1400 Owners Life Today ( The 'What did you do today?' thread)

[Kiwifruit]

Flash boots Col 

[Eric GSX1400K3]

For all the frigging around with DIY tyre fitting, and then needing to get them balanced anyway, I'd be happy to spend the 50bucks and have them done by the motorcycle tyre shop.

Plus their machine is unlikely to chip the rims, whereas your tyre levers are more likely to do so.

[Horse]

Breaking the bead on the old tyres is the worst/hardest part ,a pair of rim protectors are cheap and do a good job of saving rims ,as has been said a bit of soap and a rubber mallet and the job is done . Static balance is good enough that I have never noticed any vibration . Gave the rims off my 916 some years ago to a shop came back damaged , never again.

[KiwiCol]

Thx for the replies guys.  Reckon I'll have a crack myself.  We have dynamic & static balancers at work, but you can buy a static balancer for home for about $130, or be even cheaper & make your own stand.  Stick on weights aren't dear.
Speaking of that, what's the word on balance beads?  anyone use them?  Personally I don't like the thought of stuff rolling around inside the tire, but that's just me.  Appears they work, but I'd like to hear from anyone using them.

[KiwiCol]

& Grog, you've got 37 - 38 degree days,   well today we have a temp of 5 degrees at the moment, with a feels like of -1, & snow to 500m on the port hills. It's fecken cold n miserable here! 

[DP1400]

I fit all my own tyres and its not difficult.  When using the levers take very small bites and use an old leather belt to protect the rim.

Do you balance your own tyres at home mjgt? If so, how do you go about it please?

Cheers,
Dave.

[Horse]

Col , i just use the axle between two jack stands , i have always got away with repositioning the original weight on the rim , the one that clamps onto the center rib of the wheel. Most quality tyres don't have a lot of imbalance when i put the road 5s on didn't have to even shift the weight. i have a set of pro motion bead breaking tyre irons that do the trick, Enjoy,

[Kiwifruit]

Col I used to watch guys fit their race tyres. They would move the tyre on the rim to minimize adding weights.

[KiwiCol]

Col , i just use the axle between two jack stands , i have always got away with repositioning the original weight on the rim , the one that clamps onto the center rib of the wheel. Most quality tyres don't have a lot of imbalance when i put the road 5s on didn't have to even shift the weight. i have a set of pro motion bead breaking tyre irons that do the trick, Enjoy,

Yes, I've seen that done using the axle & a couple of stands.  Was wondering how level it was though, seems the stand is supposed to be level - from their blurb anyway. 
The Pro Motion levers (FS ones) are $170 + freight here, bit steep.

[Horse]

I grabbed the levers last time in the US (the forged steel ones ) for less than $100 AUD, we get gouged down here in the southern lands , as far as balancing goes i make sure its level and i check the rim first with no tyre and weight in place and in most cases the tyre doesn't make a lot of difference, i always line up the fitment mark and can't feel any vibration in the bike, i am sure an electronic balancer would get it better maybe 5 + grams but what i am saying is that that 5 grams is not noticeable on the bike.

[KiwiCol]

Great, Thx Horse.  I can see my axle stands being put to another use . . .

[Mick_J]

I fit all my own tyres and its not difficult.  When using the levers take very small bites and use an old leather belt to protect the rim.

Do you balance your own tyres at home mjgt? If so, how do you go about it please?

Cheers,
Dave.

Yes mate I balance mine at home, I do both wheels.  I have a static balancer and I managed to blag a bag of wheel weights off a mobile tyre fitter who came out to fix a puncture on one of my hire cars.
With the static balancer I just place the rod with cones through the wheel and place on the jig and give it a spin.  Once it has settled I use a piece of white marker to mark the top of the tyre and give it another spin (very slowly) and mark again, if it's in the same place I Sellotape a wheel weight to the rim at the mark and spin again.  One I get the right amount of weight  and the wheel stops at random points I stich the weights to the rim, job done.
Hope that helps.

[1AW022]

What I did today was have a brown moment
Out the driveway.. up to 3rd... into the roundabout I gave it a twist and slid sideways down the road
Managed to gather it and keep going
I love torque... but ... bit of brown this AM
Forgot... the new tyres have less than 100kms on them

[Notty]

MOT failed this morning- both tyres need changing  :bugga

[Hooli]

You're claiming to have worn them out?