Just had a tire mounted and balanced it cost me over 30 bucks and I took the tire and wheel to them does that seem kind of high? I live in the DFW area does anyone know of a less expensive place to have tires mounted?
Jerry.
I am in Michigan and for the same thing it cost me 22 bucks but I had to go to two different places. One to my local auto tire man to change the tire and then to a cycle shop for the ballence. My tire guy is the owner and does the change himself. It might be a favor to me since I take in 15 flats a year from the farm and buy all tires from him. That really doesn't help, but it $30 seems okay. The two dealers in town charge more when you don't buy the tire from them.
My tire guy does it for $15 if you buy his tires. Only drawback is he's in Van, TX and and I drive about an hour one way to see him.
I needed a quick tire for the Magna once and took it over off Stemmons (I35) and (I think Walnut Hill or somewhere around there) to a Suzuki/Yammi dealer that charged me $20. They were a little high on their tires though. $30 off the bike is high to me, but they've got us over a barrel.
Curtis
Here's an alternative to balancing motorcycle tires that I just found out about:
http://innovativebalancing.com/motorcycle.htm
I know someone who is running these beads in his tires. I'll see what he thinks after he's put on a few miles.
I changed both of my tires myself about a year ago, and from start to finish, it took me nearly 8 hours (with a long lunch in there somewhere). So anything under $75 would have been well worth it for me. My time spent with family is worth more than that to me.
However, this was my first time to do any work on my bike, and I was reading the manual as I went along. Also during that time I had to build a jig to help get the old tires off the rim, and a different one to balance the tires. Needless to say getting the tires on and off the rim took the vast majority of time and energy on that project.
I planned to have a tire shop do the work, but there is only one in my small town, and he "might could work me in" if the wheels were already off. I don't think he really wanted to mess with it. The owner is real nice but also very busy. I reckon he makes a lot more money selling and installing 4 tires at a time, than taking emore time to install just 2. I think the going rate would have been in the $40 range. But now that I think about it, you were charged $30 for one tire!
I say all of that to say, spend an afternoon getting manhandled by a piece of rubber and you might think $30 isn't so bad. On the other side, there is a sense of satisfaction that comes from doing it yourself. I guess its all relative. But the good news is, its done and now you can ride!
Costs me $10 a tire for mounting and computerized balancing, but then again I drive out to the middle of nowhere in my car to a Goldwing specialist to get it done.
Jesse, I'm skeptical about the beads. In the kit there is one ounce of beads for the front tire and two for the rear. I have had many tires that needed an ounce or two concentrated in one place. The beads are going to be spread out somewhat at best. I just don't see how they can work in that case. Until someone proves otherwise, it's snake oil to me. Let us know how your friend fares.
dc it's not near that much work after you have done it a few times. You just got to pay your dues at first. The secret is keeping the bead down in the valley of the wheel (opposite your tire spoons) to give you plenty of slack. I have a large vise that will break the bead, and not counting removing the wheel from the bike the last tire I took off the wheel on my Magna took about ten minutes.
Then there's Allen............he can do the whole job (front and back tire together if I remember right) in ten minutes whilst eating pie and ice cream. I think warming up the tire with a burnout beforehand is cheating though! LOL
Curtis
When I got a new tire on my old Suzuki, it cost me about $30 for installation of the tire and tube (spoked wheels). My boyfriend recently bought a new tire for his HD - the tire was $120 after using a 20% off coupon. He was going to bring it to another shop for install, but found out the HD dealer installs for free when you bring the rim in and buy the tire from them. He got a great deal. He was going to try and save a few bux and buy the tire off ebay...
I wonder how many dealers do this...
Most Honda dealers around here don't. They rape you on the price of the tire and then come back for seconds for mounting (no pun intended).
Curtis
HEY CURTIS you forgot while standing on my head :lol: :lol: heheheh no really about 45 mins thats taking it off and putting it on I guess I need to look into getting the right stuff and would do them for free for all MOOTSters.... HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM Idea!!!!!
Thanks for all the imput now don't feel completely ripped off. The next time I think I will check and see how much the mounting will be if I buy the tire for them and figure the total price from there.
I had another site that I can't find now that gave a good discription of tire changing and how to make a bead breaker and ballencer.This site has the same sort of stuff, but in a much longer explanation. I have no experience with any of this.
http://www.clarity.net/~adam/tire-changing.html
Quote from: ThomasMagnaI had another site that I can't find now that gave a good discription of tire changing and how to make a bead breaker and ballencer.This site has the same sort of stuff, but in a much longer explanation. I have no experience with any of this.
http://www.clarity.net/~adam/tire-changing.html
I am in the process of putting together a setup like that. I am thinking though about building my bead breaker out of steel. Once I get it done I will be hosting a wrenching session to break it in and do a tire swap onto my new wheels. I have to get new wheelbearings and clean up the wheels first.