Kettle Clinic

+1 for BT45's with tubes.
Oponeo (https://www.oponeo.co.uk) do a set of 3.25x19 & 4.00x18 delivered for £145 (excl. tubes) job done.

Do you fit your own tyres? It's one of those things I've always left to tyre fitters but if it is relatively easy I would rather do it myself. I'm hoping it's more about technique than strength as I'm a 60 year old weakling!

Simon

swarrans wrote:Do you fit your own tyres? It's one of those things I've always left to tyre fitters but if it is relatively easy I would rather do it myself. I'm hoping it's more about technique than strength as I'm a 60 year old weakling!

Simon

Sod that malarkey, my local bike shop only charges £10 a wheel to fit and balance them so I whip'em off (steady Vicar) and take them there.

When I buy my Bridgestones from my local dealer, (always do cos they'll match any genuine price) they also fit and balance them for free. As for fitting tubes in a tubeless tyre, I've owned my kettle since 1987, always fitted Bridgestones with tubes and never had a problem.

stevewharton wrote:When I buy my Bridgestones from my local dealer, (always do cos they'll match any genuine price) they also fit and balance them for free. As for fitting tubes in a tubeless tyre, I've owned my kettle since 1987, always fitted Bridgestones with tubes and never had a problem.

That's the type of info I'm looking for. Cheers

Chris57 wrote:

swarrans wrote:Do you fit your own tyres? It's one of those things I've always left to tyre fitters but if it is relatively easy I would rather do it myself. I'm hoping it's more about technique than strength as I'm a 60 year old weakling!

Simon

Sod that malarkey, my local bike shop only charges £10 a wheel to fit and balance them so I whip'em off (steady Vicar) and take them there.

I'll probably do the same but I live in the money grubbing South and it's probably more like £25 per wheel here!

Simon

As I said earlier, my local Suzuki dealer doesn't charge for fitting and balancing if the tyres are bought from them. The only times they charge is if you take a tyre in for fitting that's been bought elsewhere and then it's £10 a wheel and that's on a loose wheel.
On my other bike, the GSX1100 there's no centre stand, so I let them take the wheels out for new tyres to be fitted and they charge £10 a wheel, much easier and safer than struggling myself.

An update on my options. I spoke to a tyre guy who informed me that most tubeless tyres are good for tubed fitting as long as the wheel was designed to accept a tubed tyre. My wheels needed no investigation as they're spoked but I guess any alloys might warrant closer scrutiny to be safe. I duly ordered a pair of BT45's.
I've been investigating the tyres that are on it to determine their age. The code on them is pre the current system so can only give the year of an unknown decade. From this info I reckon they're from the early 80's. No wonder they're all cracked and buggered lol. They do add to the provenance of the 20k miles on the clock being right

swarrans wrote:

Chris57 wrote:

swarrans wrote:Do you fit your own tyres? It's one of those things I've always left to tyre fitters but if it is relatively easy I would rather do it myself. I'm hoping it's more about technique than strength as I'm a 60 year old weakling!

Simon

Sod that malarkey, my local bike shop only charges £10 a wheel to fit and balance them so I whip'em off (steady Vicar) and take them there.

I'll probably do the same but I live in the money grubbing South and it's probably more like £25 per wheel here!

Simon

I'm in NW London Simon and a tenner per loose wheel is the going rate at both my local bike shops too. Like most of them these days they can never do any better on the price of the actual tyres than Joe Public can get from the cut price online firms. In fact one them used to have a separate bike tyre shop and recently closed it down for that very reason.

Chris57 wrote: I'm in NW London Simon and a tenner per loose wheel is the going rate at both my local bike shops too. Like most of them these days they can never do any better on the price of the actual tyres than Joe Public can get from the cut price online firms. In fact one them used to have a separate bike tyre shop and recently closed it down for that very reason.

Blimey it might be worth me actually driving to your neck of the woods! I've rung around locally and cheapest I've been quoted is £20 plus VAT a loose wheel!

So, does anyone on here actually fit their own?

Simon