Mounting & balancing tires yourself

BrianM, making it look easy (and it is...)

Preparation

Note: See links to other articles at the bottom of the page, and the companion piece on balancing your tires.

Doing the tires yourself isn't bad at all. It does take a bit of physical effort and some time, and a few special tools:

• 3 tire irons
• valve stem core removal tool
• stick-on wheel weights
• some 2x4's in different lengths
• a plastic milk jug (or similar) cut into pieces to protect the rim lip
• tire lube (DO NOT USE DISH SOAP)

Not shown, above, is the valve core tool. I like 11" tire irons personally, as they're just long enough to forgive sloppy technique, but not long enough to give enough leverage to easily bend a rim. Note, I do NOT use tire lube of any sort, as I don't find it necessary. But, it does make the task a bit easier... so if you're going that route, buy some purpose-made tire lube. Don't try to make do with something, and DO NOT use dish soap and water, as that stuff can, and will, eat at the tire. It's designed to attack grease (oil), and tires are a petroleum product. I've seen a few nasty looking tires that had gooey, melty rubber from dish soap.

Dish soap is also not kind to your wheels. After a few years, it has eaten away the rim on this one to the point that it will no longer hold air.

Removing the wheel

• Support the bike. Do one wheel at a time for better bike stability.
• Remove the brake. Disconnect the 2 bolts that hold the unit over the rotor. Leave the brake line connected. Get a piece of rope, wire, or string and tie the brake unit to something solid on the bike. DO NOT just let the brake hang from the brake line.
• Remove the axle nut cotter pin. Remove the axle nut.
• Slide the wheel/axle slightly forward; lift the chain off the sprocket and place to the side.
• While supporting the wheel, remove the axle. Simply slide the wheel rearward to remove.

At this point, if you bought the tire from the bike shop you can take it there to change; they'll probably charge you 20-30 bucks to replace it.

Castle nut loosening technique

This does not have to be a 2-man job. You need a fair amount of force on the castle nut side and just a little bit on the other side to keep the axle from spinning. Straddle the bike, standing facing the rear. Use a breaker bar/ratchet/wrench (17mm) against the ground on the right (brake) side of the axle to keep it from turning. Position your other breaker bar (24mm) pointing toward the rear of the bike on the castle nut (left/chain) side. Pull up on it with your right hand, which will loosen it (counterclockwise). Since you are straddling the bike, it should be difficult to knock it over. You may want to rest your left shoulder on the pillion seat as you do this. And no, you don't have to have long legs. This is short-person certified.

Removing the old tire

The first thing you want to do is remove the core from the valve stem, letting all the air out. Next, lay the rim on 2 pieces of 2x4, which act as a cushion from the floor and keep the brake rotor from touching anything.

This is so you can break the bead. I'm using the 2x4 method. It's cheap, easy and works well.

As you can see, with the wheel on the ground, you use a long 2x4 to put leverage on a shorter piece, thus forcing the bead of the tire off the seat on the rim.

You're looking to see this:

Other methods of bead breaking include using a car jack, C-clamps, and running over the bead with a car. The 2x4 method works best, if you have somewhere you can do it. If you want to be one of the cool kids, you can get one of these from Harbor Freight or JC Whitney. Whitney also has a less expensive model.

Once you get the tire started off the bead, you can usually just push it the rest of the way toward the rim center. Turn the rim over and repeat on the second side.

With the bead broken, it's time to start removing the tire from the rim. Apply some tire lube to the beads. Use the sliced up plastic jug to protect the paint on your rim, and work one end of a tire iron between the rim and the tire.

To remove the tire, you need to push the opposite side (still on the top, just on the other side of the tire than the one you're currently working on) of the tire into the Drop Center of the rim. This is the narrow part of the rim in the middle, before it steps up to the bead. Doing this allows the tire to shift enough for the bead to slip off with the tire iron. If you leave the opposite side up on the bead seat part of the rim it will be much harder to remove the tire, and much easier to cause damage to your wheel. Once you have the first bit over, it's just a matter of repeating the process with the other irons. Make sure you don't try to take too big of a bite, as this is where you get into trouble wanting to use extra strength, and the rim will bend.

After you make it about half-way around, you should be able to just pull the bead off the rest of the way with your hand.

Now for the second bead. Working from the Same Side as before, with 1 tire iron, you should be able to put it all the way through...

Push down firmly...

And pull the tire off with your hand...

Inspecting rims and new tires

At this point, I like to clean up the rim inside and out. Mine happened to have what seemed like some sort of glue on the inside. It took some strong solvents to get this stuff off. You want to make sure the seat area (which is the flat landing just off the edge of the rim, on the inside) is clean and fairly nick/ding free. Bends, dings, nicks or junk in there can contribute to a slow leak... and who wants to deal with that? You should also check the wheel bearings by just putting a finger in them and spinning... they should rotate smoothly and easily, without any gritty feeling. If they feel gritty, it's time to replace them before riding again.

The valve stem itself is also something you should inspect. Bend it and look for cracks anywhere in the surface, but mostly right where it gets narrow to go back through the rim. It's easy to change right now, and more work if it fails when you don't need to change the tire. Valve stems are removed by cutting them off with a utility knife. The "tool" to install new ones is a couple bucks at auto parts places. It screws onto the threaded part of the stem and gives you something to grasp so you can pull it into place. You put the threaded part through the hole, attach the tool, and pull it into place.

Here's an example of a valve tool from Aerostich. It both removes the core and screws onto the valve stem to pull it through the rim.

Get the shortest stem you can find. Angled ones are a bad idea (need to be replaced more often) and I'm not a fan of the screw-together metal stems, mostly because they can be a PITA to get to fit correctly, and to remove later when they eventually fail. I tend to just change mine every 3 or 4 sets of tires. The stem is the same standard size as those used by cars. You should be able to get one at any tire retailer. They may just give it to you. Tireflies and other heavy caps will lead to premature stem failure. If you run anything but plastic caps, you'll likely be doing valve stem replacements a lot sooner.

I also like to check the static balance of just the rim, as the valve stem never seems to be the heavy point any more. I do this on the cheap, with the axle and a couple of jack stands. You can spend lots more money to do the same thing and never feel a difference. Don't spin the wheel; that'll just take more time to slow down. Instead, rotate the wheel 90* and let go. Do this a couple times, and the heavy spot will always fall. If there isn't a heavy spot, then it won't rotate from where you let go.

Make note, or mark on the inside of the wheel, where the heavy spot is located. As you can see above, my valve stem is off to the right, and very much Not the heavy spot.

It's important to note that tires are directional, due to how they're constructed. The arrow is plainly shown on the side of the tire, like this (to the left)

Also notice the DOT code. It's a 4 digit code that lists the week and the year the tire was made. Mine is 3205, so the 32nd week of 2005. More than 3~4 years old and tires start to go 'off', get hard, and aren't any fun to ride on (worse than the stock Dunrocks on the 250!). You should also look for a round dot, about the size of a dime, on the tire. This is an indicator of the lightest spot on the tire from the manufacturer, though not all brands have this (my Avon did not)... You'll want to line this up with the heaviest spot on the rim that you noted earlier.

Mounting the new tire

When it comes time to put the new tire on, you should be able to just walk the first bead over the rim without any tools other than your body weight. If needed, you can use a rim protector, tire lube, and tire iron to help, as I needed here:

Then push the first bead into the center of the rim, put some lube on the bead that is still outside the rim, and slowly work the tire on with your irons... It is important that you put the bead that is already all the way on the rim into the center of the rim (the deepest part), and not against the side of the rim on the far side. This will give your tire more slack, and will make it less likely that you'll have to bust your fingers trying to get the second bead on.

There are no pictures of this process, as it's impossible to stop without having the tire work its way off the rim. Here's Leon to give you a good idea of how it works. Keep your knees on the part that's already on the rim, the first bead in the low center part of the rim, work your way around with your tire irons, and it should only be difficult the last little bit.

With the tire on the rim, it's time to seat the bead with an air compressor. Those cheaper units that just provide an on-demand supply (often in blue boxes at gas stations) do NOT have enough oomph to do the job. You need a good source of air, but that's usually easy to get ahold of at any sort of shop doing any sort of work, or (my favorite) the old time gas station/garage. They always have good air.

Fill the tire up without the valve stem core in the valve stem and listen for 2 "pops". Front tires are usually very quick and easy with this; rears can be more difficult. But just lay the tire on the ground, as it was when you were changing it, and use your spare hand and knees to bump and lift the tire where air seems to be escaping from. It will seat with some patience and work. There have been members who have managed to seat the bead with tire lube and a high-pressure bicycle pump. YMMV

If you have a problem seating the bead, wet your hand with plain old water or tire lube and rub it (just a bit, you don't need to soak it) around the area not seating, and it should pop right out.

One tip, if the above methods don't work, is to use a ratcheting tiedown wrapped all the way around the tire and compress the tire down into the rim (this will force the beads towards the lips). Then you can seat the beads with air, as usual.

You'll then want to look for an even ring all the way around the rim, on the tire (there's usually some rings molded into the tire to make this task simple). If it's not even all the way around, the bead is not fully seated. Now, put the core back in the valve stem and fill the tire up. I usually go over what I normally run until I get it back on the bike. Always easier to let some out than to add some back.

Balancing

And it's time for a final static balance, the same way as before:

You'll most likely need some weight to balance everything up. There are 2 main kinds of weights: clamp on and stick on:

I like, and use, stick-ons myself. They're cheap, easy to come by and do the job well. You'll want to put your weights as close to the centerline of the wheel as possible. After you hold the wheel up and let it go, it will settle with the heaviest point at the bottom, just like before. You then want to put the weights on the top, at the lightest point. I like to tape mine on with something that's easily removed (painters, masking, electrical, scotch, whatever tape) and check again before affixing for good.

Static balancing is good enough for professional roadracers, so it's certainly good enough for the average street rider. If you feel better having your wheels dynamically balanced by a machine, you can take it in to a shop and pay for that peace of mind. The primary advantage of the balancing machines seems to be that they're faster -- static balancing can take a while (5-20 minutes per tire) to do correctly.

And with that, you're done mounting and balancing. Time to just put the tire back on the bike and go for a ride. I hope this helps some folks who are interested in saving the rather stiff prices charged for mounting tires. You can easily buy all the tools needed for less than what it'll cost to have a shop do the tires for you.

Reattaching the wheel

Now reinstall the wheel (exact reverse of above). Be sure to use a new cotter pin. Be sure to reattach the brake and use the proper torque on everything. If the rear wheel gives you trouble, try this:

Sit on the ground behind the bike. Hold the wheel up with your left hand, or your feet, and feed the axle in with your right. When it starts to hang up (and it almost always does), tap (not whack! just tap) the head of the bolt with a hammer while moving the wheel up and down a little with your left hand.

If you get it back on and it doesn't seem quite right, check that your spacers are all in order. Should look like this:

Links

Tire Mounting Hints & Tips

An in-depth article from clarity.net.

This is a DIY Bead Breaker.

Video

Tire changing on a budget

This one is on a tubed tire. It's slightly different. Also, he obviously doesn't care what his rims look like... heh.