Question on labor cost to change back tire.

Had to get a new rear tire today due to a nail. Shop has a $75 fee to change the tire. Have any of you experienced the shop lowering the labor price due to how easy the tire is to remove? Was thinking about haggling with the shop.

 

That seems a little steep to me. You taking it in there still mounted on the bike? We can get tires mounted and balanced for about $35.00 here if we remove the wheel. We typically pay more for stuff up here.

 

that does sound pretty steep. with tire purchase in the shop, the local shop near me charged me $25 for mount/balance. But that was years ago. Always felt that was a rip off because the tires were a lot more at the shop anyway and limted choice. I'd just start changing your own. Really easy, you just need some baby shampoo, water, air compressor and tire irons with guards. I bought some harbor freight stuff for bead breaker and balancer. Best $100 ever spent. Haven't been to a shop for years now.

http://www.harborfreight.com/motorcycle-wheel-balancing-stand-98488.html

http://www.harborfreight.com/bead-breaker-92961.html

 

Seems high. I take the wheel off mine & take it & the new tire to the local Honda dealer.
They mount & balance it for around $33.00.

 

Way high if your taking the tire and rim only. The shop I deal with will mount and balance for 15 bucks if you buy the tire from them. 30 bucks if you bring it in. Their prices on tires are very competitive with those online. They will order any tire I want and I pay no shipping. Overall I get a great deal. 75 bucks sounds like a hourly shop rate.

 

All the advice here is good stuff. Some tires can be fixed is another alternative. Lots of scenarios come into play. Haggling may work some if you just bring in the wheel, buy the new tire from the shop ect.

As an advocate of dynamic balancing I would toss this into the question pile too when they want you for fork over 75 pesos.

 

Depends. Around here most shops have two prices on and off the bike. Off the bike mounting runs in the $30 range. On the the bike can be as much as $70. If you ant not sure of shops in yoir area, you can look on motorcycle superstore's site look for their partners there should be some in your area. Then those guys should be competitively priced.

 

Sometimes the shops have you at their mercy and there is not much you can do but pay the ransom to get back on the road. I do agree with REEK - a small investment and a little research and you could change the tire on your own. I do mine myself and its not that painful a process. Plus I get some time in the garage which I enjoy. I saw BadBilly mentioned dynamic balancing - I assume he means with a machine versus something like DynaBeads? I have never tried the beads and it seems like reviews come back split evenly for or against them.

 

I think there's more against than for. They seem to work well at lower speeds, but the people that have complained about them seem to be having problems at elevated speeds: 80 mph and over.

Before you go to the cheapest tire changer guy, check his work. A local Honda shop only charged $25 to change a tire, but he butchered my rim so badly he waived the fee. He should have paid for repainting, but that wasn't going to happen without lots of coercion, legal or otherwise.

The HF tire changer works pretty well, it isn't elegant, but it does do the job. A couple of low cost modifications make it work better, and you definitely need a good mount/dismount bar. And the yellow third hand thingie from No-Mar. And the Marc Parnes balancer.

Okay, you'll have a couple hundred dollars invested, but you'll recoup it over time. And you may get free beers from grateful riders.

 

sounds about average

 

Last time i installed tires on my current bike I phoned the local dealer and the first question they asked was whether or not the wheel was on or off the bike. The cost was considerably lower if you only brought the wheel and the shop didn't have to worry about removing the wheel from the bike. Locally, the costs charged (from the shops I checked) to mount and balance a wheel ranged from $20-35 for just the wheel, and $70-$120 if the cost included removin the wheel from the bike. The cost will likely vary depending on the shops door (labor) rate if you want the shop to remove the wheel for you.

 

We didn't charge for the removal and refit if yiu bought the tyre from the shop! Bring in a tyre and yes you get charged. I would check with other stores!

 

Let's go right to what dynamic balancing is as well as the contrast of static balancing. Some substitution will be necessary as the source is keyed to automotive tires. This would be a great thing for the dudes who tend to re-write everything that has been said already in most threads adding that personal, historical and geographic touch to get their names in lights on WIKI.


There is an operator for those beads but not a place for them on my bikes... With a little chemistry, I think those beads could be made to adhere to one another or maybe even clump up in really cold weather. The result could be an effect like the dudes who build the low riders with the hydraulics. This could be used by stunters looking for new tricks and harleydoods looking for new ways to stand out in the crowd. Short of that maybe some clothespins and playing cards might be cool. Not the same sound as one might get on a real spoke wheel on a bicycle but a whole new area to be explored. Clamps with LEDs instead of clothespins and real plastic coated casino cards that last a bit longer than the paper versions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tire_balance

 

Picked up the bike and wasn't able to argue the fee to anyone in the service department. It was Saturday and they had already left for the day. Counter person said it may have been to offset the price of a specialty tool, but I'm pretty sure that's an answer he's been told to give everyone. Going to take business elsewhere in the future.

 

I brought my wheel to Firestone automotive tire service and they charged me only $15, but only for the dismount and mount of the tire. They could not balance it.

 

That is ironic because the rear wheel of the later generation VFRs is more car like. One local shop I used to go to could not do the rear wheel of my VFR on their machine and had to take it to the car shop next door to do the balancing on their machine as it could handle the VFR wheel.

I'm another proponent of buying a tire changer and doing it myself, if fact I bought a No-Mar tire changer and although pricey, it does a great job. Considering I have 3 bikes and will need to change tires on all 3 at one point or another, I figured the investment was worth it to me. So far I have changed 4 sets of tires on my three bikes, just did another set of PP3s on the '01 a week ago. I also helped at least 6 other friends/forum members do their tires as well. I don't charge them but probably could get some of my money back quicker if I did! However, I do get compensated with the beer/alcohol of my choice (Typically Lagunitas IPA or Paddy Whiskey). The only concern with doing tire changes yourself is tire disposal, I found a local tire shop that charges $2 per tire, which I take to him if I don't give the tires away as "take offs".

All that said, if you consider HAVING to pay $75 for each tire change, I think just the amount of tires I did on my bikes alone could have paid for the tire changer itself in no time at all. Here's the math, 4 sets = 2 tires per set = 8 tires, at $75.00/ea. that's $600 bucks right there, if you add in the others that's another $900, that's $1500! (just adding that for dramatic affect). Although the No-Mar kits are a bit costly, I can honestly say their quality is great and so far no dings, nicks or other damage to the VFR wheels, Long's BMW wheels however are a little tougher to deal with and we've had some minor nicking, but considering it's an off-road wheel, what does it matter. Speaking of those wheels, I'm going to have to ask Long for a case of beer next time, those things are a bitch to deal with!

 

$40 at the local sportbike stop. Motopro's in Tea, SD. That's on the bike, front or rear and includes greasing, chain cleaning, and balancing. Would be $70 at the local Honda dealership though.

 

That's great but what aboot the guy with one bike and a one bedroom apartment up three flights of stairs?

 

The No-Mar comes with bolts that you can anchor into the floor, I'm sure they could mount it in the corner of the bedroom and could be used as a helmet rack when not in use.

 

I would nope that mounting a piece of equipment to change rubber would stay in the privacy of the bedroom. I figure with all those costumes you have there might not be room for any kind of kinky hanky-panky with a tire changer. So how may helmets should one have to keep up with the OOTVs ?