Tire Changing & Balancer equipment ?

[dave]

I have replaced my own street bike tires, but today I remove the wheels from my street bikes and take them to the shop to have the new tires mounted and balanced. If you mount them yourself, then you need to be really careful not to scratch the rims (if you care about having scratched rims, like I do). I drop them off at a local bike shop early on a Saturday morning, then go across the street to have breakfast while I wait. By the time I am done eating my new tires are mounted and ready to go. They charge me $25.00 per tire, and I always give them a $5.00 tip per tire because they do it while I wait. I continue to replace all of my dirt bike tires myself because I don't care about the balance, and small scratches on a dirt bike rim don't bother me.