will england :: motorcycle notes and tips

How to Mount and Balance Tires

How to mount and balance tires. This is what I know about mounting and
balanding tires.


This is for all of you who may, now or in the future want to mount and
balance your own motorcycle tires. Save this email if you may want to do
this in the future.

An initial monetary outlay is necessary but the benefits are that you save
money and you can change your own tires when YOU want to.

NOTE: Paul Glaves wrote an EXCELLENT article in the Oct 2000 issue of the
BMW MOA News about changing and balancing tires.
I can email you a copy of it if you don't have it. Let me know.


Tubeless Tire Bead Breaking:
If the tire is too wide for a bead breaker to fit over it (my 5.5 inch rear
tire on my K12RS is like that) or if you do not want to buy a tire bead
breaker at all, do the following to break the bead:
Jack up a car.  Carefully. Get a car tire about 4 inches off the ground.
Lay the dismounted moto wheel with tire on the ground beside the car, under
a piece of spare rug (to protect the wheel/discfrom getting scratched.)
Make sure there is no air in the moto tire. Take a piece of 2X4 about 16
inches long, and put one end on the moto tire very near the rim but not
touching the rim, and slide the middle of the piece of wood with tire/wheel
under the car tire.  Then carefully let the car tire down on the wood and
the tire will break away from the rim. You may need to do this another time
on the same side of the tire and then turn the tire over and do it on the
other side of the rim. The bead is now broken and you can proceed with
levering the tire off the rim using Paul's instructions below.  Paul's
instructions are the best I have seen in writing.

Tube type tires are much easier to break the bead.

Here are my sources for obtaining the necessary items to mount and balance
your own tires. A link for flat tire repair kits is below also.

http://www.tireqwik.com/tireqwik/
http://www.motionpro.com/maintools.html
http://www.specii.com/shop.html#wheel
http://www.ctm-design.com/prolevr/index.html
http://www.ibmwr.org/otech/balancer.html
http://www.stopngo.com/     Flat  tire repair kits for cars, motos and ATVs.

Call Precision Mfg. & Sales, Clearwater, FL  at 800/237-5947 and request
their catalog. It will have everything you need to change and balance tires.
Their tools are very good.

The other sites above also have tools. One may suit you better than another.
Get the longest tire irons you can buy as they have more leverage and you
will need it.

Best,

Mac Kirkpatrick
Glenmoore, PA USA

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