Tire Change Pain (In the Wallet)

[emullick_imp]

I change all my dirt bike and dual sport tires, and I used to change the tires on my street bikes when they were the chrome, spoked rims, because these resist scratching, but I don't do any of my street bikes with painted rims because I will scratch them.

I had the dealer put a pretty big scratch in the rim of my VFR800 years ago. I complained to the manager, and they refused to have it repaired (it would have to have been powder-coated). I refused to pay for the tire swap (I provided them the rim, off the bike), and they were happy with that (I wasn't) because they got away cheap.

I had a rear tire swap on this same bike performed another time, and when they handed it back to me without any tire weights on it I asked them if they had balanced it, and they said yes (they charged separate fees for mounting and balancing at that time). I thought this was strange, but I accepted their word. The next time this shop swapped a rear tire it came back with no tire weights and I again questioned them if it had been balanced. The counter guy went back and asked the mechanic if he balanced it, and he stated that he had not, and that was because their balance machine required a special adapter to work with a VFR800 rear wheel (it has a single-sided swingarm) and they didn't have this adapter. My bill had the separate charges for mounting and balancing. Needless to say, I never used this shop again.

To balance a wheel, slide the axle in place, place the wheel supported by the axle between two chairs, spin the wheel slowly. The heavy part part drops down, place a small weight on the high side until it never stops in the same place, moving it as needed. I have a stock of adhesive backed wheel weights since the 70's, quick and easy. Use duct tape to hold the weight in place if needed, on the inner rim, (contrifugal force)