Like anything, it takes a little, know how and a little zen Best to try different methods and see what works for you. I personally hate using levers, a mate swears by them and will try nothing else.
I do all of mine myself. About 14 pairs of tires so far. Hardest part is breaking the bead but i use a fly press at work to do that. Good old tire levers and couple of rim protectors and soapy warm water is all you need and it's not difficult at all. Compressed air is handy to pop it onto the rim initially but a garage airline will do that for 50p if u haven't got any other means. M+P do a few bead breakers, Search results for: 'bead breaker'
Video link would have helped !! 3 min 30 seconds Although the enduro tyre has completely defeated me, I must be missing something that is different from a regular tubeless tyre
Been fitting my own tyres for donkeys years now, like everything else it gets easier with practice. Some of my kit shown below :- Take a bit of time and make a tyre changing board ( the bit with carpet on ) you can't see from the pic but it has 2" batons all around the underside so its raised off the floor, then when you drop the disc into the big hole, the wheel sits nicely on the carpet and doesn't get scratched. A set of rim protectors, 8" motion pro tyre levers, I used to ride Enduro's so I've changed tyres / tubes in the middle of Stang forest with these, you don't need anything bigger. The grease is for the wheel spindle of course, tyre soap for getting the tyre on, put plenty on the "up" ramp of the wheel leading to the tyre well as that's what the tyre struggles to get over when your inflating it. Home made wheel balancer made from old paddock stand and 4 bearings, ( tyre is just stood alongside it for no reason really! ) A few observations, ...excuse me if I'm pointing out the obvious :- Tyres go on / off easier when they are warm, stick the new ones in against your hot water tank for an hour or so. Now you may cringe at this, but no need to.........I use a spade to break the beads,...shove two rim protectors together, a thin cloth over them, place the spade up against them and jump on spade with 14 stone !, they come off in a couple of goes and I've never marked a rim, your not levering against the rim, your just pressing the tyre vertically downwards, look at a pro bead breaker in a tyre place next time your in, its just a mechanised spade blade really. When your trying to get the tyre off the top of the rim, use your knees to keep the bottom of the tyre in the wheel well, that'll give you more room to ease the top off. As I mentioned before, put plenty tyre soap on the "up" ramp of the wheel leading to the tyre well as that's what the tyre struggles to get over when your inflating it. When your blowing the new tyre onto the bead, remove the valve so you get more air in quicker, you need a big volume of air in really quickly for best results, a compressor with a large reservoir is ideal. Some garage forcourt pumps just put the air in "pulse" style, you'd be on forever with one of these. Check the bead is seated and runs concentric with the rim. Check direction of rotation of tyre is correct, I've seen them fitted backwards! and I've also seen fork pinch bolts not tightened up again by so called "professionals" Don't assume the valve is the heaviest point of your bare wheel, check the balance of the wheel with the tyre off, I've had wheels where the heaviest point was about 8" away from the valve. Mark the actual heaviest point and align the dot on the tyre here, the more accurate you are matching these, the less balance weights you will use. Scrub new tyres in and check air pressure after a couple of days. Apart from saving a couple of quid ( not my main reason ) I'd rather do tyres and other things myself, no one else takes as much care of your stuff as you do yourself and your life depends on these baby's, when I pointed it out to the guy who's fork bolts had not been done up, he was livid and rightly so...I just wouldn't trust my life to a spotty 19 year old apprentice! Hope some of this helps, Poucher
That's absolutely brilliant. Thanks very much although I think I may come a cropper on the inflation as the tyre pressure thingys in the garages around us are the pulse ones....I think ill still get the stuff though....
I've started changing my own tyres again recently. I was expecting modern wheels/tyres to make things more difficult than in the old, spoked days but in fact it is easier. I use the cable tie method and find that tyre levers are almost unnecessary ... I just use very short, plastic ones from a bicycle puncture repair kit, if I need any at all, and this has the added benegit of avoiding any rim damage. Breaking and reseating the bead is possibly the most difficult bit .. I used to use a 3x3 fence post as a lever but yesterday I bought an Abba bead breaker, chosen partly because of its ease of use without damage and partly because it is compact and easy to store. Make sure the valve core is removed before trying to "blow" the beads back on otherwise you will have insufficient flow of air. And I bought liquid tyre soap from Rotherham Tyres, off ebay ...they do small quantities. Agree with Nelson ... it needs a bit of Zen.
I do all my own tyres. I did have some tyre levers etc but in the end just splashed out on the ABBA kit. Comes with tyre levers, balancer & bead breaker. Really nice gear and easy to use. Done loads of sets of tyres now on all my bikes and havent had a problem. And so the kit has more than paid for itself now. As someone else said, always easier on a nice sunny day, esp if you are fitting soft tyres. Leave them all out in the sun along with the one you are about to take off. Try and get the balance mark on the tyre in line with the valve, and use as little weights as possible. Use loads of tyre soap to make sure the bead pops onto the rim properly. I have my own compressor which helps with inflating, but you could equally nip down your local garage once you have the tyre on the rim, and make sure you get 2 bangs as the beads pop on. EDIT: Poucher basically covered it all. Spot on.
I've done my own (and plenty of mates) since racing in the seventies. My bead breaker is 2 lengths of 4" x 2" timber, 1 about 1.2 m long and a short one about 400 mm long. The long one is wedged under a piece of steel angle iron screwed to the garage wall and lever down on the short one against the tyre - being careful to avoid the rim. I use another small piece of cloth wrapped timber under the rim to support it. A cheap Aldi compressor - about £80 from memory including tyre inflator etc. is just the job for seating the tyre on the rim and the addition of a rattle gun makes it even more useful.
Anyone else tried the cable tie method ? Worried about damaging new Tyre distorting it like that. Just got new set of tyres from online , but most local places here want £25 a wheel to change tyres over. So it’s either invest in some cable ties or a bead breaker kit and levers. At least then I’ll have kit for future changes. Thoughts ?
Just repaired a rear puncture this week. I used a home made bead breaker, some split fuel pipe to protect the rim while using tyre levers to remove the tyre. Refitting is very easy the first side of the tyre pushes on by hand and the second side just needs levers for the last few inches. Leave the tyre in the sun to soften it up and use some soapy water to lube it. Steve
Fitted in around 1 minute from the end of the taping - my first attempt, 5 mins total ... then down to Tesco to pop it on with the airline which it did at around 55psi. Did both front and rear the same method.
Thanks Steve Using rented garage at moment so can’t screw anything to the walls But moving soon ,and will fit similar to save a few quid cheers
