I feel your pain on the tire changing. I paid the first time. the second I did it myself. I had the most trouble getting the thing of the rim. I have Dunlops on right now and they're considerably stiffer/thicker than the IRC that was on the used bike I bought. Patience with the re-install will save you the angst of having to take out the sunday tube (you know, the hole-y one) to replace it.

Oh, by the way, we don't rant on here. We simply ask the questions others are afraid to ask, but not to answer. There's still tons of good info, advice, help and comraderie. This site's gotten me over several bumps in my first ever bike experience these last couple years.

Jack

I did the same thing with my 1st tire change.  But not the driving around part.  In my travels, I found a store that sold the D404's at the same price as internet w/o shipping.  So I basically get it installed for what I would've paid for it on the internet.

And I converted the front to tubeless, so I can do that myself.  Still working on the rear conversion.  Some day I'll get time.

joeh100,
Not sure what part of Alabama you are in. I'm just south of B'ham. My last rear tire I bought and had installed at 29 Dreams MC resort near Vandiver, Al. Price was good, service was excellent, ate and drank while my tire was changed. Have to be a member though. It's well worth it!

joeh100 wrote on 08/20/08 at 13:14:01:



100 Kilometers?  Oh, yeah...you should get that and then some  

Wrasslin' tires is a fading art, apparently.  I don't like it, but I can do it pretty well.  An expensive set ($29) of tire irons was my splurge on making it an "easier item to accomplish", which was money well spent.

Wow, a tire place called 29 Dreams that is only open at night that charges you two bills plus to get your tire changed.  Yup, I can guess what my wife would be thinking about that -- she'd be a sniffing at my underwear and looking real suspicious at me and my new tire, wondering what we had been up to.