I've changed countless motorcycle tires and dark sides too on my no mar manual changer over the years.
Last year my wife's car needed tires and was getting quotes of $800 plus....checking online I was able to find a nice set of Goodyear assurance tires for half the price of shop prices, $400 shipped to my door for 4 tires.
Figured I'd try, no problem! All four mounted and bubble balanced by me in an afternoon. Braking the bead was the hardest part, enter a Bead Blaster and problem solved.
This past weekend my son's girlfriend needed front tries bad, they were bald and she needed a state inspection. No one would take her car in over the weekend, shot over to Walmart, bought two new tires and had her mounted and balanced in under an hour with a manual tire changer in my basement.
Soon my truck will need tires and you bet I'll be swapping them myself.
I've saved thousands upon thousands ordering MC tires online and changing myself, and it's not just the money but the convenience of changing when I want and not having to bring the bike or wheels in and making multiple trips to a dealer. I can only dream of what it may be like having an automated changer and balancer, that sure would be nice.
Putting a 205/50 on my 17" BMW wheel was a little challenging the first time. It is a
very tight fit to get that second bead over the edge of the rim. I cannot even imagine trying to do it manually. The second time was a bit easier, using the lessons I learned the first time around.
Slapping the 235/70s on the wife's 17" rims was a piece of cake. I do not have a lift so I had to do one at a time, but even still it took a little more than an hour to get all four done. Well worth the $300+ I saved not having Tires Plus do them.
I do not have a dynamic balancer. I have a Mark Parnes(?) balancer for the bike tires and easy access to a cone balancer for the bigger stuff. Both the bike and the car were smooth all the way up to 90mph so I guess I cannot justify the cost of a dynamic balancer just yet.
The savings get even better when you take into consideration my shop/home is about 35-50 miles from the nearest town of any size (if I get a Big Mac Attack, it is a 100 mile round trip) so being able to get tires delivered, especially with free shipping,
really helps a lot and really adds to the scheduling convenience.