Tire changing hardware - recommendation?

Can anyone recommend any gear that would make changing my tires notably
faster, short of a full-on tire changing rig? Do those "fixtures" you set
the tire on make much of a difference?

Mike


--
Mike W.
96 XR400
99 KZ1000P
70 CT70
71 KG 100 (Hodaka-powered)

 

Does speed matter more to you than avoiding scratches and nicks in the
aluminum rims?

I bought two great big c-clamps for about $6.00 each to break the
beads loose, but I have to take great care to keep the clamps from
buggering the rims.

Ru-Glide is a commercial rubber lubricant that you can buy from Pep
Boys.

I use 12-inch long tire levers and sometimes protect the edges of the
rim with strips of rubber. Other times I use thin strips of aluminum
sheathing to keep the tire lever from touching the edges of the rims.

Some people use sections old plastic garden hose, split longwise.

I can spend up to two hours changing a tire in the hot sun and wind up
sweating like a horse to save $15 or $20 and a trip to the motorcycle
salvage yard where the tire ape does the job in 15 minutes on his
machine.

And, no matter how carefully I work, I will always manage to chip a
little bit of the factory paint off my expen$ive rim.

If you burn through about two sets of tires a year, a Harbor Freight
tire changer with motorcycle rim attachment would pay for itself
quickly, based upon paying around $20 to a tire ape per tire R&R, or
paying about $80 for the machine.

 

Actually, I want this for my dirt bikes, so speed does matter. It's a point
of manhood amongst dirtbikers with 4 min for a rear being the grail. I've
heard of people taking hours.

Good idea... but there goes my excuse for why I'm carrying "a few extra
pounds" for busting the tire off the rims faster

On those kinds of rims, the caution is warranted.

For my street bikes, I don't think I'd try for exactly the reasons you
cite. A tire on those tends to last well over a season.

Thank you for the suggestion. I'm going to look into that right now!

Has anyone try the Motion Pro offering?

Mike


--
Mike W.
96 XR400
99 KZ1000P
70 CT70
71 KG 100 (Hodaka-powered)

 

A powered tyre changer is a wondrous device. Makes the job incredibly
fast and easy, which is why workshops use them.

Without one, whatever you do is going to involve a certain amount of
struggle and muscle.

 

Looks like they have some good ideas. Combination tire iron/spoons.
Who thought that one up?

http://www.motionpro.com/tech/articles/tire_changing.php

http://www.motionpro.com/motorcycle/tools/tire/

Somebody else sells a version of the trail bead buddy that works with
cast spoke wheels. I could have used that when I mounted a Bridgestone
with a very stiff carcass on a rim that was marginally too narrow.

 

After a very frustrating fight with some unbelievable "heavy" conti
tubes my next investment will be something to pull the valve into place
with. Flexible valve extension or purpose built tool.

The damn tubes were so thick walled that my friend jokingly said I
could run them without the knobbly covers (MX tyres) for better
street grip.

That's me!

 

Some aren't so wondrous. The last powered one I used tore part of the
bead off a brand-new Pirelli. I was familiar with the machine since I'd
used it about a dozen times before. Granted, it was designed originally
to handle car tires. Personally, I would only use one to remove a very
old, very hard tire. (But first I'd try the sledge-hammer technique.)
For anything in decent shape, I now do it by hand with either a portable
bead-breaker (not sure where I got it, maybe JC Whitney, maybe
MotionPro/BikeBandit that cost me about 30 bucks, basically a glorified
c-clamp but safer than a c-clamp for the rims) or a stand-up JC Whitney
bead breaker that I think I paid USD 59.95 for. Plus some 17" irons and
rim protectors. Strictly manual except for setting the bead on a
tubeless.

The hardest parts for me are breaking the bead and setting the bead
which is sometimes tricky even with shop air. I find a three-gallon
compressor that I can lift with one hand works just as well as shop air.

It's a little different but I don't think much harder for a dirt tire
with a tube and lock bolts. Only ever did one of those but didn't use a
machine at all.

With fairly new tires, once one has had some practice, I tend to
dis-believe that any struggle is necessary and certainly not much muscle.

I know a guy who changes big truck tires for a living. He does all that
with machines and says bike and scoot tires are harder. But you
wouldn't think so to watch him. He's scrawny, weighs about 140 pounds
and has very skinny arms but learned hands and eyes. He uses the shop
machines only to break and set beads. Doesn't even use a screw-driver
in a vice like some of those guys. Has two beautiful smooth old hand
irons. To get a tubeless off or on, puts a little box or cushion on the
floor (not for him, for the wheel) then kneels down and works the irons.
He looks closely at his starting position and uses both hands to feel
the shape of the tire as he manipulates it. Sometimes he doesn't like
what he feels and just re-positions and starts over. Of course he uses
lots of tire soap. I've seen him do the whole thing including new valve
in less than ten minutes. The guy's an artist, but I imagine that after
a couple of hundred changes most ordinary people would start to approach
his time.

His irons are beautiful, thin and shiny, donkeys-years old. He only
uses two. They put the ones MotionPro makes to shame even though they
don't have as much curve at the end. Neither he nor I know where one
could buy comparable ones today, maybe at a garage sale/flea
market/auction where the seller doesn't realize how hard good irons are
to find.

 

The Older Gentleman wrote:
....

When it comes to workshops that sell lots of new tires, suggest the
reason is quite different: there's more profit when most of their techs
know dick about tires except how to sell them and never got taught how
to do them by hand, or lace or balance wheels for that matter. In this
as in some other things, the hand job has better potential for a good
result. How many powered tire machines do you see at the race track, for
that matter how many mechanized wheel balancers do you see at a track?

 

Um, that's missing the point. I was talking dedicated bike tyre
machines.

Agreed. For setting the bead, I tend to use a garage airline.

Lock bolts, as you call them (we call 'em security bolts), are a PITA.
My old Kawasaki Z650 had them as standard. I never understood why.

I've watched people like this and yes, always impressive.

My feeling entirely. Good, indeed superb, tools are a must.

 

Now, that's exactly the *same* reason.

Lacing wheels is a dying art because spoked wheels are fewer than they
used to be. You don't think very hard, do you?

Again, you're not thinking. I hate to burst your bubble, but the answer
is: loads. They're not in the pits because race teams have their wheels
ready tyred and balanced, for faster changes. Have a look in a tyre
company's articulated truck instead.

 

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***************************************

Using my bench vise, I can break the bead on all but the "ultra
wide" tires. I then twist the wheel inside the tire (against the
vise's grip) to break the other side's bead.

Your bead breaking set-up would allow me to avoid that tough second
step in my procedure. Good job! I like it. If you don't mind, I'd
love to build a copy.
I am going to build a tire changer attached to a section of 2" square
tubing, and use it mounted in the receiver of my work truck.

Street tires are so much easier and quick to change than knobbies,
that they are almost a joy to deal with.
I use WD40 for a tire lube. Since it is basically naptha, it almost
completely disappears within an hour.

I use three tire irons; two 9.5" irons and a 15" iron (to hold the
bead in the middle of the rim.) At the correct height, I can sit on
the longer iron, while I work the bead in place with the two smaller
irons.
To protect the wheel from the tire irons, I use generic white nylon
rim protectors. I think I got mine from Parts Unlimited when I sold
them at my shop. These rim protectors look like long wheel weights as
much as anything else. I move them around the rim as I work. They are
about $6 each.

Good Tire Changing to You.



Wudsracer/Jim Cook
Smackover Racing
'06 Gas Gas DE300
'82 Husqvarna XC250
Team LAGNAF

 

Genius.

 

I have been using WD40 as tire lube for years. Some people don't like
it because it seems to glue the tire to a tubeless rim and makes tire
changing with manual levers a lot harder.

You can buy a tire changing lubricant caled Ru Glide at Pep Boys in
pints and quarts and gallons.

 

Some people probably use WD-40 for a "personal lubricant", but that doesn't
mean it's a good idea.

RuGlyde is the right stuff. You can also get it at NAPA. I've never
seen it in a container smaller than a gallon. Here's the NAPA part
numbers from http://www.napaonline.com:

RuGlyde Gallon, in an opaque white gallon jug with "RuGlyde" and the NAPA
symbol on the label:
Item#: BK 7651338
Price: $13.49

This is blue stuff, in a transparent gallon jug that looks like a
windshield washer jug, the picture of the label doesn't say RuGlyde
on it, just the NAPA symbol and "Tire Mounting Lubricant".
Gallon:
Item#: BK 7652434
Price: $7.49

RuGlyde 5 gallon bucket:
Item#: BK 8272511
Price: $63.49

RuGlyde 50 gallon metal drum (no price given):
Item#: BK 8272532

 

I use washing up liquid. There again, I use it on my hair if we're out
of shampoo.

 

*WW*TMI.

<thinks>

<gags>

How is it as a mind bleach?

 

Why did you feel obliged to share the latest gem to come out of the
Murray household with all of us?

 

*****************************************************

********************************************************

Many lubes make the tire too slick for the tire irons to grip the
tire. WD40 is a good balance of "slick enough" and "not too slick".




Wudsracer/Jim Cook
Smackover Racing
'06 Gas Gas DE300
'82 Husqvarna XC250
Team LAGNAF

 

I've had zero problems with RuGlyde being too slippery, I have
a Harbor Freight tire changer and a Coats tire bar. Changing
tires is so easy with my setup I've been actively soliciting
everyone I know who rides, to drop in for free tire changes.

Not trying to take any paying customers away from your buddy at
RT&T, though.

 

Trust me, it's as near as dammit the same stuff, barring some
nice-smelling additives and a vitamin or two.

Google for palm oil.