Modern Vespa

i'm just wondering if $200 for the tire and labor for the rear tire is uh - an ok price. that's the price of a vespa shop in oakland CA. i contacted a motorcycle shop, who work on MC's, but will order a tire and mount it on a vespa.... they charge $40 to mount the tire....... this guy wasn't sure about whether the tires need to be balanced.

so i don't know the cost of tires, but the MC shop seems a LOT cheaper...

any recommendations? i'm tempted to go with the MC shop, but am concerned about balancing, yay or nay....

TY!

$200! Crap!
A tire is about $50-ish. Labor is what takes your money.
If it's the front, you can remove it yourself with minimal tools and some mechanical experience.
The rear takes a little more.

the vespa shop claimed $115 for labor, and around $200 total. so the tire, i guess, is $85?

I removed and reinstalled my my own wheels (its easy) and had the shop mount the tires and balance the wheels. It was $100/wheel and I got the Heidenau K61s. Good tires.

Front wheel is a piece of cake. Rear takes me about 20 minutes to remove, about 30 to reinstall and torque everything down.

Best
Miguel

Thank you for the replies ---- I'm actually not interested in doing the job myself, but just trying to figure out if this price is reasonable, or not....... altho $200 for a new rear tire seems high to me. but i haven't had a tire replaced before.

and i do live in the bay area............

Yes just let them sell you a tire and charge the hour labor and be done. I'm a dealer that cleans up the errors from independents that don't know Vespa intimately.

You get what you pay for.

Best,
SDG

I'd be okay to pay that. Not much more though.

What SDG said.

Also you gotta remember that the MC shop will absolve themselves of any liability of something goes wrong "I don't work on mopeds but I did you a favor."

Best thing to do? Go to the scooter shop, have them order the tires and install them for you.

Don't be a DumDum and order tires off the internet and ask them to install for you. In all likelihood they get the same price and a fresher set of tires you did from the internet, and it just takes business away.

I had to get the Vespa inspected back in November. When I was at the dealership in Brooklyn ( I know them well enough), I was told that both my tires were pretty worn out and would not pass inspection. I knew I had to replace them before I was there, the vehicle would wobble when I would start to brake.
In any case, I had both tires replaced and they replaced the exhaust bushing ( I had put in a non OEM bushing when I had removed the exhaust in the summer to clean.
Total for both tires, labor and taxes came to $430. The tires are Michelin City Grips.
I would have liked to do it myself but liking and being able to are two different things, I don't have a stand to work on the Vespa while standing, I have to work on it on the sidewalk and I do the basic things like oil change/belt replacement/coolant change etc. Doubt I can do the rear wheel as easily as some here are able to do it. Plus in NYC few places that I am aware of that would mount and balance tires you don't buy from them.

That is just about what it costs here. A little high, maybe.

The tire shop down the street charged me $25 to put new 2 tires on my Fly.

If you can change a flat on your car you should learn how to change the tires on your scoot.

Changing the wheel (tire/rim) isn't the issue, mounting the tire on the rim is the issue. On a car you have a spare and all you are doing is jacking up the wheel, and changing it out.
On the Vespa, you have no spare, you have to get a tire, take the old tire off the rim, then mount the new tire and then install it. Also on the rear wheel, it isn't just 5 lugs that you undo to take it off.
I think there is a post on what goes into getting the rear wheel off. Doing that on the sidewalk isn't difficult, but definitely time consuming.
Not sure how many find it easy doing a tire change without a lift to have the wheel at possibly 3feet off the ground.

Thanks so much everyone! I um... never would've thought that the $200 was even in the ball park, but your replies were very helpful. i think you're probably right about not having it done at a MC shop...... he was a nice guy, but didn't even know if the tires should be balanced or not........ i'm assuming they are, although i don't see any place to mount wheel weights.

$200 for the Vespa dealer to change a rear tire isn't unreasonable. The cost includes time for them to remove the wheel from the scooter, which might take longer than mounting a new tire.

But taking your wheel to the motorcycle shop is not a bad idea either. You'll have to remove and reinstall the wheel yourself, which is something that you can find a lot of advice for here on MV. It isn't terribly difficult. $40 is about the going rate for mounting a tire at a motorcycle shop. Most of them are competent (search online for reviews of your shop, if you're in doubt) and they will balance the wheel if necessary (small 10 inch scooter tires may not need balancing). Some shops want you to buy the tire through them; some actually prefer that you buy your tires online and bring them in (maybe they don't like to stock scooter tires, IDK).

I bring my tires and wheels, off the scooter, to a nearby motorcycle shop. I usually drop them off overnight, but the shop will change them while I wait if I'm in a hurry. It costs me $40 to $45 per wheel, and I have no complaints about their service.

Another good reason to learn to remove/replace the wheels on your scooter is that you won't have to have the scooter towed to the shop if it's not rideable; you can just throw the wheels into your car and drive there.

Good luck, ride safe, and have fun! 8)

It's nowhere near as hard as you make it sound. The wheel doesn't have to be anything close to "3 feet off the ground". Where are you getting this info?

It doesn't have to be off the ground, you can do it while it is on the stand. It is just not comfortable and Im pretty lean and flexible and don't mind sitting/kneeling on the ground. I haven't yet taken the rear wheel off myself, but based on my observations, it is more than just removing 5 bolts like one does on a car. That is all I was stating.
The person asking about changing the tires was asking if $200 was a fair price. If the labor is $100-$115 an hour and they may have marked up the tire price who knows.
When I have to replace the tires again in about 2000 miles from now, I will try and do it myself but I was in a bind needing an inspection and not enough time to get the tires and mount them etc, plus it would have been harder given that it was cold and I can't see myself kneeling/crouching on the sidewalk for an hour or more replacing the tire for sure.
For me it was easier to get it done.

thanks ---- i realize only now (i'm naive...) that the $40 to $50 the MC shop quoted was to just mount the tire - i think that's correct. so that makes the $200 the shop quoted (i'm assuming that's to do the whole job of removing the wheel, tire, etc....)....... more in perspective. i blipped over the fact that i was comparing apples to oranges, in other words.

good info! thanks again all!

In fairness, many riders also get their oil changed in a shop, just like drivers often get their car or truck oil changed at one of the many "oil change" shops around. It's not as if they can't do it themselves, but it is often a heck of a lot more convenient to get it done and better than putting it off. I find that easy to understand.

^^^this...for me these type of jobs come down to...cost/time/tools/know how/logistics...

-is it cheaper to buy the parts and do the work myself?
-do i have the time to do it myself?
-do i have the tools to do it myself?
-do i have the know how to do it myself?
-do i have a garage/shed where i can do it myself?

Yes, $200 is a fair amount to put on a new tire at a shop. I've been quoted a lot move than that before.

If you want to save some cash, then learn how to remove your wheels yourself (YouTube is your friend and its easy), and take them to Cycle Gear to have a new tire mounted, but call ahead and make sure that they have your size and brand in stock or order them so that they will be there before you go. In my area it's $25 to mount if you buy your tire from them and $50 if you didn't buy your tire from them. They will mount your tire for you while you wait. I don't think that all Cycle Gear stores do this, but you can call or go on their website to make sure that that shop you want to go to mounts tires. I think that most do this.

Seems a bit high, we just put a new City Grip on the BV350. Total cost was $145 including the tire at our local Aprilia-Piaggio shop. They've worked on our scooters for half a dozen years now and never had a problem. Their shop labor rate is $105.

Front or rear? What a deal!

If you were talking to me that was a rear.

Yes, thanks.

It's a fair price.

As a person who actually changes his own tires (mount and balance), even with the right tools it is a time-consuming and fussy job.

If you want professional service with safety in mind, just pay the shop to do it right. They will remove the wheel without breaking anything. They will remove the valve stem, remove the tire without damaging the rim, clean the rim, install new valve stem, install new tire without damaging the rim, seat tire correctly and evenly, (S150 probably doesn't need balance), reinstall wheel, properly torqued.

An hour is fair. Profit on the tire is how they stay in business. If you never use the scooter shop for service and accessories, scooter shop closes. That does you no good, does it?

Just paid 80 for a michelin and 150 to install it. Rear tire on a sprint 150. Bike was only 3 months old I punctured it. I just dont trust plugging a tire when all you have are 2 wheels. Plug a flat to get home, sure. Thats what I paid.

My local shop quoted me around $375, all-in, for a new set of CityGrips, swapping my original exhaust for an identical one I got off eBay, and putting in a quick-connect for a battery tender. Seems fair to me.

The motorcycle shop was quoting a price for bring in the tire and wheel, not diss mounting them from the scooter.

Outrageously expensive. I remove the tires and pay $25 for each.

That's a great price. What part of the SF Bay Area are you located in?
The part of changing a scooter tire that many people don't factor into the equation when figuring out cost is removing and reinstalling the exhaust. Depending on where you live and how long it's been since the exhaust was removed, this can be challenging, especially on some of the smaller models.

Seems fair if the tire was a high end brand. I have a lift and a tire machine and it takes me about 1.5 hours to do a careful job with static balancing. It would be hard to break the bead w/o the tire machine and same for mounting new. Old school tire irons just don't cut it for stiff tubeless skins.

Kansas! Not SF. Most mechanics look at the wheel'and go 'Oh I am not touching that wheel. I reassure that a few scratches are fine. He grows chickens and I by my eggs from him. He is a great guy. I remove the wheels myself.