No Mar Tire Changer

[gasman]

Got the No Mar tire changer and associated stuff and things yesterday, mounted it to the concrete and today pulled the rear wheel off to put on new tire. Not quite as easyas their videos show. In fact not even close. It worked but not without a whole lot more muscle than it showed on their vid. Course they were using what appeared to be a very soft tire, I was dismounting and mounting Avon Azaro's. Might want to wait before buying one to see what they suggest, I did send them an email voicing my displeasure with their product. I guess if you use tires that are made out of pasta you might be ok. I was really excited to be getting this thing now I'm just kind of :huh: JB

 

[RTSR1/FJR]

Got the No Mar tire changer and associated stuff and things yesterday, mounted it to the concrete and today pulled the rear wheel off to put on new tire. Not quite as easyas their videos show. In fact not even close. It worked but not without a whole lot more muscle than it showed on their vid. Course they were using what appeared to be a very soft tire, I was dismounting and mounting Avon Azaro's. Might want to wait before buying one to see what they suggest, I did send them an email voicing my displeasure with their product. I guess if you use tires that are made out of pasta you might be ok. I was really excited to be getting this thing now I'm just kind of :huh: JB

Seen 'em! Didn't think much about 'em either!

 

[markjenn]

Is this your first tire change? If so, then you'll get better. And you may not have reasoanble expectations. All manual tire changers require muscle.

Tire changing is dirty/nasty cave man mechanics no matter what you use. If the changer is stable, holds the wheel securely without marring the rims, and provides the appropriate lever points, it's doing it's job.

- Mark

 

[RTSR1/FJR]

Is this your first tire change? If so, then you'll get better. And you may not have reasoanble expectations. All manual tire changers require muscle.
Tire changing is dirty/nasty cave man mechanics no matter what you use. If the changer is stable, holds the wheel securely without marring the rims, and provides the appropriate lever points, it's doing it's job.

- Mark

Yeah, they can be a ***** at times! Wrestled a many a tire during my racing career. Since my buddy became a Michelin race tire dist, I just use his COATS now. 5 mins. and your done and thats poking along! lol

 

[S_Palmer]

While their video makes it look like an easier process than it is, the key is technique and lubrication. Make sure the new tire is warm, use plenty of lube. I get my lube from a local tire shop, thats what it is made for and works better than WD40, simple green and all the other homegrown crap I've tried.

Once you start mounting the tire be sure the bead is pushed down to the middle of the rim so that you have enough slack to slip the other side on.

Don't give up, when you have done a few you will be amazed how easy it really is.

I use an old harbor freight changer with a wiko bar and do an avon in about 4 or 5 min.

Good Luck

Steve

 

[OrangevaleFJR]

what so you guys do to balance the tire?

 

[RTSR1/FJR]

what so you guys do to balance the tire?

I made a stand out of 1.25" Sched 80 PVC/2 ea. precision bearings/.500" drill rod 20 yrs. ago and still use it today! Works great! I use stick on weights, but some insist on clip on.

 

[jbay]

Don't give up, when you have done a few you will be amazed how easy it really is.I use an old harbor freight changer with a wiko bar and do an avon in about 4 or 5 min.

Good Luck

Steve

Hey Steve what is a wiko bar, why not use the Harbor Freight bar and do the rims get scratched at all with either bar ?

 

[FJRocket]

I watched one of our fellow listers change a few tires over the weekend using the No Mar rig. Although he did have problems removing a Battle Axe from an FJR, putting on and removing Avons looked fairly easy and pretty straight forward. As said before, once you've done it a couple times, if you use plenty of lubey doobey, it actually seemed pretty straight forward. There is a little muscle and grim involved, but it looked like a good "manual" rig to me.

 

[gasman]

I'm definitely going to keep the rig and figured I'm on the "low" side of the learning curve. They did say the stiff walled tires would be harder to mt.,sheesh no kidding. I did use plenty of lube but evidently not in the right place. I got an immediate reply from Steve to assist me, here's his info." Important. This is not detailed in the videos as much as it should

If the bar gets bound up at 12:00. Stop. Back up and lube the "Rim"

between 12:00 and 3:00 -and- lube the inside lip of the tire at the

same spot. More lube on the outside of the tire and the bar will just

make a sloppy mess and the bar will pop out and you will get pissed off

and it won't work. Sorry to tell you this now. We are adding the info to

the instructions on the site. Let me know if this doesn't fix the

problem. It should. You may want to wipe the excess lube off the outside

of the tire as well. The problem is that the tire is getting stuck on the

rim. The bar isn't necessarily getting stuck on the tire. The bar will

work like the video shows with the lube i teh right spots. We apologize

for the lack of information." JB

 

[radman]

While their video makes it look like an easier process than it is, the key is technique and lubrication

Oh, that is good sig material, real good...

 

[S_Palmer]

Wikco is a company that makes a tire changer very similar to harbor freight's but also sells a bar with plastic inserts that will not scratch your wheels. https://www.wikco.com/

I have heard that they will no longer sell them alone buy only to customers that have their tire changers. Yes the harbor freight will scratch.

NO-Mar lists their bar with plastic inserts as a seperate item and I assume will sell them without buying a changer from them.

Steve

 

[jbay]

Thanks for the info Steve. I will get either the Wilko or no-mar bar.

 

[smitty141]

Yes, you can buy just the bar..

 

[FJRocket]

I have mine set up, but not bolted to the floor yet. It ain't exactly what I call sophisticated, but I KNOW it will get the job done. Heck, I watched SMITTY do it. Easy Peasy. Just stay away from Bridgestones.

Smitty was telling me that the optional clamps that No-Mar sells (which you can use to hold the sidewalls of the tougher tires together) work very well. The problem on some stiff walled tires I guess is that they want to hold their full shape and stay full out against the rim. That makes it hard to get the rim locked into the nylon blocks. But if you squeeze the rubber walls together with a clamp, or three, then you can get the rim locked down and pop that rubber right off of there.

If you get the optional floor mounting kit for $7, you need to have a 3/4 concrete bit and a big assed hammer drill to install it in your concrete floor. Or you can do what KSFJR is doing and build yourself up a plywood platform to mount it. Another choice might be to skip buying the stand and just use the unit on your bench top. I like the pedestal stand, though. It'll let me get some leverage on everything.

 

[smitty141]

Glad to see it made it. I used the bead clamp on my practice wheel. One clamp helped alot. I will buy 2 more, then even the stones won't make me cuss. :lol: smitty

 

[KSFJR]

After reading FJRocket's and Smitty's post and having viewed the NoMar website, wouldn't large "C" clamps work to squeeze the tire down? They could be purchased for a few bucks a piece and be located at any tool supply house.

Glad to see you got your changer Matt. Now we can all come to your house.

Chester

 

[FJRocket]

Yeah, you can all come to my house. If we ride about 1 hour from here, there's about 30 miles of fun roads to ride. That's in the whole state. Indiana isn't exactly spectacular for motorcycling.

I have some very large plastic c clamps that I am going to try. And that's only if I need to compress the rubber down.

I don't think I'd want to use metal C clamps without some serious protection on those rims.

I did buy some rim savers with my tire order. Maybe that's why my tires are taking so long to get here. 10 days from the time I ordered them. Rediculous.

 

[SOUTHERNMAGE]

HINT HINT

This is a bit of information that i learned from a crusty old tire changer years ago.

After you break the bead of the tire. Insert your tire spoon or whatever your using to lever the tire off the rim at the 12:00 position. As you start to lever the tire off the rim apply pressure to the tire at the 6:00 position. This allowes this side of the tire to slip down and move farther up into the belly of the rim. This can give you a considerable amount of extra room to start the lip of the tire over the rim. Works the same going on and off. :assasin: <-- tire spoons hahahaha