Motorcycle Tire Center

Compared to cars, motorcycles burn through tires fast, and paying a shop $50 or more per wheel to swap rubber can really add up. So what's it take to install tires at home? I'll show you how to DIY a tubeless tire change so you can save money and time. Let's open up the shop manual. T Get 10% off your Duraboost purchase at RevZilla. com with discount code 10-OFF-TSM. The original and cheapest way to change your tires is with tire irons. To swap rubber the old school way you're going to need at least two tire irons, the longer the better. A valve core remover, some Windex or a 50-50 mix of water and dish soap, and access to compressed air. It's also a good idea to use a set of rim protectors to keep your paint pretty, and a carpet square and some 2x4s are useful as a work surface down in the ground. And if you want to balance the wheel, w In order to change your tire you do need to get the wheel off the bike, and we have covered that before so I'm not going to detail it here, but what I will do is put a link to those videos down in the description. So I'm working on the carpet square here, w And if you're working on the front wheel where the rotors might project past the edge of the tire, that's where your 2x4s come in. You can put those under the wheel to keep your disc from touc If you're working on the rear wheel Now we need to deflate the tire and you could just jam your finger into the valve core or screwdriver or whatever. The best course of action is to use a valve core remover because you actually are going to be flexing on the tire and you want air to be able to leave the tire as you're doing that so if you leave the valve core in, obviously that's not an option. So the next step is getting the bead of the tire off the shoulder of the rim and pushed down into what's called the drop center of the rim and that's the trough that runs around the circ Now there's a bunch of ways you can do t But what I'm going to do is use my bead pros which have this built in fulcr So going to lubricate the tire, we're using our 50-50 mix of dish soap and water, I did say you could use Windex but t And then get your tire irons and start working them under the edge of the rim. Going back and forth over the same section, pus So once you get a little bit of a section off And t Phase one of tire change is complete, we have both beads broken. Now what we need to do is get one of those beads up and over the rim. I'm actually going to flip to get t So take your bead pros and slide them in across from you about 6-8 inches apart. The bead has a steel cable in it so that sucker is not going to stretch. The only way to get that is the only way to get enough slack for t And what I will do is I will use my knee, just trying to keep my rim s And then lever one, tire iron over and they are going to pop out and it is frustrating. And then another, okay. It is honestly that first bite that is hardest with tire removal. If you are going to be tempted to take big bites please try and take small ones. Alright. And once you have got a little bit there you go. The tire is just going to pop off and over the rim. We have got one bead off but now we need to get the second bead off over the same side of the rim. Put your rim protector in, slide your tire iron into place, push it up and over. And once you get it past the edge of the rim, you can usually use your knee again to work it off. I am going to be able to do what is just my knee. There we go. Mildly sweaty, mildly frustrated, very dirty already but we have got the old tire off the rim. You ought to be able to recycle that old tire at an auto parts store or a motorcycle store or maybe even your local landfill but do not just throw it in a d In any case, on to the new rubber. And one t So what you can do is you can set it out in the sun at the beginning of the process or if it is cold out or you don't have any sun you can just lay a hair dryer inside the tire for 10 or 15 minutes. Now the step isn't necessary but given how much effort it is to do a manual tire change, you are going to want all the help you can get. So with your new tire, there is two t One is the paint dot w The other t You want to double, triple, quadruple check that t Once you are absolutely certain of the tire rotation on the rim, you can go ahead and lubricate that first bead and I'm going to use a rag to keep the soap from getting inside the tire. You don't really want moisture in there if you can avoid it. And then press the bead over the rim. Usually you can just do there we go. Although if it is an especially stiff tire, you might need to use a tire iron. Make sure that dot is aligned with the valve stem. Confirm your rotation one last time. I can't reiterate that enough. And then lubricate the upper bead and push it down into the drop center and use your knee to pin it. Take your tire irons and start working the tire over the rim starting your knee and working your way out. T Chase them along with your knee to keep the tire down in there. But as you work your way around the tire, it is going to get harder and become a little bit of a hellish game of whack-a-mole because as you try and push one section of tire over, the opposite is going to try and j So one t You really have to keep it down in the drop center or t It does not stretch. It needs to be in the drop center opposite in order to get over. So I'm going to keep walking my knees over to keep that bead down. Slide these over to protect taking little bites as always. So easy to get greedy and try and take big bites. And especially stiff tire might require a t Again, I am going to keep pus And now we're getting to where it gets a lot harder. Lots of lube helps. Long tire irons help. Keeping that bead in the drop center helps. Slide t Okay, getting down to the wire. Playing the game of whack-a-mole here. There we go. Okay. Hopefully t Nope. So you're constantly fighting yourself because it's trying to pull up. And I've heard some people say to leave one side of the bead dry so it actually grips the rim so it's less I t And that last bit goes on my hand. The tire is on and the hard part of the process is thankfully be Now both beads should still be lubricated, but if they're not, go ahead and spray them down again because what we're going to do next is reinstall the valve stem and then inflate the tire to push the beads out onto the shoulder of the rim. Use 40 psi max and be warned when those beads j They're going to make two very loud pops. If you've got a stubborn bead that won't pop into place, resist the urge to just put more air in it. What you should do is pull the valve core out, let it deflate, maybe push the bead off a little bit, relubricate, and then start over and hopefully it pops into place. Alternatively, if you've got a tire that is just leaking air and it won't seat and inflate, take the section where it's leaking, turn it toward the ground, and then put your knee in it so that the bottom section gets pressed against the rim and will hold air. So now that t Balancing the tire is important because if it's out of balance, it's going to vibrate, w A lot of modern tires really don'take much weight. Both the wheels and tires have gotten to a point where it's not necessary, but I still always check and the process is pretty straightforward. You don't need a lot of fancy equipment. I've got this is called static balancing and it's basically functioning like a pendul Whatever settles out to the bottom indicates the heaviest point of the wheel and you would want to put weight opposite that location until the wheel no longer settles out and swings, but stops randomly, suggesting that it is fully balanced. What I'll do is I'll actually take a piece of tape and mark where it settles. About there and then I'll just turn it 90 degrees from that and see if it settles at the same spot. I'm actually going to spin it past the other way and see if it settles. So you could just let it do its t So confidently say that t So we've got soapy mess all over the rim. T But I'm doing t And then I'll actually peel the adhesive off the back and stick it on permanently. So we're putting this with our mark on the pendul And then I'll put that at 90 degrees and see what happens. So that rate of motion tells me that the initial heavy spot is still the heaviest, but it also tells me that because it's moving so slowly that we're getting very close to the amount of weight we need. In my preference, if two weights is not going to be enough and three weights is going to be too much, I'm going to put less weight on the wheel. But we'll go ahead and put a t So it seems Four is probably going to be too much. All right, at t I'm happy with how slowly that's rotating. So I will thoroughly clean t Put them in place. And then you're good to go. Don't forget to set your tire pressure as per your manual. And again, t And with that, you are done and probably a little exasperated. Tire irons are certainly a cheap ticket to DIY tire changes. I mean, all in between the levers, the rim s We're only at about $250 worth of equipment. But it is undeniably a lot of work. Thankfully, tire levers aren't your only option. If you want to sweat less, swear less, and run less risk of scratc And un In fact, it's mobile and it packs down for easy storage. Now you're going to have to change quite a few tires before the Robaconda pays for itself, but if you factor in the money you're not putting in the swear jar, well, it might amortize faster than you t Fuck, I actually If all of this effort just seems If you bring your entire motorcycle to a shop, it is going to be shockingly expensive for them to remove the wheels and then install the tires. So at the very least, I would encourage you to pull the wheels yourself. And if you bought your tires through RevZilla, Cycle Gear, or JMP Cycles, and you bring those tires into your local Cycle Gear shop, they will install them and balance them for half price. As I mentioned early in the video, we do have articles and videos for how to remove your motorcycle's wheels. I have put those links down in the description, as well as an article I wrote explaining why I t Now, if you So thanks.