shotgunjoe
XS650 Hunter
Guess I'll thow my hat in the ring...
I went through this recently. I have 19/18 spoked wheels, they are the high shouldered rims, and have no drop center. (people have tried to tell me its no different from mounting wheels with a drop center, but I'll beg to differ) I spent about 10mins getting the old tire off, using CAR tire irons (mistake 1) and rims protectors (from mikesXS, mistake 2). It took 3 hours of wrestling and cursing to get the new front tire on and I ended up with a punctured tube...
I did some more research, and found that motorcycle tire irons are called spoons for a reason, they are round on the end just like a spoon, and they cost as much as I paid for mounting and balancing. I have installed motorcycle tires before, but they had drop centers and were tubeless... easy peasy.
The problem with the rim protectors mikes sells, is they are very thick. This is fine for wheels with a drop center, but makes things very difficult with out a drop center. I finally got the tire on by using some plastic from a juice bottle (worked great with no damage, save for the tube).
Lastly, all added up, throw in the cost of dyna beads... and I actually saved almost $150 in total. Mostly by getting the tires online, but secondarily by having a professional who already had the tools, mount them and balance.
I went through this recently. I have 19/18 spoked wheels, they are the high shouldered rims, and have no drop center. (people have tried to tell me its no different from mounting wheels with a drop center, but I'll beg to differ) I spent about 10mins getting the old tire off, using CAR tire irons (mistake 1) and rims protectors (from mikesXS, mistake 2). It took 3 hours of wrestling and cursing to get the new front tire on and I ended up with a punctured tube...
I did some more research, and found that motorcycle tire irons are called spoons for a reason, they are round on the end just like a spoon, and they cost as much as I paid for mounting and balancing. I have installed motorcycle tires before, but they had drop centers and were tubeless... easy peasy.
The problem with the rim protectors mikes sells, is they are very thick. This is fine for wheels with a drop center, but makes things very difficult with out a drop center. I finally got the tire on by using some plastic from a juice bottle (worked great with no damage, save for the tube).
Lastly, all added up, throw in the cost of dyna beads... and I actually saved almost $150 in total. Mostly by getting the tires online, but secondarily by having a professional who already had the tools, mount them and balance.
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