londez Posted September 4, 2009 Share Posted September 4, 2009 It's my first bike and I got it for 900 bucks with only 11,265 miles on it. The guy I bought it from said that the back tire had a slow leak and my dad rode it about five miles back to our house with no problems. I wanted to get an idea of how bad the leak was so I filled the tires up to the pressure indicated in the Haynes shop manual (26 in the front and 28 in back). A little over one week later I checked the pressure and the front was down to 19 and the back was down to 23. I wasn't planning on having to replace both tires and I was wondering if somebody could give me an idea of how much the tires are and about how much it will cost to get them put on and balanced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duaneage Posted September 4, 2009 Share Posted September 4, 2009 Tires are an important part of staying alive, if there are questions about the tires they should be replaced. Now that being said if the tires have good tread and no obvious cracks on the side there are three possibilities. 1. Leaky valve in the valve stem. Cheap easy replacement, just take out the old and replace with new 2. Bead is bad on the tire to rim. Let the air out, break the bead and clean any dirt, scale or rust you find and lube with tire soap and inflate. 3. There is an object or hole. Use a mixture of soap and water in a spray bottle and look for it. Pump the tire up to 40 lbs temporarily to make it easier to find a hole. In fact you should probably do this first to see where it leaks. You did not say if you have spokes or mags. With spokes you have a tube inside and it could be bad. An old patch might be loose, or something worked it's way into the tube. Breaking down spoke wheels is a job for a tire machine in the hands of someone that know what they are doing. It's easy to damage the tube with tire levers. Find out where it leaks and then decide. if the sidewalls are cracked and air is coming through STOP riding until you can get new tires. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jordanscycles Posted September 4, 2009 Share Posted September 4, 2009 and as far as a price, it should be $150-$200 USD for a new tire and inner tube to be mounted on each wheel professionally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plain old dave Posted September 4, 2009 Share Posted September 4, 2009 and as far as a price, it should be $150-$200 USD for a new tire and inner tube to be mounted on each wheel professionally. The XS400 cast wheels require tubes, too. This time of year it shouldn't be a problem, but in the winter they will not hold air without tubes. $150-200 for high end tires is about right, but $50-60 for a decent tire and another $20-40 for installation is more like it Around Here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KFunk Posted September 4, 2009 Share Posted September 4, 2009 It's my first bike and I got it for 900 bucks with only 11,265 miles on it. The guy I bought it from said that the back tire had a slow leak and my dad rode it about five miles back to our house with no problems. I wanted to get an idea of how bad the leak was so I filled the tires up to the pressure indicated in the Haynes shop manual (26 in the front and 28 in back). A little over one week later I checked the pressure and the front was down to 19 and the back was down to 23. I wasn't planning on having to replace both tires and I was wondering if somebody could give me an idea of how much the tires are and about how much it will cost to get them put on and balanced. See if you can find my old thread where I was asking about tires. I ended up paying about $100 total for both from americanmototire.com and having them shipped to me, then having a friend's shop install them for $20 each (I just took them wheels, it might cost more if they have to take the wheels of your bike.) I did tubeless since the original tires on my '81 xs400 were tubeless (cast wheels, not wire wheels). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
londez Posted September 4, 2009 Author Share Posted September 4, 2009 Tires are an important part of staying alive, if there are questions about the tires they should be replaced. Now that being said if the tires have good tread and no obvious cracks on the side there are three possibilities. 1. Leaky valve in the valve stem. Cheap easy replacement, just take out the old and replace with new 2. Bead is bad on the tire to rim. Let the air out, break the bead and clean any dirt, scale or rust you find and lube with tire soap and inflate. 3. There is an object or hole. Use a mixture of soap and water in a spray bottle and look for it. Pump the tire up to 40 lbs temporarily to make it easier to find a hole. In fact you should probably do this first to see where it leaks. You did not say if you have spokes or mags. With spokes you have a tube inside and it could be bad. An old patch might be loose, or something worked it's way into the tube. Breaking down spoke wheels is a job for a tire machine in the hands of someone that know what they are doing. It's easy to damage the tube with tire levers. Find out where it leaks and then decide. if the sidewalls are cracked and air is coming through STOP riding until you can get new tires. Thanks for all the help guys! I'm gonna check it out on sunday after I get back from brooklyn (and no I will not be riding my bike there, ha ha). An the tires are mags. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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