New Tires, Self Mounted

After the Oregon Desert Tour it was definitely time for a new rear tire. My 2001 Ducati ST2 came to me with an inexpensive tire with OK performance and I wanted something like I had on my 1998 ST2. I also wanted to tackle doing the work myself. After spending hours pouring over the internet I ordered a Diablo Strada Rear Tire.

The only things that had me worried as a first time tire changer was breaking the bead, seating the bead and balancing the tire. My original KLX 250S tires were not balanced and I didn't want that feeling on the ST2. I ran across Dyna Beads as an alternative to stick-on weights and I was sold. Other various sites and youtube videos convinced me that I could break the bead without expensive equipment and that my compressor was more than capable of seating the tire.

I thought about building a home-made bead breaker, but I found that my largest C-clamp would fit around the tire and it worked great for breaking the bead.