Changing Your Motorcycle Tire: Survival Skills 101
The time may come when you need to deal with a flat tire all by yourself, out on the lone highway, melancholy tumbleweeds blowing by. Here’s a quick guide on how to perform a tire change. Of course, if you’re in town you can always have us take care of it at AJ Cycle & Trike Conversions in Jasper, Indiana, serving Evansville, Indiana, Louisville, Kentucky, and beyond.
You’ll need these:
- Jack or alternative way to lift your bikes
- Wrench to remove bolts
- Motorcycle tire irons, also called tire levers
- Bead breaker
- Valve core tool
- A way to repair your damaged tire, or a new tire
- Compressed air to refill your tire
Here’s a quick summary to change your motorcycle tire. For first-timers, we recommend that you read your owner’s manual thoroughly, and find a video or written tutorials online that depict your specific bike. This is just a summary -- there are a lot of nuances and techniques required to replace a tire.
Tire Change Steps
The process involves just a few steps, but each one has the potential to present obstacles, especially if you are away from your tools and other resources. At the most basic level, it’s just like dealing with a flat tire on your bike or car: Remove the problem wheel, remove the problem tire, fix it or replace it, and then reverse your steps.
Removing Your Motorcycle Tire
First, loosen the nuts that hold the wheel on. Next, get your bike up on a jack, jack stands, or other secure and stable support. Safety first, folks! Remove the nuts and the wheel. Use your valve core tool to deflate the tire completely. Break the bead with your bead breaker or your body weight. Using the tire irons, pop the sidewall off the wheel on one side, then flip it and remove the other side. Repair your tire unless you’ll be putting a new one on.
Fitting Your New Tire
Reverse the process. Use your tire irons to pop the sidewall back onto the wheel. Use your valve core tool to replace the valve. Set the bead and inflate the tire to the correct PSI. Put it back on the bike and tighten the nuts. Once the bike is back on the ground, tighten the nuts again.
That Wasn’t So Bad, Was It?
This is a very useful survival skill. Any time you get better acquainted with how your bike works, it’s empowering and helps you get more independent when you ride. That said, some motorcycle riders take pride and pleasure in these kinds of tasks, while others consider it a big-time pain in the neck. If you’re in this second population, make an appointment for tire service with us at AJ Cycle & Trike Conversions and we’ll have you back on the road in no time!