Tyre Fitting

For many years I didn't think it was practical to fit tubeless tyres yourself. This was a pain because you either had to leave your bike at a dealer and pay them to remove & re-fit the wheels or what I did which was…

1. go to dealer and order tyre

2. wait until tyre arrives

3. remove wheel from bike A and strap onto the back of bike B

4. take wheel to dealer and drop it off

5. return to dealer to pick up wheel

6. refit wheel.

This was pain especially for someone who does at lot of miles and therefore needs regular tyre changes.

Some years back I read an article in a bike magazine that said that fitting was fairly easy. You do need some equipment - a bead breaker to remove the tyre and a compressor to re-fit.

I generally buy tyres in bulk before they're needed so I can fit them as and when I need.

Here I'm filling a new front tyre to my CBF250

Hard to see but the tyre is worn down to the indicators. It has some life in it  but since the bike needs an MOT (UK safety check) and I had the tyre I decided to fit it while the CBF is undergoing its annual clean up.

I remove the disc to avoid damage to it.

My home-made bead breaker. Tubeless tyres are a tight fit onto the rim and would very difficult to remove without this.

The breaker provides leverage but more importantly the blade concentrates the force on the bead of the tyre pushing it off the shoulder of the rim.

It's tricky to get the tyre off. I clamp it in a vice and use a pair of tyre levers. If I don't have a helper I hold one lever in place with a luggage cord and tap the other lever along to prise the tyre off

The tyre off and it's pretty ugly in there. There's lots of corrosion on the rim. This caused a slow leak a while back and rather than remove the tyre and clean the rim I just fired in a tyre sealant. This worked but left a bit of a mess inside.

The remains of the sealant in the tyre

A bicycle-sized sealant

I removed the corrosion with a wire brush and pan scourer.

I used plenty of washing up liquid on the tyre & rim. This is necessary to allow the tyre to seat.

The rim was in ok condition but I gave a light spay of paint to brighten things up

When fitted to the rim the tyre isn't in position on the rim because it takes air pressure to force it on.

Job done. It took a few tries to get the tyre to seat. When it does there's a satisfying pop. I initially inflate the tyre with the valve removed to allow the maximum flow of air to force the tyre into position. I also over-inflate the tyre to help this as well.

If this was the FJ I'd balance the wheel but this isn't needed on the CBF. The only problem left is what to do with the old tyre? My local dump won't take them. You can chop them up with an angle grinder and sneak then into your rubbish bin but this is messy with a lot of smoke. Currently I pile then at the bottom of my garden until I can think of a way of disposing of them.  

On both the CBF & FJ I use Avon Roadriders and I buy them from Buster's Accessories.