First off, thank you all for great tips and advice over the years. I have been lurking for a couple of years and I have benefited from your collective wisdom immensely. I bought a 95 Heritage recently, and did front and rear tire change. The following is not meant to be a comprehensive set of instructions. They are just some tips that might make your tire change experience a little easier.

Tires: My bike came with 12-year-old Dunlop/Harley tires with less than 2000 miles on them. They looked brand new with no noticeable wear or cracks. BUT, being that they were 12 years old, they were hard and slippery like you wouldn’t believe. This may be easy to overlook unless you feel them side by side with new tires. Read the manufacture date on your tires, and replace old tires at the earliest opportunity regardless of mileage.

Brake rotor/sprockets: I did not have to remove them for both front and rear tire changes. They were not really in the way.

Tire irons: Combination of three 15” curved type (J&P or Amazon) and a short flat type worked best. You can wrap duct tape around the edges to protect the rim, but I didn’t really find it necessary with the curved ones.





Rear caliper spring: See photo. Took me a while to figure out how this was supposed to go back on the caliper.

Bead breaking: Put the rim on two 4x4 pieces so that you won’t damage the brake rotor or sprocket when you put it down on the ground. Slide the whole thing under your car. Raise your car by several inches using a jack. Take a piece of 2X4 and put it between the edge of the bike rim and the bottom of the car chassis. If you have a newer unibody car, find a spot on the underside of the car that can support a few hundred pounds of load. You can cut one end into a wedge shape as shown. Slowly lower the jack, and let the weight of the car break the bead.


Tire removal: After getting the first bead off the rim, I got the first 40% of the second bead off using tire irons, then I was able to pull the tire off the rim by hand with a bit of dish soap on the bead. This was much easier than trying to use tire irons all the way around.

Tire installation: Warm the tire up indoors in winter. I directed the warm air from a space heater on the new tire for an hour or so.

You probably won’t need a new rim strip, but at $2~3 apiece, it’s a cheap insurance. I replaced them.

Thread the valve stem of the new tube through the hole in the rim, and put the valve stem nut on loosely. Rest of the tube can be folded outside the rim to avoid getting pinched by the new tire later.

Lube the new tire. I used Armor All and a small amount of dish soap (diluted to 50% with water) as tire lube. Carefully look where the tire beads actually make contact with the rim- it’s easy to apply lube on the wrong side. I sprayed a thin coat of Armor All over the inside of the tire also, so that the tube won’t be stuck on the tire and unable to settle into place later.

Start working the first bead of the new tire from the valve stem area. I did it with the sprocket side down, since the brake rotor side had more room for tire irons. Work the first bead over the edge of the rim using tire irons. After the first bead is over the rim, put the rest of the tube in the tire. This way is much easier than trying to thread the valve stem through the hole in the rim after the first bead is in the rim. Then lube the inside of the second bead, since that will need to slide over the edge of the rim next.

The difficulty with getting the last 50% of the second bead over the edge of the rim comes from the fact that the first bead and a portion of the second bead that is already in the rim have to “shift” toward the center of the rim called the “drop center”. This creates more room for the last 50% of the bead that is still outside the rim, making it easier to get it over the edge of the rim with a couple of tire irons without excessive amount of force. You can sometimes facilitate this by placing your knees on the mounted portion of the tire to squeeze it into the drop center. On my Heritage with a stock 16 inch rear wheel and a new ME880, I was unable to squeeze the beads together with my knees. I used a modified version of the well-known zip-tie method, and once I figured out the details, it was a breeze. Let me try to describe it.

With the first bead over the rim and the new inner tube also on the rim, I took a few 26 inch zip ties (from Amazon), and put them around the tire/tube, but not around the rim. I tightened the zip-ties as much as I could with my hands. In other words, the beads are squeezed together by zip-ties with the inner tube tucked inside the tire. This method has a couple of advantages over the traditional zip-tie method where the zip-ties are placed around the tire before the start of tire mounting. One: you can put the zip-ties after you thread the valve stem through the hole in the rim. Two: You can work one bead at a time as opposed to having to work both beads at the same time in the traditional zip-tie method. You are also much less likely to pinch the inner tube with tire irons, since the zip-ties hold the tube inside the tire.


With the zip-ties on the tire/tube, position the tire on the ground in front of you (with 4x4s of course, to avoid damages to the sprocket) such that the valve stem is at the 3 O’clock or 9 O’clock position. There is less free room inside the rim around the valve stem, and you don’t want it at the 6 O’clock position because that’s where you want the beads to shift to the drop center. At this orientation, 3~4 zip-ties should be spaced from 4 O’clock to 8 O’clock area. Work the second bead over the rim with curved tire irons such that the last portion to go in is at the 12 O’clock position. After the second bead is fully in the rim, cut or release the zip-ties and remove them.

That’s it! You can then inflate and deflate the tube a couple of times for it to settle into place. Confirm that the beads pop into fully seated position after inflation.

 

Wow! Good write up. But, now I know why I take it to the dealer,

 

Tube type spoked rims aren't too bad as far as breaking the bead. However, if you have tubeless mag type wheels, it can be a real problem.l have had a few that wouldn't break no matter what method I tried. Wound up taking them to a shop that did tires.

 

I have changed tires on dump trucks, payloaders, scrapers and cars and motorcycles but I can honestly say I once had a ATV tire totally kick my ***!!
Finally gave up on it and cut it off with a sawsall new tire went on like butter!! go figure!!

 

Mr TriGeezer I hear you. I might take the wheels off and take them to a shop next time. After changing several motorcycle tires in my life, I can tell you that $50 for tire removal and mounting is not much money compared to the work I had to put into doing it on my own. I bought a carbed Evo for the combination of modern reliability, affordability, and a little taste of old school experience. Home tire change without special equipment was part of the experience I was looking for, and I had fun doing it. Having said that, would I want to do it every year? Maybe not!

 

I recently purchased a set of chrome stock wheels from wily shiny and decided i had enough of changing my own tires, cause i usually manage to scratch or gouge a rim when something slips, so off to the independant I went where I purchased new tires with mounting and balancing included. Glad I did not so much as a smudge on the chrome when I picked them up.

 

Taking mine off my Heritage Softail Classic and for $45 each the local motorcycle shop will take off old, install new and balance. Money well spent.