| Author | Message | ||
     Soggycal |
Has anyone invested in one of the cheaper manual tire changers for your garage? It seems like we go through tires pretty fast, and I'm thinking in the long run this might save some money. Input? | ||
| Aldaytona |
Harbor Freight works for me.  | ||
| Fullpower |
I use a six inch "C" clamp to break the beads, and a couple cheep steel tire irons, with a bit of warm soapy water the 17 inch tires almost fall off the rims. Really, they come off so easy it is almost scary. | ||
| Soggycal |
Great, thanks for the help! | ||
| Ragnagwar |
I got the Harbor Freight changer myself. After you get the hang of it,it works great.YMMV! | ||
| Mbsween |
If you're looking for a real nice one (expensive too) search for nomar on google. I'm currently using a pair of tire pliers, a milk crate and tire irons. I've changed somewhere on the order of 40+ tires over the past 4 years (with lots of help from the people who I was changing tires for) | ||
| Cactus_dave |
Changing tires is the easy part.... now where is the tire balancer? | ||
| Garrett2 |
ive never heard of wheel weights for a bike wheel.... | ||
| Chris_in_tn |
The Harbor Freight changer works well, but be careful, you can scratch your wheel pretty easy if you are not careful. | ||
| Whodom |
Changing tires is the easy part.... now where is the tire balancer? Motorcycle Consumer News had an article a couple of years ago on building your own tire balancer. Basically it's just a framework make out of 3/4" PVC pipe and fittings, with a couple of 1/8" x 1" steel bars that the axle rests on. The axle is free to roll on the steel bars so that the wheel can roll freely even if your bearings are a little "sticky". Total cost of parts is about $10. I found that with my S3 wheels, I had to make up two different sets of cross-pipes to accommodate the big difference in width between the front and rear wheels. You just place the wheel and axle on the stand and watch where it rolls to determine the heavy spot. Move the wheel and repeat until you're sure you've identified the heavy spot correctly. Temporarily tape a weight on the opposite side and repeat the process until you've got the wheel perfectly balanced. Remove the tape, pull the backing off the weights and stick them in place. Done. Most places that sell tires will sell you stick-on weights with them. | ||
| Glitch |
D.I.Y. | ||
| Ragnagwar |
I use the Marc Parnes wheel balancer. Not that pricey, real sensitive and works great!(No Connection) | ||
| Chainsaw |
Has anyone invested in one of the cheaper manual tire changers for your garage? Mine consists of an 8 foot 2x4 with a door hinge on one end, mounted to a deck post. I pull the hinge pin when not in use and keep it in the rafters. 8 footer is the lever, and I use a 2 foot piece to break the bead. Tire levers, rim protectors, and soapy water to mount/unmount. Changing tires is the easy part.... now where is the tire balancer? I use two jack stands and the wooden dowel from a towel rack, which is a perfect fit to the wheel bearings. Balancing is the same as Whodom's method. | ||
| Starter |
Do yourself a favour and get the rim protectors. Makes it a shitload easy to do the job and leave your rims in pristine condition. Myself I just use G-Clamp, 3 tyre levers and a homemade balancer. | ||
| Bigblock |
harbor freight works, but like the guys say, be real careful so you dont scratch your wheels. the wheel clamp is the big culprit with that machine, and you must use some rubber innertube pieces or similar such material to place in the clamp jaws to protect your wheels. Some people have had luck with laundry detergent bottle plastic, pretty tough stuff. The rubber I like because it really helps stop that wheel from spinning, but the plastic is probably tougher, and needs replacement less often. | ||
| Jandj_davis |
I got the Harbor Freight changer and changed my rear tire just a week ago. I was able to do it by myself in less than 10 minutes (not counting the rim cleaning time). Plasti-Dip on the locking blocks keeps them from marring your wheels, and I cut out a piece of a milk jug for a rim protector. No scratches, new tire in 15 minutes, no dealership cost, and a perfectly cleaned bead is worth it to me. http://www.pbase.com/fredharmon/tirechange There are some good pictures of the changer in use. A balancer can be had on e-bay for $70 (search for "motorcycle balancer"). If you are really concerned about scratching your rims with the provided mount/demount bar (it worked fine for me) I would suggest buying the on from www.NoMarTireChanger.com. It works really well and looks pretty sweet. Check out their videos too, the techniques they explain are the same as what you will use with the HF changer. As a quick note, when you do get one (you really should) be careful about what lube you use. DO NOT USE SPRAY LUBE to re-mount the tire. It will get on the bottom part of your tire and make that first ride particularly interesting if you are not careful. It will also get all over your just cleaned rim. Get a paste lube for re-mounting, and I use Silicon spray to demount. Only problem with silicone spray is that it eats Plasti-Dip. If you have any other questions, or need pointers, let us know. I know there are quite a few guys here that have a changer. (Message edited by jandj_davis on October 09, 2006) |
