Topic: Tire question.....probably a dumb one.

[Leemata]

While I've changed many a tire on my motocross bikes over the years, I've never worked with tubeless motorcycle tires.  Is there anything  I need to know to make the job easier and/or more successful?  I don't really understand how the bead & valve aren't great sources of leaks and if so, how to prevent them during a tire change.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Terry

[ProTeal55]

Have your new tire mounted up by a shop.
They do it 100 times a day. Plus if they screw something up, it's on them.
Just my 4cents...

[cmorgan47]

it's the only thing i've paid to have done on my bike.
and looking back i'm glad.  for one, they're nicely balanced and no wobble all the way up to 91.9mph.

for another, the guy i know with spoons has gone through about a half dozen tube trying to do his himself.  glad i didn't let him do it.

[nickjtc]

Tubeless tyre are quite straightforward to mount if you have: time, patience, access to a compressor, good tyre irons, rim protectors, something to lay the rim on while you wrestle getting the old tyre off and the new one on, a good vocabulary of swear words when you realise that you have mounted the tyre in the wrong direction or scratched up your nice rims, a suitable tyre balancer, a beer fridge close to hand, beer for the beer fridge, and finally transportation to take the rim and tyre to the shop where you should have taken it in the first place.

Seriously though, it is a job which is in the scope of the home mechanic, but as the others have said the shop has ALL the right tools and equipment, and will probably not gouge up your rims in the process. And they will balance the tyre slicker than snot on a doorknob. I used to do mine on the VFR, but frankly, having been there and done that, I leave it to my friends in the shop to do.

If you can at least get the wheel off to present to the shop you will save a few dollars and feel as if you are a small part of the process.

[Patrick]

I have three dirt bikes and have done the tires on all of them. A couple a few times. I started doing the tires on my CB750 last week. I took them to the shop to finish them. Tubeless tires seem to have much stiffer sidewals and they are much harder to stretch over the rims. Let the shop do it. For $15 or $20 per wheel you'll save a lot of aggravation. It will, however, greatly expand your vocabulary if you decide to do it yourself. You will likely invent several new categories to add to the seven accepted parts of speech. Try to be alone when you attempt it.

Patrick

[mrbreeze]

I gotta agree with the consensus....let the shop do it.My rear tire on my 750 is the first of many that I paid to have mounted.After buying the tire from this outfit (Roadrider in San Jose,Ca.) for a decent price,it only cost another $15 to mount & balance (thats wheel off of bike). I thought that was more than fair.Now if it would have been like $30, I would have told them to stuff it and done it myself.

[Leemata]

Thank you all for the great info. 
I guess I never considered the stiffer sidewall and difficulty stretching them over the rim issues.  Never considered having them balanced either.  That's what makes forums like these great.  What did we do before we had such a resource??

I'll be headed to my dealer with both wheels and new tires.

[fourplay]

Trust Me.

If you have Comstars, you better let a shop do it.

[cmorgan47]

  Never considered having them balanced either. 

better to consider it now than when you get the speed wobbles.

[nickjtc]

If you do attempt it yourself, and are fitting tubeless, do it on a warm day or get the tyre as warm as possible....it helps fight with the stiffness of the sidewalls. Also make sure you get the first bead well down into the drop centre of the rim before you try to get the second one over the rim. If you don't gouged rims are a certainty as you try to get the bead over the rim. Don't ask how I know.

[Patrick]

I don't know about the warm day thing, Nick. I live in Central Texas and when I tried it the temperature was 104 degrees. The sidewalls were still too stiff. How warm do you want it? We Texans look forward to hell just for some relief from the summer heat.....

[cbjunkie]

OKAY - i have a STUPIDER tire question...

Why do "tubeless" tires have tubes?

[Bob Wessner]

The design of the wheel determines if a tube is needed. If the wheel design can't be made air/pressure tight against the tire bead (for example, it has leaky spoke holes in the rim and a valve stem that will not seal) a tube is needed.

[nickjtc]

The design of the wheel determines if a tube is needed. If the wheel design can't be made air/pressure tight against the tire bead (for example, it has leaky spoke holes in the rim and a valve stem that will not seal) a tube is needed.

Hence the reason that the only spoke type wheels that can take tubeless tyres are the ones where the spokes are attached outside the bead, like BMW makes for their big GS bikes.

[nickjtc]

I don't know about the warm day thing, Nick. I live in Central Texas and when I tried it the temperature was 104 degrees. The sidewalls were still too stiff. How warm do you want it? We Texans look forward to hell just for some relief from the summer heat.....

Hey Patrick....anything to make the tyre more supple will help, but in reality it doesn't matter how hot the tyre is, if you don't get the first bead well down into the drop centre you'll never get the second one over the rim!

I too have fought with tyre mounting in high 90s heat and can attest to the fact that sweat does not make a very good tyre-to-rim lubricant!