diy tire change

[chaz35]

I got both front and rear tires changed out, new Avon Viper Strykes.  1st try at changing out scooter/ motorcycle tires and was challenging.  I didn't have the right tools and scratched up the front wheel.  I guess the wheels are powered coated cause it's very tough and brittle.  Was really a downer to scratch my beautiful wheel.  Don't use a tire iron you could use on a car tire and don't use flat screw drivers.  Do use something to protect the rim.

I made my own rim protectors out of garden hose, they worked great, were easy to make, and cost $0.  If you make your own rim protectors, be sure to punch a hole and tie some string to it, could easily end up with one inside your tire, and have to pop the tire off again to get it.  With the string, it's easy to pull out after the tire is on the rim.

I bought 2 types of tools to try.  The smaller ones (silver 11" long), I tried to cancel the order, but was already shipped by the time I figured out they were probably going to be subpar.  The larger black one (15" long, sometimes sold as 16" but mine was 15") was great, will probably order 1 or 2 more of these when I get ready to put new rubber on my People 50.

Cheers

[Triesandluth]

Awesome!  I gave up on doing mine myself halfway through the front.  If you come up with anymore tricks that you can share it would be appreciated.  Like a zip tie method I saw online.  Ideally it was great but I was not successful

[chaz35]

YT vids helped a lot.  After I completed front tire I watched 2 vids and realized why I was having so much trouble and scratching up my rim.
1/2 way thru the rear tired I stopped and watched one of the vids again.

I called local motorcycle shop and they said "don't work on anything but what they sell", Suzuki dealer my neighbor uses.  Closest Kymco dealer is 50 miles away, but only charges $15 a tire, if you have it off the scooter.  I wanted to do it myself, so I order tools and luckily got it done, was ugly, but I felt some pride lol's.

I think smarter to take it somewhere unless you just want the challenge.  I am retired, have nothing better to do than work on a scooter tire all day lol's.  Was educational to get tire off, noticed rear axle nut was a little loose, and muffler clamp fastener was on backwards, so was able to get all that squared away, which was good.  Cheers

[Triesandluth]

Nice.  I originally bought a mini tire changer from harbor freight,  but the axle hole on the front was just barely too small.  So I did all the removal and such. Like I had stated elsewhere,  I took the front tire to a local used tire shop to have them put the tire the rest of the way on,  took it home,  then realized I didn't have a socket large enough to remove the axle nut. So I rode to their shop,  removed the exhaust, etc,  in their parking lot,  then they blasted the nut off for me.  They only wanted to charge twenty bucks,  but they were really cool about it all and worked hard to install them so I gave them thirty.  Almost had to force them ha ha. 
I think that I can spare the thirty bucks every year or so for tires.  Hell,  I burn up way more than thirty in fuel idling in my driveway or changing jets and carbs.