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I go through sets of tires fairly quickly and I like to change them myself, both to save money and for the convenience of doing it in my own garage. I'm also a cheapskate, so rather than buying a tire changing machine I just made some "tools" out of 2x4's. I figured they might be of interest, so I thought I'd post some pictures. A simple box shaped stand keeps the wheel off the ground and protects the brake rotor while working on the tire. The bead breaker is just a pair of 2x4's glued and screwed together, with a wedge shaped section at one end: Hose clamps prevent the wooden wedge from splitting: A handy minivan is used as the anchor of the lever arm (some people use a board bolted onto a wall): After breaking the bead, a few simple hand tools are used to remove and replace the tire. Tire irons, plastic rim protectors, and some tire lube get the job done. The real secret is the tire lube. It helps the rubber to slip on and off the rim of the wheel and makes things much easier. I got a jug of "RuGLYDE" at my local NAPA auto parts store. A small tin cup and paint brush are used as an applicator: I also made a balancing stand to hold a Marc Parnes balancer: The balancer comes with cones for standard wheels. He also sells a special large cone for the VFR rear wheel. Here's what the balancer looks like in use: It usually takes me about 3 hours to change a set of tires. That includes disassembly, cleaning, degreasing, inspecting, reassembly, and torquing everything. The actual bead braking and tire mounting goes quickly. It took me awhile to learn how to use the tire irons. The first few attempts produced lots of airborne irons and cursing, but now I can get a tire on and off in just a minute or two. It helps to lay the tires out in the sun for a few minutes to warm up the rubber. Liberal use of the tire lube helps too. The only "cost" for me was the tire balancer (about $100 if I remember correctly - I got it years ago). All the other materials were just laying around. One advantage over a heavy dedicated tire changing machine bolted to the floor is that all the wood parts here are lightweight and store away in a corner or under my workbench when not in use.

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