how do you change tires and tubes? by hand

[lowliferat]

just got these from the brown truck and want to put them on. so whats the easiest way to do this? besides going to pay someone else to do this. what brand tubes do you run? what do you do about a flat while out on a ride? any tips and tricks would be much appreciated. thanks all

 

[Tomterrific]

First: Find a friend that knows how to change tires and get some help to teach you.

Cut the sides out of a gallon plastic milk jug to use as rim protectors. Pull them out of the rim with pliers. You will not find better rim protectors than thin tough plastic sheets.

Saw some 3"x1x2 wood blocks to space the tire bead in the center of the rim while you work on the opposite side. Jenga blocks work also. This might ease a tough install (they're all tough!).

Buy different steel spoons. My favorites are some forged and knife edged ended flat, one end straight and the other curved. The thin ends ease slipping between the rim and the tire bead. You need at least 3.

You need a tool to remove the valve cores from the tubes. Buy valve caps with the little tool formed in the top but don't use them on your car.

Use lots of lube in the right place. Get some Ru Glyd if you can. I use soap and water and spray furiture wax. I can't stress enough how much the lube is needed.

Get some talcum powder to lube the tube and inside of the tire. Baby powder is a good source but try to get unscented and DO NOT get corn starch. Buy talc.

Change the tire on a hot sunny day with the wheel in the grass on a blanket. The soft ground protects the wheel while you struggle with the tire change.

Hot and sunny! Set the wheel and new tire in a driveway in the sun to get good and hot. The rubber seems to get more workable when hot, and believe me, you'll need the extra workability.

Don't drink the beer until you are finished. If I had a beer for every time I got drunk before the job was done... Hey, wait a minute!

These are just tips rather than full instructions but they are gold. You Tube probably has plenty of videos that are better than me writing a book. Be aware that the tires you use for street are much tougher to change than knobbies in the video.

Tom Graham

 

[manofsteele]

Take them to a bike shop and pay to have them put on. I tried it myself and went through 2 new tubes before I decided it was worth paying the $30 to get them mounted.

 

[Yamakazi]

Dittos on warming the cold tire. A few weeks back, I changed out the front tire on my stock wheel. I put a cold tire on, in a cold garage. It was like trying to do a Vulcan Mind Meld with two 20lb blocks of granite.

Next time (if it's winter), the tire spends the night in the house sitting over a heat register, and then goes into a overheated sunroom for the changeover. The yard sounds like a toasty place in the summer.

Also, I went with a tube...and to this day, I don't understand how I got thru it without pinching (and damaging) the tube. It was my first tire change, so it must've been beginner's luck. Be very careful with the tire irons and your tube.

Make sure the tire beads seat correctly. Should be a small rubber line/ridge along the inside of the tire bead that, if seated correctly, will run parallel with the edge of your rim. If it's not running parallel, the bead has not seated correctly.

 

[lowliferat]

i would use a shop , but what if i'm in the back country exploring? or on a run? i will learn how to do this to be self sufficent and able to get myself out of situations instead of relying on others. it's how i live. now to find some tire spoons? harbour fright here i come.

thanks for the good infomation

 

[bbillington]

If you want to know how to do it yourself, watch some tutorial videos on youtube. I made a bead breaker out of scrap wood I had and it really comes in handy. Trying to break a bead without one, especially on an old, dry rotted tire, sucks biggus dickus.

You can perhaps snag some junk wheels off craigslist from somebody parting a bike and practice on those. If I wasn't so stubborn I would definitely pay to get them installed and balanced but I am what I am and all that that entails.

I bet there are some good tutorials on ADV rider with regard to this.

 

[jayel]

First: Find a friend that knows how to change tires and get some help to teach you.

Cut the sides out of a gallon plastic milk jug to use as rim protectors. Pull them out of the rim with pliers. You will not find better rim protectors than thin tough plastic sheets.

Saw some 3"x1x2 wood blocks to space the tire bead in the center of the rim while you work on the opposite side. Jenga blocks work also. This might ease a tough install (they're all tough!).

Buy different steel spoons. My favorites are some forged and knife edged ended flat, one end straight and the other curved. The thin ends ease slipping between the rim and the tire bead. You need at least 3.

You need a tool to remove the valve cores from the tubes. Buy valve caps with the little tool formed in the top but don't use them on your car.

Use lots of lube in the right place. Get some Ru Glyd if you can. I use soap and water and spray furiture wax. I can't stress enough how much the lube is needed.

Get some talcum powder to lube the tube and inside of the tire. Baby powder is a good source but try to get unscented and DO NOT get corn starch. Buy talc.

Change the tire on a hot sunny day with the wheel in the grass on a blanket. The soft ground protects the wheel while you struggle with the tire change.

Hot and sunny! Set the wheel and new tire in a driveway in the sun to get good and hot. The rubber seems to get more workable when hot, and believe me, you'll need the extra workability.

Don't drink the beer until you are finished. If I had a beer for every time I got drunk before the job was done... Hey, wait a minute!

These are just tips rather than full instructions but they are gold. You Tube probably has plenty of videos that are better than me writing a book. Be aware that the tires you use for street are much tougher to change than knobbies in the video.

Tom Graham

some good advise here Tom, but not sure if he's old enough to know and legally use all the required swear words involved with hand tire changing

 

[daroberts3]

One of the toughest tasks for the do it yourselfer is breaking the bead and removing the old tires. There are many tools for this purpose. I have succesfully used a large c-clamp and also my 10 ton hydraulic press. If you can remove the old tires and tubes without pinching a hole in the tubes you might be ready to try and mount the new tires/tubes. Reinflate the tubes when they are dismounted and check for leaks. Save them as spares if they hold air.
So you will also need a good air compressor for this job. You must seat the new tire beads fully!!!!!!!!
Windex works as a tire lubricant also.
So when you look at all the tools needed to do this job (tire lube, tire spoons, bead breaker, valve core tool, and air compressor), its just less expensive and easier to take it to a pro. Oh, and dont forget to balance the wheels when you are done !

 

[Furious D]

I just mounted a tire on my Triumph a couple weeks ago. First tire I had mounted in about 10 years. I think the worst part is getting the bead to break, I have had to cut a few tires off the rims before. I made this bead breaker out of some scrap uni-strut and an old center stand:

 

[XSLeo]

While your at Harbor Freight, Look at the car tire changer they have. They have a motorcycle changer adaoter that goes on it.
I change and fix all my tires. So I have both. The bead breaker part works well, just need to block up the wheel so the brake rotos are not hitting anything.
I don't use the over hanging part and the rod of the motorcycle adapter. I clamp the wheel in place then use tire irons. I have two sets of irons. One set about 9 inches long the other about 18 inches long.
You can get just the motorcycle adapter. Just set it up on a stable platform. Like the clamping work table Furious D shows in his pic. Just milk crate works.
Went to Harbor Frieghts site and couldn't find it. They do list a motorcycle bead breaker item #98875 $21.99.
On balancing I use Dyna Beads, work great. www.innovativebalancing.com
Leo

 

[5twins]

For rim protection, I use cardboard, more specifically, the cardboard inserts that come in the tire to keep it round during shipping and storage.

 

[yamaman]

A car spare wheel can be a good tyre bench. If your re-fitting the tyres, mark the valve position, with new tyres, often they have a coloured dot on the sidewall, this is the lightest point of the tyre, and should be mounted at the valve (the heaviest point of the wheel). Yes, 3 tyre levers is the best option, 2 motorbike type 8" or so and 1 car type 18".
Start opposite the valve, and work back both ways to the valve.

 

[XSLeo]

JC whitney sells an aluminum clamp that goes on the wheel to guide the bead into the center of the rim. Item #CCN279254. Haven't gotten a any yet. Waiting to make a larger order.

 

[5twins]

I've always changed my own tires. With a garage full of bikes, I pretty much have to. I've probably invested near $100 or a bit more in tire tools and equipment but it has payed for itself many times over and continues to do so.

I started out years back just laying the wheel on some 2x4s or 4x4s to keep the sprocket or disc from rubbing on the ground. This worked but while prying and working on the wheel, it was easily knocked off the wood. I finally built a simple wheel support out of 8 lengths of 2x6 nailed in a square. This was a vast improvement .....

This still had me working on the ground on my hands and knees though. A little table to hold the 2x6 wheel support was needed. About this time I also decided I'd like that HF motorcycle tire changer attachment. However, I didn't want to have to buy the $40-$50 car tire changer just to use as a base. Instead, I designed the 2x6 wheel support table to double as a base for the HF tire changer. This required a removable pipe up through the center for the changer to go on. Removable so the pipe could be pulled off and the wheel support still used as originally intended .....

Tire changes are a breeze now for me, so much so that I do them for other people. The money they've paid me has more than covered the cost of all the tire tools I purchased.

 

[XSLeo]

After I posted about the Harbor Freight tools, And how they wer not on the web site, I went for a ride up to the Harbor Freight store. They don't have them either. I guess they quit selling them, to bad the work well.
Leo

 

[sparklow]

I change my own tires and yes, it is a bitch of a job. To heat up your tires I suggest using a heat gun (or a hair dryer) it does make things go easier as the rubber softens and stretches much better when warm. I have had good luck doing my own, go slow and be careful.

 

[gggGary]

I have taken 6 ancient tires off rims this month, most out in the unheated Wisconsin shop. I have fence post puller I made and made an adapter to use it as a bead breaker, works great, should patent it LOL. I keep skimping by with two tire paddles, bought a third one one time and lost it, it's probably thumping around inside a motorcycle tire somewhere.... I should use the milk jug plastic trick but haven't. Keeping the rest of the tire down in the recessed center of the rim and lubing the tire are biggies. I have tried grabbing the tire between the paddles and pulling it over the rim. I look really stupid with four fingers stuck between the rim and tire. HF quit selling the adapter. there are several ebay manual and powered tire changers.

 

[5twins]

Glad I got one when I did then, lol. On sale and w/ the 20% off coupon, it was quite the bargoon, lol.

 

[willyguzzi53]

It's not that tough. Be sure to air the tube up a little bit before spooning on the second bead. Makes it alot harder to pinch the tube. Use alot of dishwashing liquid. It also makes your mechanics gloves smell better when you are done. It's not glamorous but it beats paying someone else to do it. Invest in a Harbor Freight gravity wheel balancer and you are saving $50 on every tire you change.

 

[RFLIVES]

if it is a pain I'll just cut the old dry rotted tire off. as for pinching tubes on reinstall always put a little air in it when you put it in. This helps keep it out of the way of the spoons as you are putting the new tire on