Why not just cut the tire off the rim???

I would think it would be pretty hard to get through the bead (steel cable is what it feels like) without damaging the rim.

I guess you could....Check out on YouTube 'using zip ties to change tires'...works like a charm.

I can just sawzall it off.

Let us know how that works out for ya.

Holding the tire and wheel stationary will be kinda hard to do. The twist steel wires in the bead will need a very fine blade to cut them, which will also tend to clog from the rubber of the tire. Can be done, but I would only do it as a last resort.

In retrospect I think I'll use the zip tie method.

Well, the zip tie method would not work at all for my 170/60/ZR17 rear tire. The tire was way to stiff for those ties to do anything.

I took it to a guy I found on CL and he did it in 5 minutes with hand tools like he knew what he was doing.

sawzall???

I have cut tires in half to legally discard them. It is a PITA. New blade / old blade - doesn't matter. Clamp em, put in vice etc. Once you hit the belts they start vibrating / shake'n bla bla bla. So cutting them off the rims??? But hey, they're your rims. I would not attempt it. It was a good experience though all in all. I got to physically see just how durable a bike tire really is. Best of luck in your endeavor. Maybe you can find some rims on ebay. One more thing here my friend, I aint crack'n on ya for this thought. But again, I for one would not do this.

I do a lot of my own maintenance. It's two fold. I like the money I save, and I REALLY like the time I save. I HATE sitting in some waiting room while some yahoo in the back works on my bike (or car or whatever). Why wait an hour in the shop (after riding there) when I can change the oil myself in 20 minutes in my own garage.

But tires... that's one exception for me. No thank you. I don't mess with removing rims, trying to mount my own tires, darkside, buying tires online, etc. I mean more power to you, whatever floats your boat. But you all fighting with tires and mounting them yourself and even getting the right tools; you are braver men than I. That's one thing where I just ride it to the shop and tell them what I need.

Her!! Romans just refer to me as brave, only cause I manage to tackle my tires on my own. I might not be as useless as I thought wrenchwise.
B'sides, 4 me doing stuff to my rig is part of the fun, only bout 25-30% of the fun but still part.

chanoc1077 said:

Her!! Romans just refer to me as brave, only cause I manage to tackle my tires on my own. I might not be as useless as I thought wrenchwise.
B'sides, 4 me doing stuff to my rig is part of the fun, only bout 25-30% of the fun but still part.

Click to expand...

its called the LERNIN Curve.. and no its not about counter steering.. Doing something as nasty as changing tires can be intimidating. if you never done it b4, or never had someone who knows how show you and/or help you, and Worse if you attempted it on yor own and managed to f the thing up.. Well then you don't ever want to go down that road again.. Butt if you have a good experience and realize there is reason many of the old hands still do this, well then it would be like telling somebody you don't change yor own oil because you don't want to get dirty or have to go buy oil/filters when you can just drive in and pay somebody to do it.. but hey, I still pull my wheels and let the kid do it for $20.. not cause I mind getting dirty,, I am just lazy that way. poncho
twenty bux is perfectly good :beer: money,, its either me or the kid

There are so many crafts and arts being lost to technology, that being able to teach someone to do the job, is like passing on the medicine from one medicine man to the next. For example, how many new plumbers do you think can soilder a copper pipe? The more we learn and teach others, the better the future will be.The young need to want to learn and the old need to be willing to teach, thats whats great about forums like this.

I've done that with my old tire in the KZ650. It took me about 30 minutes to cut through the tire and the steel cables. Used a dremel and a vibrating saw for the task and still wasn't easy. The only reason I did that was because after a long time of fighting with the old rubber I couldn't get it out.

Doable yes, advisable no.

I used to do all of mine with irons and a bead breaker. It can be done, I even done the rear wheel on my V2K like this. Now that one of my buddies has a tire machine, I usually take the wheel off the bike and load it up and take it and the new tire to his house and swap them out now.

I know this is an old post, but I thought I would throw this out there in case some are still looking for ways to remove there tires from the rims by themselves. I've done this many times with no problems, and found it to be so much easier than fighting the tire with tire irons.

Get an air compressor, and a die grinder, with those thin, 3" metal cut off blade. It will cut the tire and all the metal inside the tire with no problems. Just take care when you start to get close to the rim.

I hope this can help.