can I put new tires on myself, or do i need special equipment?
Tube Type Motorcycle Tires
If your main concern is just mounting, you have no need to worry. Tube type tires are becoming rather hard to find. Tubeless tires do have a slightly different bead that does make them a little harder to mount. Just a little. Most tires available are tubeless design, and are used with tubes and rim strips when mounted on spoked wheels. You can mount the tires yourself. You should use a set of tire irons, although it has been done many times with a pair of large screwdrivers. Proper tools help prevent damage to the rim and tube pinching. The colored dot on the outside of the tire is meant to line up with the valve stem. Wheels should be balanced after tires are mounted. Unbalanced tires can cause shakes and wobbles. Wheels may be static balanced if you have or know how to make a set-up and have a supply of weights. Most of my wheels have been spoked, although some were cast. I've run tubeless tires with tubes in all of them. I've changed a number of my own tires over the years. I now pay someone to use a machine and do it for me. I take the wheels off the bike and bring them in. It's worth the money - I added up the time, energy and aggravation, and divided it by the cost of having it done. It amounted to doing a poor job of a frustrating task at a very low wage.
The truth that nobody says is that the differences between tubed and tubeless is the WHEEL. you can put on your own tires with 2 tire irons but balancing is a problem, have it done by ppl with the right tools, it will pay for the cost on the way home the 1st time.
