Tire replacement questions

[ramblinrod]

Time for new tires, before my last ride (cancelled) I noticed steel belt showing through on the rear. I want to go with Metzler Z6s, cheapest price I have found on the internet was $232 at American Mototire. That includes shipping. My dealer wants $250 for them plus $150 for mounting and balancing if I just bring the bike in. That seems pretty high to me. I need to call back and find out how much I would save by just bringing the wheels in. Does anyone know of a cheaper source for the Z6s? Would you trust a non BMW shop to change the tires?

Rod
Crawford, CO

[MikeCam]

1. Southwest Moto for least expensive tires on the net. Arizona location and fast shipping. Also Tire Express (Dayton, OH) good prices and fast shipping.

2. Sometimes cheaper to take the wheels off yourself. Always cheaper to do it at any MC dealer who says he can instead of BMW dealer. BUT can he balance the BMW wheels? They need a special spacer.

3. Do it yourself setup for under $300 and saves you the money after the first set. Can't find the links but go to BMWsporttouring.net (or BMWst.com) and check out any thread that discusses Harbor Freight tire changing machine and bead breaker, Mitch's Tire Bar, and Marc Parnes Wheel balancer....those are the key pieces you need.

[Samiam]

The dealer's price for the tires is probably about right; he buys them by the dozen and an E-tailer buys them by the carload. The labor does sound high to me, given that it's going to take less than an hour for the shop guy to change both of them. Balancing the rear may be a bit tricky due to the single-sided swingarm but still should not be too expensive.

Can you bargain with him? Even at $75 an hour the job should not take two hours total. Then again, I could be wrong....

[owldaddy]

I just happened to put on a new set of tires yesterday, took the wheels into Mallots (Yamaha/Honda dealer) in Manteca Ca. I was charged $49 to mount and balance both of them, I did take an hour out of my day to take the wheels off, and put them back on. Easy to do. I got 10k miles out of the old Metzlers BTW. They were very good tires.
Don

[hotzuk]

Ramblin,

I replaced my Z4s with Z6s. Love them! I ordered my tires from SW Moto. I pulled off the tires myself and took them to my local Ducati dealer. I think they charged me something like $25/tire to mount and balance. I ditched the old tires in the tire recycling bin in the back of the local BJs wholeale club. The centerstand on the bike makes this a pretty easy job. Any good delership can do the mounting and balancing of the new tires. Hope this info helps.

[Airman]

The dealer's price for the tires is probably about right; he buys them by the dozen and an E-tailer buys them by the carload. The labor does sound high to me, given that it's going to take less than an hour for the shop guy to change both of them. Balancing the rear may be a bit tricky due to the single-sided swingarm but still should not be too expensive.

Can you bargain with him? Even at $75 an hour the job should not take two hours total. Then again, I could be wrong....

The dealer's tire prices are about right, but the shops rate is pretty high. My local MC shop charges $30 apiece to mount and balance tires if you bring them in. And, the install is free if you buy the tires there. For my BMW anyway, they know it's easy to remove the wheels.That dealer is pricing the tires low knowing he'll make it back on the install. Let's look at this like he's charging us $400 plus tax for a pair of tires.

I just installed a pair of Pirelli Diablo's last week. There's 6 easy bolts to drop the rear wheel off. 8 easy bolts to drop out the front wheel. I built one of those "internet wheel holders" to hold the wheel while I broke the bead with my home made bead breaker. The only thing that held me up was not having enough of those excellent Motion Pro tire irons to work the tires off the rims.

Balance: I bought the Marc Parnes wheel balancer. I don't know where all this talk comes from about the BMW "adapters". Marc sells matched tapered cones to hold the wheel. It's simple and easy. If you're fussy and have to get the balance perfect and check it ten times, maybe you spend 10 minutes rather then the 5 minutes each I spent balancing mine.
If you go though a lot of tires buy the balancer and the Harbor freight tire machine. This is a simple task if you have the right tools.

[ramblinrod]

I called the dealer back and talked to a different person. He said $140 max if bringing the bike in and $30 each if I bring the wheels in. I didn't realize it would be that big a savings. Now I need to check SW tires.
Thanks guys.

Rod

[Airman]

I called the dealer back and talked to a different person. He said $140 max if bringing the bike in and $30 each if I bring the wheels in. I didn't realize it would be that big a savings. Now I need to check SW tires.
Thanks guys.

Rod

I bought my Pirelli rear tire at Motorcycle Superstore. ( The free front tire deal last spring) Prices are good also, and there's free shipping.

http://www-origin.motorcycle-superstore ... style=6180

Make sure your dealers $30 mounting is not just on tires they sell.

[owldaddy]

BTW, one little bit of advice. The tech putting on the tires, may not have as much compassion for the paint on your wheels as you do, I take the weights off with an old wooden clothes pin that has been whittled down to remove the weights before taking the wheels in. I had a Tech pry off the old weights once with a screw driver, scratching the paint on the wheel.
Don

[toolinalong]

No matter who does my tires (6 fronts, 4 rears so far), dealer or not, I have averaged $175 - $200 front and $200-$225 rear. It's a 45 minute job per tire if they are on the bike. If it's part of a normal 6k service it might be billed at 1/2 hour. If I brought the wheels in, it got billed as a 1/2 hour job. These reflect prices on the tires themselves that of course include the requisite markup (means I pay full retail) over what you can buy them for online.

I just don't like changing my own tires...did too much of it when I worked in a service station in high school in the 60's......

[chris]

My trusted tyre dealer here in Blighty looks after the rims and charges £5 per wheel to mount tyres to loose wheels including valve and balancing so it does seem excessive to me. Never asked what they charge to take the wheels off as they only just started offering the service. Only takes 15 minutes to get both wheels off tho and after a 2 new tyres and 2 punctures in the rear in as many weeks I can get the rear off in the blink of an eye!
Z6's are fantastic by the way.

[zooomart]

When I called the local HD, and honda dealer, neither could balance the tire/ wheel because they didn't have the right wheel chuck hub thang for the spin balancer. My local BMW dealer is 45 minutes away and charges 30 bucks to mount and balance the rear wheel...brought in loose. Should be able to get a major brand rear tire for under 150 delivered. Good Luck

[Airman]

When I called the local HD, and honda dealer, neither could balance the tire/ wheel because they didn't have the right wheel chuck hub thang for the spin balancer. My local BMW dealer is 45 minutes away and charges 30 bucks to mount and balance the rear wheel...brought in loose. Should be able to get a major brand rear tire for under 150 delivered. Good Luck

I hadn't given spin balancing a though, as the static balancing is easy and accurate. But.. why would an HD dealer need to spiin balance anyhow? Do they have some customers that ride fast? With all that thumping and vibrating I would think it would be hard to spot a tire imbalance. =)
Fund raising I suppose.
On a static balancing rig, the BMW adapter is not needed. There is a different cone set for the 1200's though.

[Tripton]

At my local dealer (85 miles away...) the last Z6 rear i had put on was 195 bucks....plus mounting and disposal....so it was like 222 dollars....just the rear. The one before that was something like 150, and when mentioned to them...like wow thats quite the increase, he mumbled something about the rising cost of gas. Now, yes I am aware how that will make everything rise eventually....but from 140 something to 190 something in a matter of a couple months?................

Not happy with the Z6s at all BTW, last one got me a SHADE over 3000 miles before steel showed all the way around.....and that was at 42psi, blah blah. I ride hard, and corner fast, and this one has about...1200 miles on it, and is starting to flatten out.

This one seems to have better grip than the last one? I dont understand that, perhaps the last one was a bum one.

Oh, also, on my GFs 650cs, i checked out the back Z6 on hers yesterday and noticed that chunks are falling out of the middle of the tire...where you ride most of the time... and there is a slice that almost looks like a mold seam or something right next to that that is cleanly cut almost 1/4 inch into the tire, and all the way around it. Not sure what to think of that...but I dont like it...

[Airman]

At my local dealer (85 miles away...) the last Z6 rear i had put on was 195 bucks....plus mounting and disposal....so it was like 222 dollars....just the rear. The one before that was something like 150, and when mentioned to them...like wow thats quite the increase, he mumbled something about the rising cost of gas. Now, yes I am aware how that will make everything rise eventually....but from 140 something to 190 something in a matter of a couple months?................

Not happy with the Z6s at all BTW, last one got me a SHADE over 3000 miles before steel showed all the way around.....and that was at 42psi, blah blah. I ride hard, and corner fast, and this one has about...1200 miles on it, and is starting to flatten out.

This one seems to have better grip than the last one? I dont understand that, perhaps the last one was a bum one.

Oh, also, on my GFs 650cs, i checked out the back Z6 on hers yesterday and noticed that chunks are falling out of the middle of the tire...where you ride most of the time... and there is a slice that almost looks like a mold seam or something right next to that that is cleanly cut almost 1/4 inch into the tire, and all the way around it. Not sure what to think of that...but I dont like it...

Tripton,

I think you're the classic case for owning your own tire machine and balancing tools. You're a long ways from the dealer and you go through tires quickly.
My original ME-Z4 lasted nearly 17,000 miles. Tire wear is a mystery to me. I think it has to do with ambient temp. and aggression, but it seems that riders in warm climates with hard riding styles get between 4 and 6 thousand miles. There are exceptions, but that seems to be the common mileage regardless of tire brand.

I am interested in the werid wear on your GF's Z6's. When I intstalled my Pirelli Diablos recently I saw an admonition to be sure the rotation of the tire was in the correct direction or ply separation might occur because of the way they overlap in the center.. Perhaps that's what has happened to her Z6's.

I was going to buy the Pilot Roads but got a smoking deal on the Diablos, so bought them instead. They might be worth a try. They are a good handling tire by all accounts.

[johno]

I am running Bridgestone 020s on my R.
I have had ME4s on other Beemers, but got no better ks than 020s.
My tyre dealer is a biker as well, so compassion is 1st class.

[Ed K]

With the risk of getting into an endless debate about tires... I'll say this:

The Pilot Roads are a much better tire for the R1150R than the Z6.

I've been through 1 set Z4s, and 2 sets of Z6s and just switched to the Pilot Roads.

Much better stick, tracking and ride on the PRs.

Only have a few hundred on them, so not sure how long they'll last, but appear about the same as the Z6s.