Balancing and fitting tyres

[northwind]

I saw a feature in Ride or TWO this month about fitting your own tyres... I've always just used dealers for this, after all I should only go through a Roadtec rear every year and a half or so, and fronts more rarely... But I got to thinking, the hardware is £150, but you stand to save maybe £20-£25 per tyre by getting cheap tyres and avoiding labour costs each time... It's more effort but it means not having to fit into dealer's diaries and just changind when you want to. So if I just used it myself it'd be paid for in 4 years or so (more f I get stuck into trackdays, I don't see a Rennsport or Diablo Corsa set lasting all that long)

With this sort of simple gear, can a home mechanic do as good a job as a shop mechanic? (is the balancer even neccesary or could the same be achieved by cheaper means? I have a spare set of forks I could adapt...)

[Carsick]

Where would you get these significantly cheaper tyres from? I've looked and I can manage less than £10 less than my local places ride-in ride-out fitting price, for any suitable tyre I care to look up.

Btw, I also saw the article and was thinking the same thing as you.

[northwind]

Well, lets see... I paid £190 inc vat for front and rear roadtecs plus fitting... Crossan Motorcycles would do the pair for £155 including postage. £160 from Seastar... First 2 prices I looked at :)

Though to be fair when i got those fitted they were pretty new on the market, it could be that the dealers' price would have dropped now. I might give them a bell tomorrow and see what they have to say.

It's unlikely to make much sense for most riders, especially us using long-range boots like the Roadtec, but when you've got friends riding in the area it might make more sense...

[Carsick]

Well, lets see... I paid £190 inc vat for front and rear roadtecs plus fitting... Crossan Motorcycles would do the pair for £155 including postage. £160 from Seastar... First 2 prices I looked at :)
Fair enough. I only looked at TyresalesUk.co.uk and a couple of others.

I'll ring my local place and see what they'll do them for, I wouldn't be much surprised if I can get a set of roadtecs for under £170 fitted.

[jonboy]

I think the better option would be to form a local syndicate "SV Ecosse?" and share the costs/work between you which then might become mighty attractive.


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[northwind]

yup, that was one of the things crossing my mind... Still unsure if a static balancer operated by me can really do as good a job as a dealer with all the gear, but that's more because I don't know enough about hwo they do it to decide, hoping soeone can put me straight...

plus it'd be nice to only have to return to dealer once a year for the MOT :)

[Flamin_Squirrel]

When I read the question on if its a good idea to fit your own tyres, two things came to mind.

Is it A) worth the risk B) is it something the experienced riders on this site like rictus do.

The answer to both I think, is no.

[Junior]

I tend to agree. I don't really think the financial benefits outweigh the risk and liability assumption. THat would be a good toy to have at a track day though.....

[rictus01]

I used to fit my tyres when I was riding motocross and Enduro, but modern road tyres can't be fitted without the proper kit.

I don't know how good of a job balancing the wheel yourself you could do, and I'm not sure if it would make a great deal of difference on the SV, but why risk it, on the automatic machine you can't get it wrong.

for the cost of the bead breaker and weights and something to balance the wheels you could get yourself another set of wheels (most tyre places will fit free to loose wheels) for some sticky rubber.

I go through about ten or so sets of tyres a year so if I thought it was worth while, I'd still be doing it which I'm not.

perhaps a cost saving could be made if a group were to use the kit, but it's not something I'd be interested in anyway.

When pushing the bike, I like to know the tyres are sorted, just one less think to consider when riding.


Cheers Mark.

[Ceri JC]

Food for thought about the safety of fitting your own tires:

One of the aspects of maintenance that appeal to me is that, at least doing jobs I know I am competant at, is the knowledge that they have been done safely/correctly. Likewise, I'd be detered from doing things like changing the brake lines myself, as I don't think I'd be able to do it as well/safely as a dealership.

Part of the attraction of learning more and more bike maintenance is that I'll have more confidence in the bike, knowing things have been done properly. Also, due to increased mechanical sympathy, will be less likely to break things and more likely to spot anything unusual.

As has been pointed out, tyres seem as something best left to the professionals. However, a friend of a friend is now in a wheelchair (paralysed from the neck down) because the wheels on his bike were fitted the wrong way round, by a garage. Admittedley, he was on the autobahn, doing 100mph, but had the tires been fitted correctly, they'd of taken it.

So, even if you don't fit your own tires (I don't) make damn sure you check the arrows are pointing in the right direction before riding off... :shock:

[SV-Sexy-virgin?]

beeing a tyre fitter i do all mine at work lol its easy enough to do as long as you get all the arrows in the correct places etc but as to safty as long as you seat the bead and remember to adjust the pressure to the correct psi then ur all sorted check on google should have a fitting guide easy wehn you know how ay??

Gricey

[northwind]

I don't know how good of a job balancing the wheel yourself you could do, and I'm not sure if it would make a great deal of difference on the SV, but why risk it, on the automatic machine you can't get it wrong.


Well this is it, is there any reason to think that we can't do it exactly as well with the home gear if done right? And the automatic machines are only as good as the person working it- we've all got stories of incompetent mechanics I'm sure.

The gear including some weights is cheaper than a pair of wheels would be FWIW, and there's nowhere I'm aware of near here that'll fit tyres for free on loose wheels, though naturally they do it for less as there's less labour. But for the car-less it's kind of hard to get 2 wheels to a dealer as well. I think these parts of the economics will vary depening on location, since there's likely to be more tyre-fitters and much more competition in the bigger cities than there is up here... There's only a handful of bike garages in the area, and I'd write 2 of them off as criminally incompetent/ negligent...

(do wheels need to balanced with their discs on? Just occurred to me I have no idea... Off topic but...)

I completely understand why people are saying about safety issues, which is why I'm not going to do this unless I'm sure it can be done as well at home as it can with a dynamic balancer... But at the same time, I could apply the reasoning about risk to working on your own brakes, or bearings, or engine. The question is just how real the risk is, if any.

[northwind]

Ah ha, you must have posted that while I was typing SV-Sexy-Virgin :)