Changing tires myself??

[cupcake_mike]

weird

in mine
angle gt, dot at light both tires - 3 sets were like this
t31, dot at light both tires - 2 sets were like this
s21s, dot at light both tires - 3 sets were like this
Dt-3 dot at light both tires - these were a one and done

Damn, that is weird...especially the difference between gts. I guess I'll start keeping tracking of this stuff in a notebook at each tire change. I usually just mount the tire and the dot ends up at or opposite the valve stem, then i check balance and every so often i have to rotate it around.

 

[ferraiolo1]

Yeah now you're going to have me double checking now lol, i just mounted a set ot t31s on a friends bike last week, it was also the same way.


And Charlie
"Find the valve stem on the side of the tire. If it is lined up with the yellow dot, the valve stem is located at the heaviest part of the tire. If it is lined up with the red dot, then it is located at the lightest part of the tire. These dots guide the technician to make sure that the tire is properly balanced during installation. "

 

[Blue1]

All of this is why you have someone dynamically balance the wheel.

I need a tire mounted maybe once a year, to have it balanced professionally is a no-brainer for me unless of course you can't afford the maybe $30 (mounting included).

I totally understand the do-it-yourself mounting, but if you don't have a dynamic wheel balancer, then have it done professionally. It makes the bike safer, more comfortable at speed, and reduces funky tire wear.

 

[Max Kool]

I don’t think you feel any difference between static and dynamically up to 100mph, especially on the narrow-ish wheels we run.

 

[cupcake_mike]

All of this is why you have someone dynamically balance the wheel.

I need a tire mounted maybe once a year, to have it balanced professionally is a no-brainer for me unless of course you can't afford the maybe $30 (mounting included).

I totally understand the do-it-yourself mounting, but if you don't have a dynamic wheel balancer, then have it done professionally. It makes the bike safer, more comfortable at speed, and reduces funky tire wear.

I've been doing my own tires since my teens (over 20 years), typically 10-15 a year plus any I do for friends. I disagree with your opinion. Getting them dynamically balanced once is great to take care of the balance of the wheel, but 95% of the time when I get the tire lined up correctly I never have to add or discard weight from what was previously installed (assuming the guy who ran the machine knew what he was doing). The vast majority of the 50+ bikes i've owned in my life have been used, so they had been balanced via machine at least once in their lives. If you buy high quality tires and you have no defects in your wheels you shouldn't have to mess with balance each time you change tires, for the most part. There are always exceptions, but for the most part, on motorcycle tires you are balancing the wheels not the tires. I have no problems with wear or stability on my bikes and while my daily commute doesn't afford me a whole lot of cornering fun, high speed blasts are definitely happening (110 mile round trip commute in rural kansas).

 

[ferraiolo1]

100% correct. I go through a lot more than one tire a year, and use my static balancer, VERY rarely do i have to make any weight changes, my ftr and cbr wheels dont even have any weight on them as it doesnt need them, and they are both smooth as silk up to their top speeds

Ive also never seen a tire shop dynamically balance a mc tire.

 

[markyb812]

I changed my tyres today conti trail attack 3 it took me hours, cant wait to try them

 

[mark.lb]

I had new tires (I chose Bridgestone Battlax A41) mounted on my FTR last Wednesday by my local shop South Hills Cycles. It took less than 5 minutes using a air powered motorcycle tire change machine. I believe it was a Weaver Tire Changer. My shop did indeed use a electronic dynamic balancer after the tires were mounted. The balancer told Kenny where to place the weights. (He pulled the old weights of the wheels before placing the wheel/tire on the balance machine.) Later in the afternoon I returned to the shop with my son-in-laws 2019 MT09. I watched Kenny install Bridgestone Battlax S22 tires on his bike. Exact same procedure.

 

[mark.lb]

Tire change tent at MotoAmerica race in August. These boys could change a tire in their sleep!

 

[markyb812]

yep I should of took the wheels off and let the shop do it … but I just had to buy my own tyre changing gear, balancer irons etc, and find all the tools and do it myself lol...and it took me all day...

 

[Charliemurphay]

yep I should of took the wheels off and let the shop do it … but I just had to buy my own tyre changing gear, balancer irons etc, and find all the tools and do it myself lol...and it took me all day...

Yea it took me a solid 4 hours to do my tires. I could have taken them to a shop but I wanted to do it myself too. Good learning experience.

 

[JDP]

I always changed my own tires, I bought a tire changer and a rabaconda also for my dirt bikes well worth the investment, I can change car tires with my changer (Coats )

 

[mark.lb]

I still remember all the knuckle busting I did as a young man changing my own tires to save a few bucks. Not any more. I jack it up and pop the wheel/tire off - take it to my local, independent cycle shop and watch Kenny do it in 2 minutes including spin balancing and weights....!

 

[K9F]

Only yesterday I dropped off a pair of Avon Spirit STs at Moore Speed Racing in preparation for them nailing them onto my rims next Thursday.



Will get them to run a 3.1mm drill through the valve stems whilst the tyre is off the rim so I can ditch the existing sticky weights off the rims and insert two ounces of dynamic balancing beads into each tyre when I get home. It's less than two miles from Moore Speed to home.





Dug the FTR out of the garage to remove the fork protectors too.

 

[ferraiolo1]

ride it a while before installing those beads, you may not need them. the beads in mine threw it out of balance, ive since ran two sets of tires with no beads or sticky weights and zero vibration.

 

[K9F]

I started using beads in 2008. They are not popular over here, very few people have even heard of them and as a result use them. I had a Land Rover with huge block tread tires that just would not balance. The rims were 15" in diameter and 10" wide. The tire width was 305. Off road tires are notoriously difficult to balance. It was a nightmare at 75mph or above. Eventually as a last ditched effort before getting an OEM set of wheels and tires I spoke to the importer of the beads over here and tried 8 ounces of beads in each tire. I was so impressed, ran like it was on glass thereafter. Ever since I have always used beads at first tire change with fantastic results. The guidance charts available are just that. Usually when people try them and find they have an out of balance scenario they don't realize they simply need to put a little more in, usually another half ounce to an ounce sorts it. In an ideal World no weights and no beads is great but for me personally, to ensure dynamic balancing for the duration of the tire life I'll nail two ounces in each tire to be able to 'fit and forget.' Of course on cars the beads will also balance out any driveshaft imbalance as well.







After fitting the beads these were the weights I managed to get rid of off a single rim.

 

[S2Davies]

I used to do my own tyres on my other bike and put 5 rears and 3 fronts on that. I did a lot of miles on the Isle of man where speed is encouraged, and I never balanced any of those. I do know other people who definitely did have balancing troubles with new tyres, but I guess I was pretty lucky with mine.

 

[K9F]

If you have the tools and patience or a decent tire fitter who is prepared to test and then rotate the tire on the rim perhaps several times to either minimize or eradicate the requirement for weights totally that's brilliant?
Unfortunately I don't have the inclination, space or tools to do it myself and 'time is money' for the tire fitters I know. Bang the tires on the rims, balance, stick or knock on the weights and move on to the next customer. Beads for me is the simplest tried and tested solution.

 

[ferraiolo1]

different forces on cars than bike tires. they do work well on big truck tires.

Just saying, give it a try with out them, if the shop installed the tire correctly with the dots, you might not even need them.

But im pretty sure we had this discussion in the past, as its sparking a memory.

 

[Charliemurphay]

different forces on cars than bike tires. they do work well on big truck tires.

Just saying, give it a try with out them, if the shop installed the tire correctly with the dots, you might not even need them.

But im pretty sure we had this discussion in the past, as its sparking a memory.

Funny you mention the dots. I mounted my CRA3’s myself and my set didn’t have dots on them. So I just threw them on and left the stock wheel weights where they were. Best as I can tell everything is fine, no vibration that I notice. Just found it odd that there were no dots.