I have a NoMar myself, it was a group buy with my friends. It's at my place right now, and I probably use it the most with all the track days and racing I do.
When did you decide to start changing your own tires and why?
- Thread starter Mike:p
- Start date
Mike:p
Don’t be a Hero, be consistent.
Come on, I can take a joke. You didn’t have to delete it from the post.
I actually thought it was funny after read it. But the funniest part about it was I thought you were serious at first.
Or did you delete it for my own protection
The part about quartering the tire to find the light spot? That was actually a reply I abandoned, but the forum cached it in a different reply and I didn't notice until I made the post. I stopped just short of saying I use Krazy Glue to put it back together before concluding the post was too stupid, even for this forum.Come on, I can take a joke. You didn’t have to delete it from the post.
But the funniest part about it was I thought you were serious at first.
Or did you delete it for my own protection
At your current position, I think you should do a N2 track day and buy some Q3's or whatever you want to get track side...because mounting/balancing is included when you buy the tires from the vendor. Then all you have to do is pull off your wheels. And you get to do a track day...win win.
I believe this kind of thing answers itself when it's time. If you're still on the fence on what to get, or don't have an idea on what you want, you aren't at the point where the time/investment is worth it. Changing street tires manually is a pain in the ass (on the floor with tire spoons), if I wasn't changing tires all the time I would gladly pay the standard $20 for a mount or flip from the trackside vendor.
Just like when you get a new bike, you don't know what to modify first. I'd suggest riding it a bit, getting a feel for it, and then typically it sorts itself out. "I don't like the position of the rear sets, I want adjustable ones, the shock feels like a pogo stick and needs refreshed" etc etc. Just like that, with the tires, you'll reach a tipping point when you're like "OK, it's definitely worth investing $X dollars for the amount of tires I'm changing"
I change light truck tires quite a bit. Got a nail in the tire of my toy hauler. Because it's MY toy hauler (and nobody takes care of your own shit better than the person that bought it...YOU), I took the time to pull the wheel, pull the tire off, and plug-patched it. I took my time and did it correctly...because I don't want to take any chances on a 500+ mile one way road trip. When I got new tires for my truck (Ram 2500), I put those on too, taking time to clean off all the oxidation from where the beads sit on the rim, eliminating any chance of a slow tire leak from the bead area (Common to see on older aluminum rims). I didn't trust a shop to take the time to do that, because quite frankly, most shops don't.
Never changed any 22.5 rims, not sure if your 450 has those or the normal LT tires. But I don't see why it couldn't handle it, the bead breaker on it is no joke and the bead blaster works just as good as the $5,000 Coats brand I used when I used to work as a mechanic.
Mike:p
Don’t be a Hero, be consistent.
I never knew that mounting and balancing was included from track side vendors. None of them ever told me that. I always bought my tires locally before my TD so I would be completely ready when I got there.At your current position, I think you should do a N2 track day and buy some Q3's or whatever you want to get track side...because mounting/balancing is included when you buy the tires from the vendor. Then all you have to do is pull off your wheels. And you get to do a track day...win win.
I believe this kind of thing answers itself when it's time. If you're still on the fence on what to get, or don't have an idea on what you want, you aren't at the point where the time/investment is worth it. Changing street tires manually is a pain in the ass (on the floor with tire spoons), if I wasn't changing tires all the time I would gladly pay the standard $20 for a mount or flip from the trackside vendor.
Just like when you get a new bike, you don't know what to modify first. I'd suggest riding it a bit, getting a feel for it, and then typically it sorts itself out. "I don't like the position of the rear sets, I want adjustable ones, the shock feels like a pogo stick and needs refreshed" etc etc. Just like that, with the tires, you'll reach a tipping point when you're like "OK, it's definitely worth investing $X dollars for the amount of tires I'm changing"
I do want to start changing my own tires for a few reasons. Yes saving the money is nice but my main reason is to be more in tune with my bike. Also I like learning new things and confidence that the job is done right. The reason I posted here was to hear from those who have gone down this road and learn from them. I can’t stand tools that don’t work and I didn’t want to waste time and money on worthless to tools. If I had thought about it a long time ago, long before I even knew how to ride I should have bought a tire changer then. I buy somewhere between 8 and 16 tires a year with my business. That’s not counting bike tires, which is between 2 and 4 per year. But I’m getting out of the business so I can have more time with my family and some more free time at the track too. That being said I only want what I need to work on my bikes.
I’m not trying to be rude I just want you to see it from my point of view.
Mike, I know where you're coming from! I was there at Barber your first year and you showed me your sleeping arrangements in your little pickup truck! I would need a much bigger truck to fit in that space you had. We all spend a lot of money for this sport, but sometimes spending more money now will actually save you more down the road. Nothing wrong with that as long as you have the money to spend now.
mpusch
Micah
After about the third time shopping around and getting quotes for $70-$80 PER WHEEL. So for every two sets of tires you buy, it's almost like you're paying for a third!
My investment in tire changing tools was about $100 or so. If you're going down the route of doing your own tires you have to make a choice. Everything comes down to two variables - Time and money. A nomar or similar machine will change tires pretty fast, but have a higher initial investment. Changing it with hand tools will be cheap, but require more time to do.
With a set of spoons it takes me about an hour a tire start to finish. Remove wheel, break the bead, unmount tire, mount new, seat the bead, inflate, balance. Not too bad, and I don't do it frequently enough to annoy me.
Balancing isn't a big deal, though I really took my time doing it the first time or two. My advice, get a GOOD balancer. Having a very straight bar and good bearings are very important. I don't have one (because I went cheaper and regret it), but Marc Parnes will come up frequently as quality if you research online. http://www.marcparnes.com/Buyers_Guide.htm
If you have a good balancer, I promise you can balance a wheel. The concept is simple, find the heavy spot (it will rotate to the bottom) and then put wheel weights directly opposite to it. A little bit of trial and error to find the correct weight. When it's balanced, it won't rotate and settle to a heavy spot, because there won't be one (at least not a significant one).
Couple shots of my homemade stuff. The piece on the right normally lays flat on the ground so you can rest the rim on it (with a towel underneath) and not worry about the brake rotor or sprocket.
As an update, I bought the base level Nomar (Cycle Hill). I added a "yellow thing" and nomar bead breaker as options. After drilling anchors into my concrete floor, it was very easy to set up.
First practice tire (Q3) took around a half hour to swap, and a lot of effort. Watched videos some more to pick up the small details of changing them right. Second one only took 10 minutes. Third time took like two minutes. Proper application of lube really is everything.
The bead breaker alone was a revelation, and swapping tires in a couple minutes (plus a bit of time to balance) feels great after all the sweating that went into doing it by hand.
Ignore the temporary mess behind it!
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Mike:p
Don’t be a Hero, be consistent.
Micah,
Where did you purchase your tire changer, no scratch bead braker and yellow thing? I looked on eBay and found them and went to the NoMar website and found them there too. They are cheaper ( $395) on the NoMar website right now but I was wondering if you know of any other places that might have even better deals. Thanks
mpusch
Micah
Got it from them directly. IIRC, at the time it was slightly cheaper ($10 bucks or so) on eBay, so they price matched it. They were easy to deal with and they shipped it out quickly.
I would highly recommend upgrading the bead breaker to the nomar version. I was contemplating just keeping the base version, but that could pretty easily be a source of scratching up your rims without it.
Also, the base version clamps work fine, but do take a bit of fiddling (with a socket wrench to adjust). The upgraded "posi clamps" or whatever look pretty attractive. That said, they are a pretty good chunk of change.
JBowen33
New Member
I say this as someone who has changed his own tires and someone that does this on a budget.... to me just paying the 20 bucks to have someone mount/ flip balance your tires is well worth it IMO. Less stress. I don’t mind doing it while I have the time at home but I’ll pass doing it track side. I already haul to much crap to the track as it is. As said before if you buy new tires it’s included trackside.
I’ll leave this with you as well. If your not a brand whore whatever org you ride with mostly, if you go with the tire brand that does the tire service it saves you a lot of headaches and saves you money. Racing is a different story.
I’ll leave this with you as well. If your not a brand whore whatever org you ride with mostly, if you go with the tire brand that does the tire service it saves you a lot of headaches and saves you money. Racing is a different story.