Manually changing tires
I posted about changing my own tires myself recently. Like most people, I thought manually changing tires would be a lot more difficult than it really was. All I had was a couple pieces of scrap wood and some tire irons and rim protectors. As references, I read a few forum posts and watched a few youtube videos. I also read many reviews about the tools I chose.
Overall I expected it to be much more difficult. It was moderate on the difficulty scale, somewhere between a 2 and 2.5/5 (not for everyone, but about everyone could do it). There's the experience like anything else of the first time, where to place the rim protectors and how to best use the tire changing tools. The loose scrap wood worked ok, worked much better for installing the tires than removing the old ones. But the rim would slip off or move around on the scrap wood pieces I was using. This definitely made things more difficult than they had to be.
Goals
So I quickly realized changing tires is for me, I just need a stand. The stand would have specific goals in mind:
- reduce difficulty to a solid 2/5 due to more stability
- utilize manual tire changing tools
- utilize c-clamps tire bead breaking method
- small, compact, and lightweight for easy storage
- inexpensive (BOM ~$25)
- facilitate damage free tire changes
- have some future proofing for additions or changes
My M7 RRs should be here any day now, and that'll be my first opportunity to use it. I already have some ideas in mind to add to it. But I'm sure the fundamental design is solid and will accomplish all the goals I had for this project.
Center post is interchangeable. Easily accommodates greater offset or larger diameter rotors. End platforms can be adjusted for larger and smaller tire sizes.
Platforms on ends allow for using c-clamp bead breaking method.