Wilsons Sandbox

Howdy all, I don't remember who was asking for help with a tire change but I see there are lots of ideas on how to do it. One thing I haven't seen posted yet is a warning to be careful of the brake rotor. Don't, under any circumstances put any side pressure on the brake rotor. It will warp and then you'll have an entirely new issue to deal with. I often use a 5 gallon bucket to support the wheel with the rotor inside the bucket. Gives me an easier area to work with when levering a tire on or off. Now I've bought a Harbor Freight tire changer with motorcycle adapter. I haven't set mine up yet but used one in Oklahoma last spring to remove a heavy tire from a Russian built sidecar wheel. If we hadn't had the HF tire changer we would have been cutting the tire off as it was old and very hard. The HF tire changer and motorcycle adapter go on sale every few months. I think I've got about $70 tied up in mine including delivery. Recent reports on another list indicate it also works very well on high dollar import car wheels and tires. Just my 2 cents worth. Jeff Saline ABC # 4412 South Dakota Airmarshal Airheads Beemer Club www.airheads.org The Beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota 75 R90/6, 03 KLR650, 79 R100RT

Tuesday, January 13, 2004, 12:07:32 PM, Jeff wrote: JS> Now I've bought a Harbor Freight tire changer with motorcycle adapter. I JS> haven't set mine up yet but used one in Oklahoma last spring to remove a Ooh. Ohh. More tools My damn garage is getting smaller and smaller! Wife is going to kill me! I can't tell looking at the website but how big is this thing? Is it something you bolt to bench or something? $70 is not bad at all for the frustration. I'm about due to replace my rear tire and this looks like the ticket. Someone who lives near me - please buy one of these jim

--- Jim wrote:

> Tuesday, January 13, 2004, 12:07:32 PM, Jeff wrote: > JS> Now I've bought a Harbor Freight tire changer > with motorcycle adapter. I > Is it > something you bolt to bench or something?

I put anchor nuts in the garage floor. Bolt it down R&R tire and remove from floor. Easy.

> Someone who lives near me - please > buy one of these

Is UTah near ya? don in UTah ===== __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Hotjobs: Enter the "Signing Bonus" Sweepstakes http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/signingbonus

Tire Changing I also have a Harbor Freight Tire Changer that I've been using for about a year. I have mine mounted on a 4ft by 4ft piece of 3/4" plywood. It works good that way and I can remove 4 bolts and the thing stores in the corner of the garage instead of taking up valuable real estate. A note to anyone buying this unit is that most units are shipped with the wheel clamps on backwards. I had to unscrew them and reverse them to make it work properly. I have not changed a KLR tire with mine yet but have changed many sport bike tires. With four sport bikes in the stable and living in Western North Carolina with miles and miles of twisty mountain roads we go through a lot of tires. I found that the long tire iron that came with the HF changer would scratch the aluminum wheels on the sport bikes. I tried taping plastic from milk bottles on the ends with some success by it was a real pain. Recently I bought the tire iron for a Coats 220 that has plastic tips on each end that are replaceable. Haven't changed a tire since buying the Coats tire iron but it looks like it will do the job real well. I also put some thick duct tape on the three wheel clamps to keep from marking up the aluminum wheels. The HF tire changer is a copy of the Wikco Tire Changer that cost approximately $400 Wikco in Arizona also sells the Coats 220 for $800 Wikco http://www.wikco.com/Tablemc.html Wikco Tire Changer http://www.wikco.com/MC1101.html Wikco Coats 220 http://www.wikco.com/Coats2201.html Haven't seen one of these yet. Got this information from someone else for a tire iron for the Wikco Model 100-14MC The cool ticket for the right bar for use with that tire changer www.wikco.com It has a round, replaceable, nylon tip on one end for taking off the tire and a different nylon replaceable thingy on the other end for putting them back on. It's VERY slick. It comes with their changer, which seems to be just like Harbor freight's, but costs a bunch more green. You can buy the bar separately Model 100-14MC: Complete replacement Motorcycle/Custom Car Wheel Bar - Price is $69.00 plus Shipping The big trick to tire changing is lots of tire lube. (I use Ru-Glyde tire lube that grips the tire once it dries. Using soap can increase the chance of your tire slipping on the wheel) and making sure that the tire is held in the inner part of the wheel not out on the bead. If you have a second pair of hands to help the tire change becomes much easier. Doug Pippin ---------- At 11:11 PM 1/13/04, you wrote:

> Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2004 10:07:32 -0700 > From: Jeff Saline >Subject: Tire Change > >Howdy all, > >I don't remember who was asking for help with a tire change but I see >there are lots of ideas on how to do it. One thing I haven't seen posted >yet is a warning to be careful of the brake rotor. Don't, under any >circumstances put any side pressure on the brake rotor. It will warp and >then you'll have an entirely new issue to deal with. I often use a 5 >gallon bucket to support the wheel with the rotor inside the bucket. Gives >me an easier area to work with when levering a tire on or off. > >Now I've bought a Harbor Freight tire changer with motorcycle adapter. I >haven't set mine up yet but used one in Oklahoma last spring to remove a >heavy tire from a Russian built sidecar wheel. If we hadn't had the HF >tire changer we would have been cutting the tire off as it was old and >very hard. The HF tire changer and motorcycle adapter go on sale every >few months. I think I've got about $70 tied up in mine including >delivery. Recent reports on another list indicate it also works very well >on high dollar import car wheels and tires. > >Just my 2 cents worth. > >Jeff Saline

---------- Doug Pippin 828-684-8488 dpippin5@... ---------- [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

In a message dated 2004-01-13 10:39:03 AM Pacific Standard Time, klr650@... writes:

> > Ooh. Ohh. More tools My damn garage is getting smaller and > smaller! Wife is going to kill me! > >

I have a Malcolm Smith style plastic dirt bike stand. Turn it upside down and its a perfect stand to support the wheel by its spokes leaving plenty of room for the brake rotor to hang down in the middle. The real Malcolm Smith bike stand is nothing more the plastic crate used to hold a 5 gallon water bottle on the delivery truck so with a little ingenuity you to can have a Malcolm Smith style bike stand for only a few dollars. The money saved can be used to buy a balancing stand that will double duty as a truing stand. In the Parts Unlimited catalog I found such a stand for about a $100, I had a magnetic gauge stand that makes it simple matter to covert into a truing stand. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

> Haven't seen one of these yet. Got this information from someone else for > a tire iron for the Wikco Model 100-14MC > The cool ticket for the right bar for use with that tire changer > www.wikco.com > It has a round, replaceable, nylon tip on one end for taking off the tire > and a different nylon replaceable thingy on the other end for putting them > back on. It's VERY slick.

I have this tire change tool. It came with my Wikco changer. At $388 (delivered) for the Wikco, I probably wish I had seen the Harbor Freight one first, but I am stil stinging from my last Harbor Freight purchase. I needed a couple of McPherson strut spring compressors and HF had them for $9.99 each vs. $59 at the NAPA store. Times two sets thats a big difference. Whattadeal, until the head of the Made in China P.O.S. broke off while the spring was compressed and it flew across my garage like a rocket. Could have killed me. Then I had to go borrow a set to finish the job. Instead of saving $100, I wasted $20. Not to say that there is anything wrong with the HF changer, I'm just not impressed with Chinese metallurgy at the moment. To the original point, the Wikco mount/demount bar is the cat's pajamas. The round end is the demount end and it works double slick. The mount end has a thick plastic bearing surface that won't scar wheels. The tips are not high wear items. The mount end of the tool takes a bit of practice to work well. You won't be too impressed on your first tire. Take your old tire off and on a few times to practice with the tool You'll like it.

> The big trick to tire changing is lots of tire lube. (I use Ru-Glyde tire > lube that grips the tire once it dries. Using soap can increase the

chance

> of your tire slipping on the wheel) and making sure that the tire is held > in the inner part of the wheel not out on the bead. If you have a second > pair of hands to help the tire change becomes much easier.

Agree with using proper tire lube. I buy mine from Myers Tire Supply. A gallon lasts a long time unless your teenage kids mistake it for windshield washer fluid and use the whole gallon. Lee / Colbert GA (KLR newbie)

--- In DSN_klr650@yahoogroups.com, bill sels wrote:

> Is 20 bucks a good deal to mount and balance a tire if i take

back tire to dealer ??eddie self

>

Yup. Very fair.

On Fri, Jan 23, 2004 at 04:37:12PM -0800, bill sels wrote:

> Is 20 bucks a good deal to mount and balance a tire if i take back > tire to dealer ??eddie self

That's a _great_ deal. If the tire is a tubeless Gripster or, even worse, a Distanzia, the dealer is really, really going to regret mounting it for you for $20... while he's cursing and breaking his knuckles, go out and get him a sixer of cheap beer. Thor