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Only $10 for all 2026 SX, MX, and SMX series.
This is unrelated, but I work in Chico and live in placer county and do bike work on the side. Motors, suspension, etc and tire changes for $20
Feel free to PM if you want work done in the future
Understandable, I kept my tire saving them the recycle fee but I wouldn't have expected a price adjustment as it's still a base service.
When the boy was racing 50's I would have paid that all day long. My God those things were tough to change....
The OP's labor price seemed actually fair in todays world considering he didnt buy the tire there, many shops wont mount a tire purchased online and no diners will cook you eggs for breakfast that you brought in. I've spent 20+ years a shop mechanic in my youth and always have a full race shop at home. I can mount any tire in minutes and my buddies sometimes bring them all at once $25 each while they wait. Tire changing 101, using big truck tire spoons 1) break bead both sides and spay a dash of lube WD40 on beads. 2) tire on floor w/cardboard remove tire on both sides with rim in the middle. 3) vavle stem down hold tire up and push rim out with your foot. 4) insert tube in new tire barley inflate just to hold in new tire 5) lube bead/ mount tire onto rim (over rim lock 1st with valve stem lined up with hole on rim) 6) insert valve stem, lube bead then starting at rim lock walk the tire onto rim, inflate to set bead. 6) set tire PSI, tighten rim lock, remove nut holding vavle stem in place wallah! in a few minutes you have a new tire mounted. Taught to me by my buddy Bruce working with him at Vickery Yamaha Denver 1978 , (I was still in high school). Good day.
The Shop
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Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
*4 tubes.
If I ran a dealership, I’d to tires cheaper if they bought them in on the bike…use it as a loss leader and up-sell on anything else I can find wrong/worn/broken on their bike.
“hey…we noticed your brake pads, bearings, grips, levers, plastics, chain/sprockets, clutch, levers, spokes, rims, fork seals, whatever else I could find need to be replaced…while we’ve got it here we can take care of that for you for a 10% discount. Want us to hook you up?”
And the guy replies “thanks, it’s ok I can replace the brake pads and bits myself.”
and you e made a loss.. brilliant business.
The real question is. Do you work for free? While seems expensive, it's really not that bad.
First, I didn’t say I’d do them at a loss…just cheaper if they brought them in on the bike than if they brought in the wheel…but even doing them at a small loss I wouldn’t sweat it…
and I’m sure some will decline any additional work…No doubt about that…some might do it themselves but buy the pads while they are there…some will buy the pads and have us install them.
Cant sell anything if you can’t get people in the door…if cheap tire changes get people in the door, all the better. It increases the chances they’ll buy something else while they are here.
Costco sells their rotisserie chickens at a loss to get people on the store…true, not everyone that comes in buys anything else, and true, they do lose money on those customers…but enough people come in buy a chicken and other things to make it worth their while to sell the chickens at a loss. It’s the same proven business principal.
I have notice shop labor prices are up as well. Don't feel to bad, even us connected industry folks and friends with local shops don't get BRO DEALS anymore. Maybe trade but that's even becoming less of a practice. For bringing in your own tire, that's about 30 min. of work. Seems reasonable to me. I would of even tipped the tech $10 if I saw who did it. Only way to save on any luxury of service anymore is to do them yourself.
Is this shop still in business? With the same owners you worked for?
So what I get from this post is. This guy bought a bike from a shop and feels entitled to paying either nothing or next to nothing for someone performing a labor act. Obviously someone doesn't realize how a business functions and employees do not work for free.
For the dealerships I ran/run we incentivize our customers to have us install it as opposed to punishing them for purchasing the tire elsewhere.
For example, tire changes are advertised for $60 (1/2hr labor). Flat fee. But, if the tire(s) are purchased from us then its $40.
Really it's the same thing but a better way to look at it to encourage our customers to keep doing business with us. The few dollars you may save online are not as big of a deal while maintaining a positive interaction instead of a "punishment" as stated above.
You're really bitchin about two dollars and 50 fucking cents. Don't come to my shop lol
When I was first starting out I went to a business class. One of their pamphlets had a cartoon that stuck with me. It was 2 homeless guys getting warm over a trash can fire, the caption was "Back when I was in business we always had the lowest prices"
I've never paid anyone to mount tires since I got my first bike in 73 (I definitely would for street bikes tires if I street biked). That said, I have a problem sometimes paying someone to do what I can do, and frankly it makes my life harder than it needs to be and a lot of things don't get done as soon as they should be. It's taken me 65 years to grasp that there's only so much time and money can buy some of the little you have in your life back.
Maybe a better way to look at it is as a classic economics question: not is this guy cheating me, but do I want to spend this money on this and buy time for something else, or do it myself and buy something else with the money? The right answer is individual (as is the shop's decision whether to aborb cost for good will).
Apart from good irons, I'd note that mechanix wear gloves are a godsend when changing tires to save knuckles and pinched fingers.
Yes! That is my point. Thank you for the cartoon analogy. Good stuff!
Shop is still in business, but new owner as they made the old owner an offer he couldn’t refuse. Original owner started it in 90 or 91 and sold it in 15 or 16 I believe. Shop even had a race team with Suzuki support in the mid to late 90’s.
Pit Row
I've been changing my own tires since I started racing in 1971. Back then my tire irons of choice were flat blade screwdrivers. When I was feeling like I needed some extra help, like a stand, we would go behind the grocery store and pick up those free tire stands that used to hold milk. Damn things were useful for lots of things in the garage, too.
Tire changing was just one of the many things you used to have to know to be a successful racer. There are a lot of lost arts these days. Setting points, perfecting jetting, shimming transmissions (I just finished doing a complete Ossa Phantom bottom end
), blueprinting porting, rebuilding your own suspension, etc. Most of those I don't miss, but I had to know how to do them.
These days, at 63, I have one of those fancy Tusk stands and honest to God tire irons. The right tools make a BIG difference if you already know the technique. I learned technique changing out "rim saver" Barum 6 ply tires in the 70's that used red rubber tubes. I grew up in the era of 4 minute tire changes for the ISDT being the aspirational standard.
These days, I move a little slower, but my intolerance for paying for things that I know I can do for myself still keeps me from farming out the work. I don't blame a shop for charging whatever they want for the work they do. You are paying for their knowledge, their labor, and their facility. If the cost is too high, you can always gain the knowledge, put in the labor, and use your own facility.
This guy gets it 👆 ! I am your age Dave , and I sure did not have the luxury of paying to change my tube or tire. Can’t think of the number of times that I cut the tube with my Flat Blade “tire Irons”.LOL
I don't agree with the OP calling the dealership crooks, But I do believe he like the rest of us is feeling "sticker shock" on what we are paying now. for most goods and services. I went trough the Wendys drive thru at the Denver airport and got the Baconator meal large sized and it was $16
and the automatic car wash by my house is $22 for the daddy mac of washes. Now the OP said he will buy some good tire irons to do it himself which is smart. We all have our limit on what we just wont pay and what we think is excessive, even if its the going rate.
Hey, Don!
It just prepared us for life with Maicos.
My buddy was half owner of a Yamaha / Honda dealer in Massachusetts. The year was 1972.
Young kid comes in and steals 2 spark plugs from dispenser on countertop. I notice, and so does my buddy , yet he says nothing to the kid. After the other customers clear out , I ask him why he let the kid leave without paying for the plugs . He tells me that the kids Dad purchases one or two new MX bikes a year for the kid. They also buy assorted parts ( no internet ) , oils and occasional clothing. The Dad also has a younger son that will be of riding age soon. He was quite sure that he would make up the $5.00 many times over in the coming years, so why drive a customer away over short money.
"I'll take my business elsewhere " OK Karen. God, I'm shocked they don't say $100 just to keep you away. You are not our kind.
LoL
^^^
This. Some shop owners play victim, some capitalize on an opportunity. Hell, I’d advertise this free mounting w / tire purchase all day long if I were a shop owner. Foot traffic = incremental sales. Anything that puts a customer inside your doors is an opportunity to upsell, and knowing moto people, they can’t ever just buy one thing.
I been standing on cement every day for 37 years fixing other peoples stuff. No end in sight. I'm always burried. Try walking a mile in someone else's shoes before you call them a crook.
I didn't read through this, but if you can't change a tire, $50.00 is cheap.
Dammit boy, it's a freaking tire.
It ain't that hard.
If you lived in Houston, you couldn’t a day off.
Murphy’s oil soap ( it’s a gel comes in a bucket) one bucket will last your entire riding life and you will still have leftover to mix with water and clean all your household wood work. 2 long handle spoons, I use a pit bike tire as a stand and my knees to keep the bead in the “drop zone” of the rim. 10 minutes top to take off the bike mount new tube and tire and back on bike ready to run. Even with snow on the ground I sweat my ass off every time.
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