Bike Shops not wanting to install tires they didn't sell.

[Fastalk]

Has anyone had a problem with a dealer not willing to install tires that you didn't buy from them. I bought a set of tires Bridgestone BT021s and had them shipped to my daughter in Tampa Fl. However when I called a Yamaha dealer in St Petersburg FL they said they can't install my tires because their insurance company doesn't allow them to install tires that weren't purchased from them. I called two other bike shops and they said they didn't install tires because there isn't any money in it. However they said they would install tires that were bought from Motorcycle Superstore????. I was willing to pay their hourly rate but they said no! (They are listed on their web site as a preferred installer). I bought mine from Compition Acc. the price wasn't a big difference $239. vs $245. at the dealer. So now I have 2 sets in Tampa waiting for me. :angry2:

 

[Patriot]

yep, here in Nawlins', a good 1/2 of the official name brand dealerships have that policy.

then there's the others including all the Harley shops that double the fee to do an installation when you bring them the tires.

I have done much better with the independent shops run by just a guy who loves motorcycles.

$25 if I bring in the wheel and $45 on the bike per tire.

There's also the independent who contracts with the local police departments to maintain and fix their bikes. He kinda busy most of the time with the hard ridden Police Harleys.

The other kicker is the policy of ALL the name brand dealerships to only work on bikes 9 years old or newer. They insist on using the bike's manufacturer name brand parts and selling them at retail. They claim there is no guarantee they can get parts for a 10 year old bike. Again, a couple of years ago I was riding a '83 Goldwing. I purchased my parts myself and brought them to an independent to have engine maintenance and work done.

 

[08FJR4ME]

My local dealer will do it but he ups the fee if you didn't buy from them. Capitalism is great!

 

[Big-D]

Your situation is neither new or unique. I experienced such situations back in the mid '70's when I used mail order to buy parts. I hate to say it, but most shops charge way too much for certain parts, only to **** you once again on the labor and/or service fees. I'm the first one that would enjoy patronizing local establishments and keeping the money local, but when they try to put the screws to you there in the shop, my money goes else where. I just bought a new set of PRII's for $255 from a small local shop. Believe me, if he could do it, so could any other shop. Many would rather lose the sale than meet a lower price. ***'em. Loyalty is a 2-way street.

If you are mechanically inclined and own a half way descent set of tools and plan on keeping your bike a while, start buying the necessary equipment to perform most maintenance tasks yourself. You'll save lots of green in a hurry, as the stuff you buy will pay for itself usually during the first use. And once you become proficient at it, you can help out your buddies and perhaps make a few bucks yourself.

Although many of the basic adjustment, repairs or replacements might seem intimidating, most are really easy. Don't let it scare you. Just take your time, pay attention to what you're doing and you'll see how easy most stuff really is. I find that if you decide to tackle jobs yourself, my rule of thumb is, if you take it apart, then you put it back together. Don't allow your buddy help you do any disassembling, 'cus you won't remember where that little spring, clip or screw goes. If you do it yourself, you'll remember.

 

[tesla]

Local Yammy dealer charges double the labor rate if you bring your own tires. Found another Honda dealer that recently started selling and servicing Yamaha's that doesn't charge extra for labor so I took my Derby Cycle PR2's there and they installed them. They told me that they could probably beat Derby's prices because they sell tires at the employee discounted rate so I asked for a quote......it was $100.00 more than Derby's. They were surprised when I told them how much I got them for and suggested that the tires might be very old. I checked and they were made in August and Oct of 09.

 

[ultimateanswer]

My shop won't touch a walk in tyre. It is a matter of insurance for us. We can't warranty a walk in tyre, or give the customer any surety of whether or not the tyre is new or used or within the manufacturer's specifications. I have and always will purchase my tyres from the shop rather than order them from a third party. When you break it down it is cheaper that way. For example:

Tyre Brand X Model 1 from the dealer is $250 installed and the dealer will warranty the tyre for X miles.

Same tire from www.discountbiketyres.wtf is $175 plus $40 shipping door to door then you have to take that tyre to the shop to have it installed for $45 with no warranty.

Total cost for Brand X Model 1:

Dealer: $250 with warranty

Web: $250 no warranty

You are getting better value for money with leaving out the midle man! Not to mention all the time and driving around you will have to waste finding a shop that will install a walk in tyre. Just my $.02. My dealership's margin on tyres is only 2% so there is no incentive to have someone buy a tyre from us, other than the warranty that the shop and the manufacturer throws in for free.

 

[slowrider]

Ditto on familiar story. There area a couple of dealers in central and north Louisiana that will accomodate you for about $26 per tire if you bring in the wheel and new tire. Most all others refuse to mount tires you purchased elsewhere or charge outrageous labor for such service. Check around at local shops or shops that carry multipile bike brands they seen to be the most accomodating.

 

[ian]

Harbor Freight is your friend. Changer for about $50. I also bought a couple of 16" tire irons for the tough ones. Ian, Iowa

 

[pinhead]

Our local shop charges $75 total to mount/balance tires ordered through them. It doesn't matter if you take them just the wheels or the whole bike. They charge just over $200 to mount walk-in tires if you take the wheels off yourself. With two bikes in our family, it was pretty easy to justify spending the money on a manual tire changer.

 

[tcfjr]

My local dealer, Pasadena Yamaha in southern California, mounts and balances the tires I buy off the 'net for $10 per wheel (plus the state-mandated tire disposal fee) if I bring them in off the bike.

 

[Fastalk]

Harbor Freight is your friend. Changer for about $50. I also bought a couple of 16" tire irons for the tough ones. Ian, Iowa

I was just looking at their website, I do all of my non warranty work, I guess I'll have to look at buying one. What do you do about the balancing?

 

[Aasland]

wtf is $175 plus $40 shipping door to door then you have to take that tyre to the shop to have it installed for $45 with no warranty.

$40 shipping? Yikes! Check out https://www.swmototires.com/ and https://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/ - they frequently have free shipping.

The other thing is that it's a PITA to ride to the shop and wait around an hour for them to change each tire. Better to just do it in my own garage in the evening. I figure I save about $80/tire by ordering off the web and changing it myself, and it took less than one season of tire changes to pay for the equipment.

What do you do about the balancing?

Some don't balance at all. I use this:

https://marcparnes.com/

 

[olsonm3915]

I bought the Harbor Freight tire machine on sale for around $75 total. A few bucks for some threaded anchors and a drill bit to fasten it to my garage floor. I can remove it but never have in the five years or so since I bought it.

The tire bar that comes with the HF machine is pretty crude. It works but it has no plastic cover to protect your rims from scratching. If you don't mind scratching your (and your buddies' rims) you can use it. I bought a nicer Coates bar which cost me more than the HF changer, but it's worth it. It came with a bag of spare nylon protectors that fit over the business ends of the bar, to protect the rims.

For balancing I have two balancers. One I made myself by following the instructions in the March 2004 issue of Motorcycle Consumer News. It's basically a pair of horizontal metal rails supported by PVC pipe. You put the axle through the wheel and it lays across the rails. If the rails are level, the wheel will roll along them and oscillate back and forth ending up with the heavy spot on the bottom. It sounds crude but it's actually very good. Most of the time I find the axle doesn't even roll, the wheel bearings spin around the stationary axle.

The other balancer I bought at Harbor Freight. It works good too, but the shaft supplied with it was not straight, and I had to buy a precision 1/2" x 14" shaft from McMaster-Carr (#6061K431, Hardened Precision Steel Shaft 1/2" OD, 14" Length, $7.74 Each). The straightness of the shaft in this style of balancer (well, the other style too, but your axles are usually straight) is critical to getting a perfect balance. Each 0.010" of runout of the shaft is equal to about an ounce of imbalance. A small price to pay to get perfect results.

So I don't fret about what the local shops want to charge for mounting tires. I would no more take a tire purchased elsewhere to my local shop than I would bring my own steak to a restaurant. If you don't like what they charge, do it yourself. Since I have four bikes and a few friends who ride I am pretty happy to make an investment which costs roughly what a set of tires costs, so I never have to pay anyone ever again to mount and balance my tires for me. And by the way I have had so-called professionals mis-balance my tires so bad you couldn't ride the bike over 50 mph, and that was with a very expensive computer spin balancer. The result is only as good as the operator.

 

[Nikk]

My local shop wants $50 for each tire change after I've taken the wheels off of the bike.

I concur with the Harbor Freight recommendation. I teamed up with a couple of fellow riders and bought the necessary gear to change tires in my garage. Unfortunately the FJR rear is the hardest tire in our fleet that we have to change.

Chances are you will ding your wheels a bit changing tires yourself, but you won't do anything worse than what the Tools at the dealer garage will do.

 

[Fred W]

Try bringing auto parts you bought off the internet to your car mechanic.

Best bet is to just learn to put the tires on yourself.

 

[olsonm3915]

Chances are you will ding your wheels a bit changing tires yourself, but you won't do anything worse than what the Tools at the dealer garage will do.

Maybe when you are learning, & if you don't buy the proper tools. But to assume that by doing it yourself you are settling for less than what you could get at a quality shop is a mistake. In fact I take some pride in the fact that I don't scratch rims, and I can achieve balance to better than 1/4 oz (when I want to).
In fact it's not just changing tires. I don't think there is anything a dealership mechanic can do better than I can. Faster, sure. Better, no. Professional mechanics make their living by doing an acceptably good job as fast as possible. I am willing to take however much time is needed to do a job well.

 

[Fastalk]

I bought the Harbor Freight tire machine on sale for around $75 total. A few bucks for some threaded anchors and a drill bit to fasten it to my garage floor. I can remove it but never have in the five years or so since I bought it.
The tire bar that comes with the HF machine is pretty crude. It works but it has no plastic cover to protect your rims from scratching. If you don't mind scratching your (and your buddies' rims) you can use it. I bought a nicer Coates bar which cost me more than the HF changer, but it's worth it. It came with a bag of spare nylon protectors that fit over the business ends of the bar, to protect the rims.

For balancing I have two balancers. One I made myself by following the instructions in the March 2004 issue of Motorcycle Consumer News. It's basically a pair of horizontal metal rails supported by PVC pipe. You put the axle through the wheel and it lays across the rails. If the rails are level, the wheel will roll along them and oscillate back and forth ending up with the heavy spot on the bottom. It sounds crude but it's actually very good. Most of the time I find the axle doesn't even roll, the wheel bearings spin around the stationary axle.

The other balancer I bought at Harbor Freight. It works good too, but the shaft supplied with it was not straight, and I had to buy a precision 1/2" x 14" shaft from McMaster-Carr (#6061K431, Hardened Precision Steel Shaft 1/2" OD, 14" Length, $7.74 Each). The straightness of the shaft in this style of balancer (well, the other style too, but your axles are usually straight) is critical to getting a perfect balance. Each 0.010" of runout of the shaft is equal to about an ounce of imbalance. A small price to pay to get perfect results.

So I don't fret about what the local shops want to charge for mounting tires. I would no more take a tire purchased elsewhere to my local shop than I would bring my own steak to a restaurant. If you don't like what they charge, do it yourself. Since I have four bikes and a few friends who ride I am pretty happy to make an investment which costs roughly what a set of tires costs, so I never have to pay anyone ever again to mount and balance my tires for me. And by the way I have had so-called professionals mis-balance my tires so bad you couldn't ride the bike over 50 mph, and that was with a very expensive computer spin balancer. The result is only as good as the operator.

Thanks for the help Guys, this is a great place to hang out.

 

[cwa]

https://www.americanmototire.com/catalog/

These folks have been great for me. I have also had a local shop FK my rims up, and yes they were the cheapest price to mount. So if you can get a tire for the right price it might be worth paying double.

 

[WBill]

Last time I had my tires changed, I called my shop's parts guy and asked him if he could match the internet price I quoted. I am a regular customer. He happily matched the price and landed the whole deal. WBill