Is it possible to change tyres yourself?

And if so how! What about balancing? I'm game for trying anything I can at home rather than spend my hard earned moolah for ten minutes work by a machine. I'm not tight but come new tyres day it is quite a hit.

Quite possible, but it's one of those jobs that you can get obsessed by.

First the tyres. You'll need something to break the beads. Sometimes your heel works, sometimes you need a piece of wood and a large G clamp. Once the bead is broken on both sides you can get the tyre off with some levers. Put some pieces of hosepipe (slit) on the rim to protect it from the Levers. Move the hosepope round as you go.

Putting them back on is the opposite of the above. use fairy liquid to make a seal to get the beads back on. Its far easier to take them to the garage and use the high pressure line to get the beads to seal. It can take hours with just a foot pump. The initial blast from a garage line does the job instantly.

Next
You'll need a set of Axle stands to support the wheel spindle and either some stick on weights or some clip on ones that go in the centre of the rim.

Next, Spin the wheel. Where it stops use some masking tape to stick some weight at the top. Spin it again... and change the weights again. Keep doing this until it stops completely randomly (which is where it becomes obsessive!) . When it does, peel off the back of the sticky weigths and stick them on permanently

Sometimes you'll get it in one try. Sometimes it takes hundreds.

I don't bother any more and I'd rather give the dude at ATS 20 quid to change the tyres and bang them on the machine while I have a coffee.

Bear in mind yopu're "supposed" to change the valves each timne you change tyres but to be honest this is probably the biggest nonsense ever.

By the time you've done all of that and bought the bitd and pieces you'll have spent more than the garage charges to do it

Good luck!

Berlin you're my new best friend! I'd like to have a go. Got a banger that I'll have to do the tyres on soon so I can practise on that. £20 a piece is that? I didn't think the big chains done bike tyres?

£20 for the pair. I take the bike down, they let me use their paddock stands and I use my tools (only takes a couple of spanners and a socket). Saves taking the wheel out at home and using the car to get them there. I get to go for a blast once they're fitted too

I give them the wheels I've taken off and the replacement tyres and go for a (free) coffee. They give me the nod when they're ready and I stick them back on.

I use a rucksack to get the tyres there and just clip all the straps on the rucksack round the tyres. They fit perfectly on the one I have with 6 straps. The tyres come ducktaped together as pairs.

I's sure it's ATS I use (red and yellow sign?). I usually do it Sunday norning just as they open so they're quiet. They also sell the weights and valves separately if you need them.

[Sid Squid]

Yes, but you if you're buying new tyres you shouldn't need to.

If your tyre supplier doesn't fit for free when you're buying new ones - go somewhere else, many do and as you're in London you're spoiled for choice. Try:

Essential Rubber
27-29 Downham Road
London
N1 5AA
020 7241 0055

Useful skill to have of course but even though I can I almost never do, at the very least the balancing is too time consuming, and the potential for a scuffed rim is far greater of course, especially if you buy Dunlops as they always seem to have bastid stiff carcasses!

Just A word of warning.

DOnt use fairy liquid as the lube to help get the tyre over the bead. It will leave the bead greasy enough to maybe cause the tyre to slip on the rim under heard braking.

Bettwer to get freindly with your tyre place next time you go in for car tyres and ask them if you could ponce some tyre soap off them and put it in the tupperwere box you conveniently have lying around in the boot of the car.

Edit. Oh and use a spade to break the beads jjst be careful about your discs onh the floor

not worth the hassle on a roadbike IMO

find a small freindly place, it costs me £7 a tyre, if i buy the tyres of the net & take them to him

A triangle made of wood works to protect the discs.

I use hair conditioner for the lube.

Those little plastic protectors protect the rim, but I have still scraped mine, so if you are precious about that I wouldnt bother for the fuss and cost.

I do my own but its a fuss. Sometimes its quick, sometimes takes ages depending on whether luck is with you. The only reason I do is I have had to do so in the field so a skill I need (repair kits etc all well and good but sidewall cuts are common and a tube must go in, and also I swap out for fresh knobblies more regularly than I would change a road tyre.

As the tyres I use I dont bother to balance, they can be hard to balance anyway, I have heard some people never balance but I am not sure I wouldnt on a sportsbike with road tyres.

Never thought of a spade to break the bead, good idea. Bead breaking can be the holy grail of getting this right, g clamps do work but you need a biggie for the rear. You can break a front bead just with levers.

Reseating the tyre generally needs a compressor, even a small one will do it but take the valve out of the stem, inflate fast, then pop the valve innards back in a reinflate properly.

Two tutorials, but one uses a tyre changing kit
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showt...ght=break+bead
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showt...ght=break+bead

It also helps to have spare pairs of hands. I always get in a pickle doing on my own. Although standing on the tyre helps when you are working it on if alone. Here another tyre is used to protect the one in action.




All in all I wouldnt bother if I were you

you can get a tyre bead breaker thingy from busters £69