DIY Tyre Fitting

[moony]

I've always fitted my own tyres and broken the beads by improvising with a hydraulic car jack. I've just bought this bead breaker from Abba and it works well. The second pic shows the rim protectors with the cords attached. These snap over the rims and you can pull them around the rim. You only need 9" long tyre levers like these and I use liquid hand soap to lubricate.
http://imagehost.darkernet.co.uk/i/Picture091(Small).jpg
http://imagehost.darkernet.co.uk/i/Picture092(Small).jpg

[Pugi]

How do you balance the wheels?

[moony]

How do you balance the wheels?
I've got a balance shaft from Marc Parnes Products (http://64.23.101.177/Universal_Motorcycle_Wheel_Balancer.htm)
The first thing to do is remove the sprocket carrier from the wheel. The wheel should be balanced on its own bearings. The wheel and sprocket carrier bearings are only in line when the wheel is fitted in the swinging arm.
http://imagehost.darkernet.co.uk/i/Picture090(Small).jpg
The next step is to find the heavy spot on the wheel before the tyre is fitted and it's not necessarily where the valve is. If you've got a tyre with the light spot marked you can then fit the tyre with the tyre dot at the heaviest part of the wheel. You can see that with the heavy spot at the bottom, the valve is at 9 o'clock. Doing this reduces the amount of weight needed.
http://imagehost.darkernet.co.uk/i/Picture093(Small).jpg
Now you can fit the tyre and balance the lot. There's a good write-up on Marc Parnes' site (http://64.23.101.177/balancing_instructions.htm) about balancing procedure. If you look where the balance weight was needed you can see that it is very close to being opposite to the heavy spot of the wheel when that was on the balancer without the tyre. The weight you can see is 7g and there is another 7g weight on the rim the other side of the spoke.This shows that in this case the tyre didn't contribute much to the out of balance; it was mostly the wheel itself. I bought the bike new earlier this year and there was 20g weight opposite the valve on one side of the rim and another 15g on the other side a bit further around. When I put the wheel with the worn out tyre on the balance the 20g weight went quickly to the bottom. Yes, the tyre will wear itself out of balance, but I think there was something done wrong as it was alot out of balance. Ducati have the wheels supplied with the tyre fitted, and by the position of the weights it looks like it was done on a dynamic balancer but I'm not convinced it was done right. One final tip - to remove old weights, soften glue with hair dryer first;prise the weight from the glue and scratch glue off rim with finger nail and you won't damage paint.
http://imagehost.darkernet.co.uk/i/Picture102(Small).jpg

[Scotty]

you make it look so easy what do you do with old tyres ?

[moony]

Like most jobs, if you have the right tools then it's easy. The best place for the old tyres is Heyope tyre dump near Knighton, Powys.

[Scotty]

is that not the standard axel you use to blance the wheel then ?
what sort of glue do you use to stick the 'new' weights on or do new weights come with glue on the back ? where do ya get them from, just butter up the local tyre dealer for a few
how much was the bead breaker then ?

[moony]

The axle is part of the balancer. The cones need to fit against the inner bearing race so shaft is smaller dia.
http://imagehost.darkernet.co.uk/i/UNIV(Small).jpg
You can get the weights from Hein Gericke. They come in a strip with self adhesive backing. Bead breaker was £60.
Why bother? I enjoy doing my own maintenance; buy tyres at best price off net; spend more time balancing & do it more accurately; no risk of damage to rim.
Pleased to hear your thinking about it Scotty.

[Pugi]

Sounds like a piece of cake...but as usual it probably requires a few hours of practise to get right. Would love to have a go, but I don't want to get too many expensive things before I have a more permanent residence. Tinkering is fun, it's my therapy.