A buddy of mine let me borrow his XT250 (I don’t have a car right now) which was a godsend. It was fun getting the wheels and tires to the shop. I had to make two trips!
A buddy of mine let me borrow his XT250 (I don’t have a car right now) which was a godsend. It was fun getting the wheels and tires to the shop. I had to make two trips!
The closely guarded ancient ninja secret to DIY tire changes turns out to be to use actual professional tire bead lubricant. I finally got a gallon bucket of the stuff online which will probably be a lifetime supply, and using it almost feels like cheating. Forget about Windex and dish soap.
On every rim I’ve tried it on it completely eliminated the struggle other than breaking the bead on the crustier examples, for which I have a selection of bead breaking tools anyway. I put a front tire on my KLR a couple of months ago which is a 21" diameter, and using the lubricant stuff after breaking the bead I was able to shove the old tire off by hand without using any spoons at all, and I very nearly got the new tire back on without any spoons, either. I only needed to spoon it for about the last one sixth of its diameter on the second bead.
Widely known secret of cave man, use three tyre irons, hold one down with your knee while you use the other two to stop the tyre coming off and force it the rest of the way, until the one your holding with your knee slips and you get a swift gender change.
But seriously thanks for the info, I’ll go find some for the next time.