How do you change your tires?

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For balancing we made a stand and it has 2 wheels on each side that allow a 1" round stock bar to roll on with very little resistance. We then had cones machined that slip onto the stock and just slide up and center a wheel on it with inserting the cones into the wheel bearings. The cones just lock down with an allen set screw.

The balancing part is easy, just spin the wheel and put a mark on the lowest point. Once you get a few points you just start adding weights in the opposite side until you get it to where it lands in random spots everytime. Never once had a prob doing this and have never once felt any vibration in any tires I've changed.
 
i have a ton of weight on my rims, im thinking someone aligned the dots instead of putting them 180 degrees apart on mine. id like to pop the tires off and take a look see.
Click to expand...

The dot is the rim is the low spot for the rim and the dot on the tire is the high road force for the tire. When you align the two the tire/wheel assembly should be better uniformity than just the tire.

One trick to balancing the tire is to not just spin it but rotate it 90 degrees and let it slowly return to the low point. Try going in both directions a few times. You'll get a feel for the low spot very quickly. Once you find the low spot (the top just in case you were wondering)tape 5 grams to the rim. repeat balancing procedure and go up 5 grams at a time till you find how much weight you need then peal the backing off the weight and stick it to the rim. The tape allows you to move it around as needed.

One comment about balancing wheels, once you balance the wheel you will find the tire doesn't change the wheel balance much. In fact when I use to test tires I would mount the tire and leave the weights where they were. I ran over 300 kph for long periods of time using this method without any trouble.

Also if you see a bunch of weight on someone's wheel, they most likely didn't balance the wheel correctly. I've seen people add weight then re-balance, add weight, re-balance..... until they had a pound of weight on the rim.
 
The dot is the rim is the low spot for the rim and the dot on the tire is the high road force for the tire. When you align the two the tire/wheel assembly should be better uniformity than just the tire.

One trick to balancing the tire is to not just spin it but rotate it 90 degrees and let it slowly return to the low point. Try going in both directions a few times. You'll get a feel for the low spot very quickly. Once you find the low spot (the top just in case you were wondering)tape 5 grams to the rim. repeat balancing procedure and go up 5 grams at a time till you find how much weight you need then peal the backing off the weight and stick it to the rim. The tape allows you to move it around as needed.

One comment about balancing wheels, once you balance the wheel you will find the tire doesn't change the wheel balance much. In fact when I use to test tires I would mount the tire and leave the weights where they were. I ran over 300 kph for long periods of time using this method without any trouble.

Also if you see a bunch of weight on someone's wheel, they most likely didn't balance the wheel correctly. I've seen people add weight then re-balance, add weight, re-balance..... until they had a pound of weight on the rim.
Click to expand...

the buell service manual states
"Some tires have arrows molded into the tire sidewall. These tires should be mounted on the rim with the arrow pointing in the direction of forward rotation. The yellow circle on the sidewall is a balance mark and should be aligned 180 degrees from the balance mark (blue dot)on inside of rim."
 
Know what works great for breaking the tire bead? a forklift.
That's how i always do mine. I lay the tire on a wooden pallet, set the forks just far enough apart to clear the rim and lower the forks onto the tire. The flip it over and do it again. I bought some tire irons to pry the tire off and the new one on. Sections of garden hose work fine as rim protectors. Then i just dump in Dynabeads and i'm good to go.

a few things though. Use tire bead sealant from orielly's and give it a good thin layer all the way around on each side. Don't want the tire spinning on the rim..
second. Set the tire bead (with a good blast of compressed air) before you pour the dynabeads in otherwise you could blow them out.

it takes me about an hour from when i take the wheel off to when i put it back on.
If i used an impact to get the axles out and back in i could probably save about 15minutes.
 
I didn't think about rubber lubricant making the tire spin on the rim. Do you use the lubricant to put the tire on, then try to clean it off and put the bead sealer on, or do you skip the lubricant? I've never heard about anyone using bead sealer before.
 
it's sort of a lube and sealent all in one. It's got the consistancy of white school glue, but dries into a tacky rubber. I don't know how many people actually use it, but i feel alot better about using it over dish soap or windex..
 
i used bead sealer b4 on a tire that was leaking at the bead it works good. i still like my dawn soap not many places carry that bead sealer stuff, come to think of it i had to go to my tire shop to borrow some cus i couldent find any.
 
the buell service manual states
"Some tires have arrows molded into the tire sidewall. These tires should be mounted on the rim with the arrow pointing in the direction of forward rotation. The yellow circle on the sidewall is a balance mark and should be aligned 180 degrees from the balance mark (blue dot)on inside of rim."
Click to expand...

Sorry, I should have been more clear. The Red dot is the maximum force variation of the tire, the Yellow dot is the lightest part of the tire. A sticker on the outside of the rim is the low spot for the rim. Use the RED dot with that sticker. If there is no sticker then use the valve stem and the YELLOW dot. Some manufactures may have there own markings. Sorry for any confusion.
 
i still like my dawn soap
Click to expand...

I've heard a lot of people talking about using dish soap, but from reading stuff on line I've also heard people say the soap will slowly eat away at the tire. Something to do with dish soap being made to cut through grease, and tires being petroleum based. I can't remember all the details and science behind it, but they had pictures of the tire and the rim, and it wasn't pretty!
 
So I stopped by Napa and got the tire lube, but they didn't have any good tire irons like I was hoping for. Do you guys know of any auto parts stores that sell 11-12" tire levers? I haven't seen any in pepboys or advanced auto either. I'll probably just have to order one online, but I was hoping I could just pick one up at a store somewhere.
 
Nevermind on the tire levers, I think I'm gonna be fine with the two 8.5 inch ones I have. I'll get around to ordering a long one someday when I'm bored.

One other question though for the guys who have made their own balancing stands. I'm gonna have to make one shortly, and the only part I wasn't sure about was the rod to go through the wheel. I don't think they have anything at the hardware store the same diameter as my axle, and I don't have a lathe to make some cones to fit on a smaller rod. Does the rod have to actually be big enough to fit right inside the axles, or is it ok if the hole in the bearings is significantly larger? I've seen a couple video/pictures where it looks like people have thinner rods, and the wheel still moves ok, but I feel like having more of the wheels weight under the rod as opposed to over it could mess with it always settling with the heaviest part down. Does that make sense? I know you can use your axle up on some blocks, but I feel like it would be more accurate if you had a rod through the wheel that was resting on some bearings so there would be less drag than the greased bearing in the wheels. Here's one of the videos I was talking about....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WHkSPZJ3fI
 

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