd say he was taking the piss out of a captured audience, that's half the cost of a trackday at Cadwell.
