Changing F800GT Tires, just wanted to share the experience.

With less than 800 miles on the OE Metzeler Z8 Interact tires, which I really liked, I ran over a piece of steel that left a hole that couldn't be plugged. Originally, I had used a couple of spoons to lever the bad tire off and levered a new tire on. Well, dumb ass me levered the new tire on with the light side opposite of where it was supposed to be; across from the valve stem, and it was necessary to use 3oz of weight to balance the tire! Knowing what a pain in the rear it was going to be to rotate the tire on the rim to its proper location, I went ahead and ordered a bead breaker.

https://www.discountramps.com/tire-b...hoC2uUQAvD_BwE

What took me, literally, more than 2 hours and a gallon of sweat to do with just the spoons, took me 15 minutes, tops, to do with the bead breaker and 4 spoons. Also, I cut up an old garden hose to slide on the spoons to protect the rim, which worked really well.

What worked for me was, after removing the valve stem core, spray whatever you use for lubricant around the bead. After breaking the bead in the first location, insert a spoon in that spot. Rotate the tire to a spot to the left of the first spoon, break the bead and insert another spoon. Do that until you have all 4 spoons inserted, which should encompass about a 1/4 of the tire, then start prying the tire off beginning with the first spoon.

How stinking easy that was relative to not using the bead breaker. Since I only wanted to rotate the tire to the correct position on the rim, I broke the bead on the opposite side and rotated it 180º, turned the tire over and spooned it back on. Removed the weights, filled it with air and put it on the bubble balancer. Surprising to me, it needed no weights! This should make a difference but I won't know until I take it out.

About the bead breaker. It was only $70 but it's really a solid made tool. Only thing I did to it was glue some rubber feet on it and fill in the gaps in the lever handle with some nylon washers. Total cost extra was less than $5. Anyway, just wanted to share the experience.