Rabaconda is a machine that makes it easy for any motorcyclist to change their own tires at home, great! Because I have a motorcycle business, I was even able to sign up as a Rabaconda dealer, so I could not only get mine cheaper, but make money selling Rabacondas to my audience. Perfect, right?

So I’ve had this thing for years now, but I’ve never tried to sell a single one. What gives? Let’s talk about what I love about this thing, what I hate about it, and why I won’t sell you one.

What I like about it

If you’ve never changed a tire before, you can learn to do it yourself pretty easily with a Rabaconda by following the instructions in the booklet, or watching one of their videos. It’s honestly just that good. With one exception this thing pretty much works without too much effort, as advertised.

Full disclosure: The hardest part of the whole ordeal is usually getting your tire on and off of your motorcycle. If you’re already setup to do this, you won’t find it harder, but first timers who don’t have the right equipment will.

Where the Rabaconda comes in is AFTER you’ve got the wheel off of your motorcycle.

First you break the bead a couple times on one side, spin it around, and then you do the same thing on the other side, spin it around, easy peasy.

Before long you secure the rim, apply lots of lubrication, put a tire spoon in just the right place, ratchet around, and off comes your wheel from the rim on one side and then you do the same on the other.

Installation is a little tricky at first, but as always, lots of lube goes a long way. You’ll line things up, use a tire iron that comes with the Rabaconda, and I also like to use two rim clamps I bought separately because I’m cheap, because they make the job easier.

After that you’ll need a tire balancer like this Black Widow Pro Motorcycle Tire Balancer that I picked up from DiscountRamps.com – side note, that’s also where I got the table lift from that I’ve been using for like 6 years and it’s been flawless. Not sponsored, just saying.

Then you simply reinstall your mounted tire and balanced wheel on your motorcycle.

The thing is, there are two big issues with the Rabaconda.

What I don’t like about it

My original plan as a YouTuber and a Rabaconda dealer who changes a lot of tires, is that every time I used the Rabaconda, I would make a video about, thousands of people would watch, hopefully some would buy, and the next time I need to do a tire change on a different bike, I’d make another video.

But I haven’t even bothered trying to sell a single Rabaconda because there are two things that drive me nuts about them.

1) First, if you have one motorcycle that uses tubed tires and one motorcycle that uses tubeless tires than I have bad news for you.

Rabaconda has one model, the Street Bike Tire Changer which is great for tubeless tires.

They make a second model, the Dirt Bike Tire Changer, which is great for tubed tires… but the two don’t really cross over well.

In my experience, if you think you’re going to change a tubeless tire using the Rabaconda Street Bike Tire changer, good fucking luck. I tried it, wasted a bunch of time, gave up, took it to the shop, and they told me I had put three holes in my tube during my struggle. Yep. They have a video showing you that it’s possible, but if you look at that tire, it looks like it’s been installed and uninstalled a bunch of times before they started recording, it’s super malleable. It was a big fail for me.

2) The second reason I don’t try to sell the Rabacona is that the price has gone up SUBSTANTIALLY.

I saw a lot of value in the Rabaconda. When I got it, it could pay for itself in under a dozen tire changes. It made sense as a long term investment, since I change anywhere from 2-5 tires a year.

With the Rabaconda I would not only save the time of driving to and from the shop, waiting around, and having to change tires based on when the shop is open instead of when I had dead time to spare, I could also start changing tires myself for friends and family. There just seemed to be a lot of value there.

But now the prices have gone up a few hundred more, to the point where you could easily get a used tire machine, and sometimes a used tire machine, and balancer too, for the same price.

Now you’re talking about a machine that can do your tubed motorcycle tires, tubeless motorcycle tires, and your car and truck tires.

Is the Rabaconda a product with no market? My final thoughts

No, definitely not. If you’re a track guy and you’re going to go through multiple tires every month or maybe even every weekend, this thing works great. If for whatever reason you change a lot of tires, or you need something portable, does it make sense? Absolutely.

But do I like it enough to want to profit by selling it to people? No.

What do I think you should do instead? Check out my video on 7 ways to tell if your motorcycle tires need replacing. A lot of people don’t know about all 7, but they can make or break your ride, or even save your life. Have a look: