Who changes your own tires and what is the best way to do it. I have mags. I have seen a couple home shop tire tools and they range drastic in price, so looking for some first hand knowledge. Also how to balance?

My shop is tiny also

 

I use a Harbor Freight changer with added Mojo Blocks and a Mojo Lever but I'd probably just buy the No-Mar setup that's available nowadays that's in the ~$600 range. I use a motorcycle wheel balancing/truing stand for balancing. Balancing is fairly simple, heavy part of the wheel goes down and you add weights to the opposite side. There's plenty of Youtube videos for changing tires and balancing that help quite a bit.

Can be pricey to get into but if you have more than one bike it quickly pays for itself as most dealers charge $50 just to change the tire on a single wheel without having to unmount/mount the wheel. I mounted my tire changer to a pallet that had a piece of plywood for a top and move it around if I need to.

 

 

Here is a link to an article that I started using as the basis of my tire-changing practice since 2004.

Click here to get to the first page, click on through to the whole article.

Cash outlay for the necessary tools is probably less than a hundred bucks, if you're resourceful. For a priceless lesson in balancing, get to a motorcycle track event at the club level (so you can go anywhere) and spend 15 minutes watching the Michelin tire guy (or whoever is there working) doing all the road-racer tires.

Or, as suggested above, feel free to use an alternative balancing medium.

My setup is made of totally break-down equipment, nothing permanently in the way. Technique is everything.

All the best,

Shane

 

I only have about $220 in the Harbor Freight setup with the additional Mojo blocks/lever but you could make them yourself. Everything I have for doing tires is about $300 and I wish there was a shop here that was cheaper but I have 3 bikes(soon to be 4) and don't take any to the dealers. It's more than paid for itself in the 4 or so years I've had it. I've seen people remove and install tires with zip ties, whatever works.

 

I did my own in the garage. My bike's a 94 Softail custom with the skinny 21" up front.
When I got the bike the tires were original @ 16 years old. dried out a little.
The old tire were a bitch to get off using tire irons and rim guards.But doable.
As for balancing I used Dyna Beads.

 

 

Derek Weaver MC tire change machine, cost me 1k, paid for itself in less than a year, $25 to mount and balance if you bring me just a wheel, $90 for me to change both if you bring the bike, $100 if it has both spoke wheels.

I have three bikes, just the PIA to get someone to change tires and scratch up you rims, mount tires backwards, not check bearings, not clean the bead areas, use the wrong tire bead lube, balance them wrong, scratch up the rear pulley, mess up the belt tension, put spacers backwards, not neverseize the axle, scratch the exhaust, and a few other things I see, it was well worth it.

 

Most bike shops around here don't want to mount tires you brought in with you. I got a quote from a shop for 2 commander 2's for my dyna at 640$. That is a lot because I know I can order the 2 tires from JP or revzilla for 320$. Shops here only want to order through drag or whoever they have their deals with so you end up always paying suggested retail price plus install.

Anyway, in the past it was always no problem to order tires and take them into a shop but it seems to be getting harder to find people to do it.
I have 3 bikes.

 

I've wrestled enough bike tires over the years, now I drop the wheels and off to Cycle gear we for what little I save dicking with mail ordering if they have the tires I want in stock I buy them there.