For those of you who've changed your own tires-would you do it again, or take it to the shop? I'm finally getting ready to put on the Excella's and debating over doing it myself, or taking it in. Rim's off the bike it's about $50.00 to have it done. Rim's on it's about $80.00. I will also have to buy tire tools to do it myself. Some honest answer's please!![sm=smiley9.gif]

 

I do it myself all the time. I made a tool out of 2x2 steel tube with a long 3/4" bolt through it. I either clamp the 2x2 or put it into a truck reciever and put the 3/4 bolt through the wheels alxe. Now the wheel won't move when I wrench on it. EASY!!!

Dave

 

Definitely do it myself. Whether its $80 or $50 that's money in your pocket and could buy you a whole new tire (or two)! And even not counting the money, there's the hassle of getting the bike/tire to the stealership, and then the hassle of them working you into their schedule, sometimes weeks out. My advice is to learn a few of these skills if you don't already have them and do at least these fairly simple things yourself. It only requires a small, one time investment in tools and after that, the only cost is your time. But not really much time because you'll spend that same amount of time if not more taking your bike to and from the stealership anyway. Lastly, if you do it yourself, you know exactly what was done and not done to your bike. For me, I like to know that the bolts are on tight, axles greased, tube not pinched, tire bead not damaged, etc, on a machine that I'm driving down the highway at 60+ MPH.

 

[sm=goodidea.gif] Dave2001. Nobrakes, I have done all the maint/mods myself up til now. I prefer to do it myself, it's just that I've changed tires on a KX125 before and it was a pain in the A@#! The front tire came off like butter, but we had to cut the back tire off! We absolutely could not get the bead off of the rim.[sm=headbang.gif] Anyway, I'll invest in some tire irons and change them myself.

 

Yep, you definitely need the right tools, otherwise what should be simple and easy can be painful and even costly. I don't claim to be an expert at bike maintenance by a long shot, though. I know enough to be dangerous and generally am [sm=badbadbad.gif]. I've changed plenty of mountain bike tires, but when I installed my Kenda 270's a few months ago, that was my first motorcycle tire. The procedure was exactly the same, just required a bit more effort for the bigger tire. Be sure and pick up a pair or three of tire irons / spoons. These are task specific tools for changing tires so you know they are optimized for the job - makes the going a lot easier than trying to make some other lever work. And the spooned ends help keep you from pinching the tube and damaging the tire bead.

Before you try to pry the bead over the rim, be sure that the tire is fully deflated and compress the bead off the outside of the rim to into the center depression of the rim. This give the bead slack around the edge. For reference, if the tire is a clock, and you compress the bead at 6 o'clock, then insert the tire iron 180 degrees away at 12 o'clock and pry the bead over at that point. Compressing the bead off the ouside edge and into the center rim depression gives enough slack to pry the bead over at the opposite point of the rim. If you don't do that, then it will be a very tight fit and that might be why you had trouble before. Once you get the tire iron started and the bead over, insert the second one a little ways away, 1 o'clock for example, and pry up the bead. Keep working your way around, taking small steps until you can get the whole thing off. Repeat for the other bead.

At any rate, I'm still learning as well, and still making mistakes. But as they say, good judgement come from experience and experience comes from bad judgment. I've been getting a lot of experience lately.

 

Thanks Nobrakes. That was some good info. I've changed many Mtn bike tires in my day also. You're correct about it being the same principle. BTW, what kind of Mtn bike do you ride? I ride a Kona Coiler..HMM..where have I heard that before?

 

My old bike is a '94 KHS Comp FZ with Judy front fork / shocks. still works great. My oldest son is just about big enough for it so I'm hanging onto it for him.

My "new" bike is a Giant XTC. My recollection is fuzzy on the exact year - I think maybe 2000 or 2001, perhaps. It rides great with great shifting, front fork shocks, tubeless tires, lots of goodies. Best of all though are the disc brakes - whoa, that's the stuff right there, I'll never go back to cantelevers. Gotta love its name, too - say the letters fast .

 

This is it, the 2001 model hard tail:

Edit: broken image

 

Here's a GIGANTIC picture of my bike. LOL One of my riding buddies rides a fully suspended XTC. That baby only weighs about 27lbs. Nice bike Nobrakes.