I had a similar dilemma earlier this year, with 3 tyres to change & my local independant tyre fitter charging £20 per wheel - not too bad, but he insisted that he would only fit tyres to tubed wheels if he supplied Michelin tubes. And he has subsequently retired. A poor experience with a local Protyre outlet with the rear for Mrs B's V7 Classic the year before (the fitter tore the inner tube on the first attempt, then fitted the tyre the wrong way round on the second - third time lucky !) made me wary of them.

So I bough a tyre changing thing from XL Moto but not at the price currently listed - they seem to have a constant "sale" and the arbitrary discount on the list price they never seem to charge varies. IIRC I paid around £55 delivered.

Reasonably made and easily assembled, the first issue I had was the spindle was too big for my wheels - 18mm dia. & my wheels are 17mm bore. Easy enough to pop it in the lathe, not so easy to turn the incredibly nasty steel used to size. With the wheel able to be fitted to the spindle, the bead breaker was a joy to use after years of struggling. The "duck head" arm was less succesful - partly because I should have bushed it to compensate for the reduction in spindle diameter & partly because it was a real fight to push it around the rim lifting the tyre bead while trying to stop the whole lot skidding around the floor. Managed eventually to get the tyres off, but failed to use the thing to put them back on - just used levers & swearing as previously.

My problems could have stemmed from changing tubed tyres - the machine seems to have been developed to work on tubeless, so no hassle with tubes + possibly less stiff sidewalls - plus only doing half a job when having to reduce the spindle diameter and not bushing the "duck head" arm bore to suit would not have helped things.

The machinne cost less than having 3 tyres fitted, but I could not recommend it for tubed tyres. Next time I will be having the tyres swapped at the bike's supplying dealer on a "ride in - ride out" basis. May cost a bit more, but after the last fight I have realised that I really am to old to do it myself anymore.

£0.02

Nigel B.