Just ordered a set of Bridgestone T32,today, not sure if I will need them before or after my Scotland trip 1st week in June.
So to be on the safe side I got em now.
Usual place wont fit tyres you bring em anymore and its getting harder to find someone who will. Around here its a 100 mile round trip with your wheels (so in the car) to get to the nearest fitter.
Did think about starting to do my own, buying a bead breaker and a balancer, but the idea I will mark up my wheels always stops me.
Ends up, I will have to buy em from the garage, collect em, store em, then take them back, to get fitted when appropriate.
I like to have them before I need them. That way the bikes not ‘off the road’ any longer then it needs to be.
The price is very close to the same and around £15 a wheel, for tyre swap and balance so, just the same as I used to pay + hassle inc.
4 Likes
Ive been doing my own for a couple of years, its hard at the start! Takes a bit of practice before you learn a good technique. But now I can happily change them and balance them own my own with only mild swearing. Very little initial cost, 20 or 30 quid bought everything I need. Saying that I didn’t need to buy a bead breaker, that will likely cost a few quid but there are ways of doing it without one, none of them very easy I imagine.
4 Likes
I’m only supposing I’d need a bead breaker. Dont I?
This is what I have for balancing…
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/303128689139?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=r3a5yR0RQUm&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=5qDzKcTpTTe&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
I have 2 spoon type tyre leavers and a handful of plastic rim savers, some wheel weights, thats it. Having a single side swing arm meant I had to make a couple of adapters for balancing the rear. I use soapy water as lube.
2 Likes
I’ve recently bought my own tyre changer @£79 more for convenience than cost. I was going to make a ‘modular’ one and fit it to my multi hole bench jig to use as and when I need it. I’ve just used it for the first time not to change my 9T tyres but my bloody van tyre!! It worked although was like working with ‘’Benny Hills’ hefty ladies from the ‘Italian job’ film as the rim is massive compared to bike tyres.
I think these domestic DIY tyre machines work better when they are at waist level and fixed down to a 360 bench as watching old guys rolling around on the ground swearing is too much of an eye sore.
Back to the process, I quickly made a centre hub mount for my van wheel as the tyre machine comes with an 18mm centre bar so I made it up to about 60 summat mm for the wheel fit incorporating a ‘soft fit’ by wrapping a gutter plastic down pipe over it with an expanding slot cut into it to stretch over.
As my 9T rear wheel has a similar centre to a car wheel I’ll also make a quick hub mount for that too. The rest of my bikes are simple spindle holes.
1 Like
You know the rules. Pictures or…
3 Likes
Aww don’t do this to me as I didn’t pic log it!
You could have taken some with Rachel’s wheel, but Ducati are picking the whole bike up and taking it away to sort it.
1 Like
Talk about an overkill drama
Or good service, depending on your point of view.
Well, I’m one for same day repair if it’s tyres. As a very young (9yr) lad when the kids on the street had a puncture on their bike you wouldn’t see them on a pushbike for weeks after but as I only had an old cronk that needed high maintenance I managed to repair my own punctures in record time 10mins for the rear wheel of my fixed gear, with big long mudguards and no quick release nuts!!
2 Likes
I’d probably have got it sorted quickly, the traditional way - ordered a tyre, whipped the wheel out and taken it to someone to change. But when you have another bike available it takes the urgency out of it.