Do you have a tire changer?

[Crash Cash]

I would not let him touch my FJR (or any other high dollar bike) even though he is an authorized Yamaha dealer. I've seen how they work.

Boy, I sure have *THAT* t-shirt.

You know... I wouldn't mind the costs so damn much if I didn't pay $40, then come out and the tire is mounted backwards. Then I complain about it, and they slap the tire on right-way-round, but to hell with balancing it. I ask if it was balanced, and they say "SURE IT WAS!" when I watched them take it straight from the tire machine to the bike, right past the balancer, without a second glance, and then lie to me with a straight face.

(Edit: oh yeah, and bust the fairing on my V-Strom while they were at it, forgot about that little bit)

So it's not a cost issue, it's an "my ass is riding these, and obviously the dealer doesn't care" issue. I don't think unless they dented the rims, they'd take responsibility for buggering up my rims. They'd shrug their shoulders and say "it was scratched like that when it got here" (edit: just like they did with the broken fairing)

Fortunately, two of the dealers that did that to me are out of business now, and so is the one that wouldn't mount tires unless you bought them there. Yay. I dance on their graves.

There's not a big garage space issue. My No-Mar changer disassembles great. The center pillar goes on a top shelf, the "Y" sits against the wall, and the arm hangs on a rack in the corner. Considering I change a tire maybe every 6 months, a Coats is out of sight. It was tough justifying the No-Mar, but I got a Forum group-buy free-shipping discount, and the quality was worth it. I *will* pay for quality and/or a job done right.

My other big pain is it's a real hassle to take a rim & tire to the shop when all you've got are bikes. I don't have a car or a truck any more. It's only worth it if they're going to do a good job.

 

[Tree Doc]

Little late in the game but I'll add my thumbsup for the HF machine. Paid $25 for a near brand new machine with M/C attachment found on craigslist from a graduating Cal Poly student that was a track rider. I bolted mine to the concrete slab on my side yard. A sturdy mount is paramount for these little machines. Use LOTS of goo when mounting. Things will go much better if you do.

 

[bradman]

Very good information.

I bought the used HF tool this morning with some pry bars, a teflon bar, the wheel balancer and all the original paperwork from 2003 when the seller bought it. I am really excited. I need to swap out a BMW piece for a CNS universal piece for the ballancer. Otherwise, it is ready to go. Wow did I get lucky, my seller gave me lots of stuff that he no longer needed. Super-nice guy, I'm so glad that I took this route.

I paid $90 for everything, I feel good about the deal.

 

[Old Michael]

Use LOTS of goo when mounting.

Amen.

 

[bradman]

Yep, I have the BMW R1100 cone piece and I need the universal cone. If someone has a universal that they don't need let me know.

https://www.marcparnes.com/index.html

 

[Tree Doc]

Smokin' deal if you got a Parnes balancer in the mix for a total of $90! I bought my Parnes balancer from Derby Cycle when I bought my PR2's a number of months back on that steal of a deal...$235 OTD, IIRC. The parnes was under $100 so the whole shebang cost less than a set of tires locally.