Replacing tyres, prices and fitting yourself?

I'm in need of a new set of tyres for my k3. I do a bit of leisurely road riding, don't commute, and am going touring in Europe for 3 weeks soon. I was looking at the Avon Storm 2 Ultras, the best quote I have got is £225 fitted and balanced, ride in ride out from Bikers World at Coleshill. Is this a reasonable price, if not does anyone know anywhere in Birmingham that is better?

Secondly, I have heard that if you take the wheels off yourself and take them to the tyre shop they will fit them to the wheel for free, so you just pay the price of the tyre ( which from looking at prices on the Bikers World Wesbite would save about £40), so my next question is, is this true? And if so, how difficuly is it to take the wheels off and put them back on/do I need any special tools? (I have some basic tools, sockets, spanners, etc and my dad has done all his own servicing of cars for the last 10 years so I could borrow some tools from him if any car tools would suffice).

Thanks

cost you about ten quid a hoop to fit to loose rims.

i paid about the same for my tyres (Dunlop Roadsmarts though) so would say the price is about right, as for wheels off to take in, i find it alot easier to just ride there get em done and ride home again so to me the little extra money is well spent.

http://www.startright.co.uk/ in Leeds

fit a tyre to loose rim for £5!

I bought these and took my loose rims down

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...=STRK:MEWNX:IT

so.......... New pair of Michelin tyres on my bike cost me £135 Bargain

I already had these which i put my bike on when the wheels are off

http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/Produc...ign=Motorcycle

I have used road pilots and rate them highly. I always take off my wheels, don't like paying for something I can do myself. You will need to support the bike without the wheels. Might be best to do one at a time. You can support the bike with a jack to remove the rear wheel as long as you support it well, takes about 5 mins to remove. Front is no harder. Check out your brakes and adjust chain on reassembly. Get a manual and be careful of the speedo drive, nothing difficult if you are steady and read the instructions. There is a service manual on line if you need one let me know. Haynes manual has lots of pictures that are helpful. Also a good way to become familiar with the bike and if your Dad helps so much the better.

I agree its also nice to ride in ride out, up to you to work out your cost benefit analysis.

Its also not too hard to remove the tyre and replace yourself as long as you have the tyre irons and protect the rims, you will need a good air supply, breaking the bead is sometimes a problem but not insurmountable. Balancing is difficult unless you have the equipment. If your close by you are welcome to borrow mine.

[jambo]

Phone the place you would like to have the work done. Some places are happy to fit customer-supplied tyres cheaply, some are not.

Make sure you compare apples to apples, the pilot sports above are somewhat old-hat and very cheap, but won't last as long as a touring tyre like the avon storm 2, dunlop roadsmart or michelin pilot road 2 or pilot road 3.

Jambo

i have to take my front wheel off, no one can get my axle off or back on apart from me lol bit of a dark art costs about £15 round hear or free from bikers world if i buy the tyres from them

If you've never removed a wheel before I seriously wouldn't even consider changing tyres yourself. I've done a couple of pairs and regrettedit both times. If I had a proper (be that home made) bead breaker and balancer that may change things.

Like Jambo said it's worth ringing around. Apparently tyres bought from the web or similar often need more balancing weight as they're not the best of the bunch.

[yorkie_chris]

I have bought lots of sets of storms from a few places, I think round and black on ebay mostly. I cannot see anything to tell me they are different to same tyres guy up road who gets them through normal channel is selling. Same sticker, same stamps everywhere, all E marked up.

Probably over a dozen now, not noticed any bad ones needing a pound of lead on.