Where do you guys typically buy your tires and what do you pay for them?

Do you mount and balance them yourselves or have a shop do it?

You guys should buy your own equipment and do it yourselves. It would pay for itself in no time, considering how cheap you can get tires online.

Where do I go and how much do I pay? You guys don't even want to know.

Yea, inquiring minds would like to know.

I'm due for a new set. I'll let you know what the damage is when I finally get around to getting them - probably in Spring.

Yermo, as you know, I changed four tires in my garage on Saturday. My buddy got his from Southwest Moto 1) and paid $297 for the set of Michelin PR3 (120/70/17 and 180/55/17) delivered. I got the exact same set for $299 out the door from Coleman Powersports mainly because I have such a good relationship with them (read: I spend a ridiculous amount of money there). Southwest Moto is widely considered the cheapest and best tire source from what I read on the FJR forum.

As for mounting, me and said buddy bought a Cycle Hill tire changer for $485 and I got a Marc Parnes balancer for $115 ). We have now done two sets of tires and I will do a third in the spring on the BMW. We are looking for additional "investors" for the machine to make it cheaper for all of us. If two more people buy in, it will have already paid for itself.

I am eating the cost of the balancer and I have the cones for my Yamaha and for the BMW so that covers a lot of bikes. And by the way, balancing is easy.

Josh, did you mount your changer to the floor in the garage?

Yes and no. I drilled four holes in the garage floor and installed 4 2" long threaded sleeves. I bought four 1/2" bolts and I bolt the changer to the floor when I need to use it...takes 2 minutes. Thus I store the changer in the corner of the garage out of the way 99.999% of the time.

I didn't think about that. That's an excellent idea. It looks like Yun and I have a small project to do.

Which changer are you looking at?

BTW, the sleeves are Hilte. Got them at Home Depot. You drill 5/8" holes to a specified depth (so that the sleeves end up flush to the garage floor you don't want them sticking up), and then you insert a rod (I used the rod of the drill chuck key) and pound the bottom so the sleeves anchor to the concrete.

Looking at the one you listed. Cycle Hill or whatever it's called.

Yea, looks like I'll follow your example. I'm going to need to change multiple sets of tires this year. Time to man up and start turning more wrenches on my own vehicles.

Not sure I mentioned it earlier but I got my Cycle Hill changer off of Ebay. They upgrade the bead breaker to the non marking one for only $10 on Ebay which is a savings of $20. I highly recommend going that way.

Is this the listing you were talking about?



Separately, for the tire balancer what are you using as stands for it? Can you post a photo?

That is the one I bought. I use a couple of jack stands to hold the balancer axle bearings.

FYI I'm headed to the store to pick up tires for the S. Going with Michelin pilot power 2 ct. $260 for the set which is the Southwest Moto price matched. It pays to have friends in medium places.

If you want to see the mounting process you can come by tomorrow

I think I would like to do that. The weather looks like it's going to be half decent. I won't want to stay too late however as I'll need to be back up in this area before the evening rolls around.

See you at noon!

Looks like bike tech day is at my house this time. We'll be doing the tire change around 1ish for anybody interested in seeing how it works.

Which tire changer were you going to upgrade to?

1

Not sure I will upgrade. The cheapie one seems to be working fine for now as you saw. Just have to take care when using it. I've changed 7 tires without issue so far.

Cycle Hill Tire Changer and Marc Parnes Wheel Balancer ordered.

Unfortunately, it looks like the tire changer may take two weeks to arrive.

Well, if you have an urgent need you can always use mine.

That maybe interesting scene riding down to VA with a new tire strapped to the back of the bike.

hahaha

It's been done...by me.

It might just come to that.

mmm hm...

I usually buy them online at Tiresunlimited, and drop ship them to my mechanic. He installs and balances them for 10-15 bucks.

I can, and have, done my own tires with tire irons. Works just fine, but it is a bit of work. Still, I can fix my tube tires on the road, which is nice to know.