easier tire changes - milling stock rims or replacing?

I once used an SUV, 2"x6"x10' and all 220#'s of my weight to break the bead. All this while two of my son's are standing on the wheel. The neighbors thought I was trying to lift the SUV


Nate

Yep...it's funny how much I can rock a PT doing this drill.

Here is a method for breaking the BADDEST bead that requires nothing other than tire irons and chemistry. This method is very simple. It requires very little strength. It requires no heavy bead breakers or SUVs. It uses brain power (something that is apparently sorely lacking in this forum) rather than might. Try it.

Go to your local REAL cage bits place like NAPA or CarQuest or something like that, NOT Kragens or Checker or Autozone. Buy some TIRE MOUNTING LUBRICANT. A gallon will last you a lifetime and should cost between $10 - $20. Pour a little bit into a 2 oz. or four oz. bottle, preferably with a squirt top. An old travel-size contact lens solution bottle works great for this. I got a gallon of Ru-Glyde for $12 a few years back at NAPA.

1) Lay the wheel on its side on the ground or a tarp or your riding jacket.
2) Squirt some Ru-Glyde (or equiv) around the circumference where the tire meets the rim.
3) Stick a tire iron in between the tire and rim. Press the tire iron down so that the fluid can get in there a little deeper.
4) Stick another tire iron between the tire and rim, about three or four inches from the first one. Maintain pressure on the first one while you press the second.
5) Remove the first one and repeat step four above as if the second was the first.
6) After you have gone once around the wheel, add more lubricant.
7) Repeat steps one (1) through five (5) above, two or three times.
8) When bead is free, if you plan to replace the tire, turn the wheel over and repeat for the other bead.

Think about it... all you will need to carry to fix a flat in a tube is a set of tire irons, a tiny squirt bottle and some patches. In the boonies, you won't have to wait for some cell phone yakking soccer mom to come along in her SUV to help you change your tire.

Dude, weren't you listening?
All it takes is a PT Cruiser, not a whole SUV.



But yeah, real tire lube truly does work better than ersatz stuff.

Flash - we're talking about a 950 here in most of these posts. The rims have an extra high rim bead as Woody will attest.

By comparison, when I changed out a tube on my last bike, breaking the bead on the rear literally took stepping on it.

I can break the bead with the 2x4 and I've done with the sidestand and I'll to make it even easier by sanding down the bead to something more reasonable.

What he said. I actually tried lube and it wouldn't go. I tried lube with a bead breaker and it still wouldn't go. It wasn't prety. My 640/620 even my BMW R100gs and R1100GS tubeless could be broken with a side stand. But not the 950


Nate

All I know is that I BROKE one of those cast bead breakers trying to remove a rear tire from an F650 that had been in a bit of a fire. It was re-vulcanized and VERY hard. What worked for me in the end is what I posted.

I've probably changed hundreds of tires by hand in my motorcycling career so far. Granted, I've never changed tires on a KTM. But the F650 rear is a guaranteed bitch and a half without Ru-Glyde. Before the F650, all I EVER needed to break a bead on a tube-type tire was my boot heels.

Four rear wheel F650 flats in a day convinced me that Ru-Glyde is my friend and I need nothing but tire irons and Ru-Glyde.

YLMV.

Well, since my last bike was an F650 - btdt - and it was a piece of cake compared to the 950. Literally.

I've attempted most other ways with failure, but this is how I do mine successfully every time within a minute.


Use a 6 inch G clamp and a small piece of timber(the timber in the picture is long just so it could be seen for photo). Wind up till bead breaks then rip tyre off as per norm.
No mods to rims and very quick and the clamp is small enough to take on trips.
There is a thread on this but I couldn't find it again.

Happy bead breaking

Found that thread here it is

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3202575#post3202575

Well, since I have a big 6"........





clamp.... I'll give this a try. If it fails, I'll use the car/2x4 again and then mill down the rim.

Nothing to lose 'eh?

I've just purched a 950 non S for a trip to southern Argentina this winter
and had Woody's lace up a set of 19/17 rims for better tire choice.
He's mills the inner bead flat about 5 or six inches on either side of the
valve hole to ease breaking down the bead. This looks to be a workable solution, which Woody recomended. On my other 950 an '04 S
it was imposible to break the rear stock setup. I rode a rear flat 40 miles out of the Idaho back country and it never broke. You could mill the bead off the
stock rims but you would still have the weak stock rims. Better to have some
Sun or Excels laced up. I've got 25,000 miles of hard riding on my '04 S
with Sun rims with no problems and they break down without to much
effort. I had 7 flats on a recient Baja trip,4 in one day so i have a lot of
practice!

GO!!!!!!! MAX

I have a tyre changing ring which has a bead braker on it and changing tyres on our MX and EXC's is very straight forward......however......haven't attempted to change the tyres on the 990 yet.

Will 990 tyres be harder to change than EXC and SX Enduro/MX tyres?:huh

You betcha ass they will!!

Seriously i aint got a frickin clue but if what is being said on here is anything to go by....be afraid.....be very afraid!!:eek1 :eek1

Blue

Lots of serious advice on here, think i'll do my usual get the f###in wheel off and attack it with plenty of gusto....if it goes titz up i'll have to take it to the tyre shop!

Should be OK in your garage(plenty of things to bash it with surely) but out on the trail is where i think the guys are saying it's a barsteward.
I do all my exc tyre changing with just tyre levers but i think when my 950adv rear tyre is bald i'll have a crack at it in the garage to see what's what.:huh

Off to do the Dyfi on the 450 .....have ordered my tyres so will give it a try at home....will let you know how I get on....with some piccys of the mayhem!!!:huh

Well, after hearing all the horror stories about breaking the bead on the mighty 950 I was nervous about trying to install my new TKC's (and Bridgestone Ultra Heavy Duty tubes) in preparation for Creel. But time was slipping away so my BIL and I got together today for a tire/tube changing experiment. Aside from my 950's hoops we also had to put new DOT's on an XR650R, new UHD tubes in BIL's KLR and new UHD's in my 525EXC's tires. Quite the agenda.

An important point to make is that both BIL and I have attempted a tire/tube change before with no luck but we read Neduro's tire tips thread and I had read all the 950 discussions so we felt ready to try again. Plus, we had to know if we could do the deed in the middle of Mexico. We started with the XR's tire changes and after a little trouble getting started we had the first tube out and were working the front tire off. It was a bitch but came off with some damage to the old tire.

Before fitting the new tire we used some tire changing lube (purchased from Napa) and it was significantly easier to install the new tire. Keep the tire bead in the center of the rim and it goes on pretty easy. The last section is always the hardest but totally doable if you go slow and take small sections at a time. The rear was even tougher but the tire lube made it easy and it was done in no time. Confidence was growing.

Next up, the 9-fiddy! We jammed some lube into the gap using a tire iron and then tried to use just irons to break the bead - no joy. Next, I tried a prybar another user swore by but it just damaged the rim. We decided to try the sidestand trick using the KLR, wedging the tire under the stand and pushing down. I was expecting a fight but a little pressure and the bead popped right off. It was too f*n easy - what the hell? We pulled the tube and now needed to pop the bead on the other side. Sidestand to the rescue - POP! The tire pulled right off (Tire lube - buy some today!) and installing the TKC was just as easy; pop the tire on the rim, slip in the tube, inflate tube for structure, lube the tire again and lever the loose side onto the rim. Truth be told, we found wheels with rim locks harder to deal with than the 950 but all are do-able. The lube makes a HUGE difference in effort equired, although I'm sure more experienced guys dont need it at all.

So, that's it - the 950 was actually very easy to deal with and now we know we can do the deed in the field. I hope this is useful to those approaching the task for the first time. It is definitly easier with 2 people but the secret is real tire lube, get some today!

Cheers.....Mike

Gees, just find a dead log or similar material, never had to look to far myself.

After reading this I decided I was going to give the "breakin the bead on the 950" a try. I was taking the bike in to get new tires put on anyway so I thought I would see if I could get the tube out using only what I would pack on the bike. First I tried the old "step on the bead and maybe it will break" trick. NO CHANCE. Then I looked at the bike sitting on the center stand and the side stand sticking out saying "use me, use me. I had already lubed up the bead the best I could so I figured I had nothing to lose. I jammed the side stand between the rim and the tire the best I could and slowly tipped the bike over on the tire. It was kind of a slow "wooosh" and the bead was broken. Wow, this was not hard at all. I could not pull the tube out without breaking the bead on the other side , so I flipped it over and "wooosh" Just as easy as the first side.
I had been worrying about what the heck I would do if I got a flat in the bush for about 8 months. It is very reassuring to know that it can be done without a lot of problems.
My rim is the 4.25 which I think is easier than the 4.00's