Fitted new tyres myself!

[JTL]

I've been fitting tyres to my trail bikes for years, but never a road bike. So I thought; "How hard can it be!"  I picked up a pair of T30s for £175 which I didn't think was a bad price. (Dated Oct 2017).  My local mechanic had always supplied and fitted my tyres, but for a pair of T30s he wanted £235 - fitted. Usually I'm ok with a £20 difference, even £30, but for £60 - I'll give it go 

Of course I have most of the kit I needed except for a mount/demount bar for alloy wheels. I picked one up for £70, all nylon coated stainless steel. And a wheel balancer + weights
I bought an alloy wheel to practice on off ebay for £10 (from a 1995 ZXR400).  I changed that tyre about 10 times. I made a note of things that worked well and what didn't.  I can't say there wasn't some trepidation when brought the XR rear wheel into the garage and put it on the (manual) tyre changer:
The hardest part was breaking the bead!



Putting the new tyres on was also reasonably easy despite some hefty pushing and shoving of the bead into the drop centre, aided by a large cable tie.

Things nearly came to an abrupt halt when my small-ish compressor only just about delivered enough air to pop the bead on the rim of the rear wheel, but it got there with a very pleasing POP-POP.

All completed without issue. 

I found manually balancing the wheels strangely satisfying!

Scrubbed in the tyres and no issues as far as I can tell.  If you don't hear from me again there was a problem.........

[Winger]

Fair play to you but you’ll certainly be on a steep learning curve with the difference in tyre wall flex depending on the make,don’t ever try to fit a Road Smart on a cold day 

[JTL]

Luckily it was a sunny day - I left the tyres out in the sun - I'm sure that helped.
Thanks for the tip on Roadsmarts - If I did go for them, I'll dig out the tyre warmers from when I did track days

[Nelster]

It is strangely satisfying doing it yourself. I started on a few smaller tubed tyres but have done up to 190 section.
I don't have any fancy kit. For bead breaking i have a cheap motion pro tool which is akin to a plastic spade that you just hit with a mallet.
The critical thing is using tyre lube to fit new rubber, making sure you get the bead in the centre groove, and I have found they almost slide on by hand. My first time was quite trying, but you learn from mistakes and practice.
I was able to pop the bead of my Pilot power 2 on my Daytona rim using a bicycle hand pump. No compressor needed. Just patience   

[Mareng1]

Tempting as it is - it costs me £54 for a tyre-change and balance on ride-in/ride-out.   Might get that down to £35-£40 for loose wheels, - and I won’t loose any fingers 

[Winger]

If you do have access to tyres before fitting it’s a great learning process because when see how soft some of the side walls are on tyres you’ll get a far better understanding with what is going on with such.

[Bree]

My local Bike shop charges £20 cash for loose wheels while you wait. 

[SteveB67]

£10.00 per loose wheel for me at my local 

[Bree]

Originally Posted by Bree

My local Bike shop charges £20 cash for loose wheels while you wait. 

Yep thats £20 per pair for me also...

[Low-Brau]

Regardless of cost, I respect the self reliance and a job well done