Hi all,
Im new to the world of motorcycles with my own 99 Roadstar Silverado. Im working on getting pics to share with you. I just bought it and need to put on tires. Both front and rear. I priced them from the dealer. OUCH!!!! I cant believe two white wall tires cause $600 to buy and install. I am an ASE Master Auto tech and have put tires on my own cars and customer cars for years and think I can save some $$$ by doing it myself. I have never touched a bike before but have read all of the articles about wheel removal and alignment and belt tension. Anyway, My question is can I mount and balance tires at my auto shop, Or do I have to pay $600 to have someone else do it? How do you balance them? Where would I get the tire weights from? I know lots of questions from the new guy. lol Thanks for the info in advance. I am really looking forward to putting some miles on my bike.
Thanks again,
Jason

That sounds really steep, I would shop around if I were you, I just ordered a Metzler ME 880 front tire on line from Dennis Kurk and it was only $110 including shipping, I take the tire off and go to the dealer and its usually $20.00 to get it changed, there is no way that both tires should run that much in my option, shop around on line and get a good set of tires at a better price, take the wheels off and take them in to be changed. It is usually a lot less if they are off the bike and they tend to do it faster.
Lots of people will chime in on this I'm sure,
And by the way...

Welcome to the clinic!!

Ohh and by the way, Metzler is a great tire for our bikes if you need a good brand. Higher than the others, but good results are coming in on them.

Jason
You can mount your own tires. I do! I purchased the tire machine from Harbor Freight. You just need a couple of tire irons.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=34542
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=42927
To balance your tires if you have a couple of jack stands you can place the bike's axle into the rim and place the axle ends onto the stands. You basicly spin balance the wheel by giving it a light spin. When it comes to a stop you take chalk and mark the bottom spot on the side wall. Then you spin again and see if it hits the same mark or somewhere else. If its the same mark then you need to add a little weight on the top 180 from your mark. You can use the stick on weights you use on your cars or you can purchase spoke weights from J&P cycle.
http://www.jpcycles.com/index.aspx search for wheel weights!
Hope this helps. New set of tires front and back should not set you back more then $300.00 and that would be more then you should pay!
Danny

Thanks for the warm welcome. I know I came to the right place to ask my questions. I will be taking the wheels off myself. I did find some tires (Dunlop) for $210 for both on line. Haven't priced any other brands. I do have a tire changer machine, is using that going to damage my wheels or do I need to just go get the tire remover from Harbor Freight? Thanks again for the info and the warm welcome.
Jason

Jason
I'm not sure what your machine looks like but if it is one of the newer ones that speads outward from under the rim I believe you could probably use it. What I would do is Google motorcycle tire machines and just see what the machines look like. Then you can determine if yours will work.
Your price on tires is a reasonable one. I have not paid for tire mounting & balance in years. Oh and

Welcome to the clinic! I own and run a notorcycle repair shop. The majority of my customers own Harleys so I keepon hand the common tires, tubes, and batteries that Harleys use. I have a Dunlop D404 front 130/90x16 for $135 installed, and a Dunlop D404 rear 150/80x16 for $155 installed. That is $290 for the pair, now other types may be more expensive and whitewalls are more expensive; but over $300 more is kind of rediculus!

Clifford

Like hardone2get, I have the Harbor Freight tire changer and motorcycle adapter. I think I paid a little over $60 for both on sale. I have the plastic Rim Savers from J&P Cycles. I change my Honda tires myself, and will my Road* from now on. I was a little short on time a few weeks ago, and had a local MC shop mount my new tires on my Road*. I now have a scratch on my rear fender, and also my left saddlebag. I also blew a front tube three days later where they had let the front tube flap (wrinkle) over. Lasted 150 miles before it blew.
For those of you that are not familiar with changing your own tires, it's really not that hard, and will also give you a chance to check out everything on your bike for yourself.
Just make sure you put the tube in tire and air it up after you mount one side of tire on rim. You then remove valve core, let air out of tube, and mount other side of tire onto rim, put valve core back in, then air tire up to whatever pressure you usually run.

Not to hijack, but are the non-spoke rims tubed or tubeless? i'm pretty sure their tubeless (the cast wheels, not spoked) and so with that comes the potential for use of a dynamic balancer... search for dyna beads, i'm thinking i'll be running something along those lines once i swap tires out.. eliminates any weights clamped on your rims or spokes. Anyway, just a thought, only semi-related.

Dan

mustang2roadstar wrote:
Thanks for the warm welcome. I know I came to the right place to ask my questions. I will be taking the wheels off myself. I did find some tires (Dunlop) for $210 for both on line. Haven't priced any other brands. I do have a tire changer machine, is using that going to damage my wheels or do I need to just go get the tire remover from Harbor Freight? Thanks again for the info and the warm welcome.
Jason

the tyre changing machine i´ve got here in the shop is the same type that is used for cars. 4 clamps that close in, but i have put neoprene covered with gaffer tape over the parts of the clamps that touch the rim, and only run 3 bar to the machine. no damage at all to any wheel in 4 years of usage (and i´m doing on average 40-50 tyres a month).
for balancing i use the slim stick on wheel weights, as they come in strips of 5 gramme and 2.5 gramme, so you can get the wheel balanced very fine.