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Iron Butt
Posts: 802
| I'm just changing the first set of tires and noticed that neither wheel has any weights on it at all. I can't imagine that Dunlop and the wheel maker are THAT good. Anybody else notice no factory installed weights?
Marc |
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Cruiser
Posts: 256
| Same here I think. I'd have to double check. |
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Visionary
Posts: 1290
Ruskin, Fl | Had front and rear replaced at the dealer, no weights. Just put a new E3 on I bought from cyclegear. It took 1.75 ounces on one side and 0.75 on the other. To make it worse, all they had were silver weights. Looked like crap on my black power coat. Mechanic claimed that it was most likely the rim. Said power coating does that to the rim sometimes. I'm not so sure about that. Point is I don't believe the dealer ever balanced them. That might explain why if I let the bars go at about 30 MPH the front starts to shake real bad. If I don't grab them right away it would be bad. However I don't feel any shimmy at any speed. |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 802
| What I do with unpainted lead weights is to take a black magic marker and color them to match the wheel. It only takes a minute and lasts the life of the tire.
Marc |
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Cruiser
Posts: 215
orrick, mo | Put Dyna beads in they work great and you won't need those ugly wheel weights.
www.uniquebalancing.com
Edited by buzz64077 2010-10-05 9:17 PM
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Cruiser
Posts: 228
| I quit having my tires balanced 10+ years ago. Have ridden 120K+ miles in that time frame on three different bikes and can tell no difference in shaking, tire wear etc. I ride very aggressively and have experience no problems. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 215
orrick, mo | I have never riden a bike without some kind of balancing so I can't comment on that but doesn't sound like the greatest idea to me but if it works for you Savage thats great. I do know after I put Dyna-beads in the tires on my old VTX that the mirrors did not shake as much as they did with wheel weights.
I believe Dyna-beads work good but I haven't noticed as much of a change on the Vision as I did the VTX. |
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Visionary
Posts: 1290
Ruskin, Fl | Magic marker was the plan till I had 7 stupid weights all in a row. Had to be five inches of silver weights. Having OCD I taped them off with blue tape and hit them with some black spray paint. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 74
Lehigh Valley, Pa | cw1115 - 2010-10-06 12:46 PM
Magic marker was the plan till I had 7 stupid weights all in a row. Had to be five inches of silver weights. Having OCD I taped them off with blue tape and hit them with some black spray paint.
It's been a long time since I worked a tire changer but if I ever mounted a tire and the balance was as far off as yours. I pulled the tire and spun it on the wheel which generally solved the problem. Now a bike tire is a different beast when it comes to lining it up, but I would not accept that much compensation for balancing. |
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Visionary
Posts: 1290
Ruskin, Fl | I found out about indexing the tire to the rim after it was done. I had all kinds of trouble. I bought the tire from cyclegear. The were going to mount and balance for free. They even had black weights. I dropped it off and went to run some errands. Guy calls me up and says that his machine is not strong enough and that he can't get the tire on the rim. I had to go pick it up and take it to a regular shop. By that time it was getting late in the day. I still had to put it back on the bike and get that effing belt correct. I was leavining the next AM for TN. Now I know. I also learned that there is a red dot on the sidewall that is supposed to be lined up with the valve stem when you mount tire. Not sure if that was done or not. |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 802
| The dot on the sidewall designates the light spot on the tire. In order to know where to put it relative to the rim you need to know where the heavy spot on the rim is. It is rarely by the tire valve except by coincidence. With cast wheels it can be anywhere. An easy way to find it is to mount the wheel on the balancer before the tire is mounted and find the heavy spot on the wheel and then permanently mark it with a magic marker on the inside of the rim so you'll know where it is in the future. Now you can align the dot on the tire with your new mark which will allow for the least amount of weight needed.
BTW, I just finished installing the rear wheel and promised myself that either I pay the shop to do it the next time or do it on the lift with another set of hands. I did it laying on the floor by myself and I've come to the conclusion that I'm just too GD old to be squirming around on my back anymore. It's gonna take a couple of days just to recover  At least you don't have to readjust the belt as long as you don't loosen the adjusting nuts. I rechecked it when I was done and it was still dead nuts.
Marc |
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Visionary
Posts: 1290
Ruskin, Fl | Thanks Marc. I didn't touch the adjusters, but the belt still gives me fits. Put the wheel back on, belt was ok. Go for a ride and its now tracking to the right side of the pully. Loosen the axel and readjust. Spin the wheel by hand, perfect. I even fired it up and ran it in gear up to about 20 mph, all good. Go for a ride, GD thing is tracking on the right again. Third time was a charm. I go through little fiasco every time. |
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Visionary
Posts: 1290
Ruskin, Fl | Spoke too soon. Belt is tracking to the right side of pully again. Time to get some help on this.
Edited by cw1115 2010-10-07 9:27 AM
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Visionary
Posts: 4278
| If you go into harley and look there is no weights. Dunlop and all tire manufactures put a dot that is supposed to go by the valve steam. When I mounted tires at a dealer if the tire tuck more then a couple once's we would brake the tire loose and movies it one way or the other.
A good dealer should do it for you with out you having to ask them. |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 763
Anderson, IN (48mi NE of downtown Indianapolis) | I used to design tire&wheel balancing machines. The color mark is indeed the marker for the "light spot" as mentioned above. The valve stem acts as a weight. When the mark is aligned with the valve it can many times put the balance within specification. This doesn't mean it is balanced as good as it could be with additional weight. It only means it is within the tolerance the manufacturer, bike shop, etc has set as their acceptable range. |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 802
| The valve as the heavy spot doesn't seem to be very accurate anymore. Back when we had spoked steel wheels it seemed to be a good rule of thumb but nowadays with cast wheels it doesn't seem to apply. As an example, I did both wheels on my Vision yesterday and the heavy spot on the front wheel was about 90 degrees from the valve stem and the rear was almost 180 degrees out. I balance lots of different make cast wheels and the heavy spot can come out most anywhere.
Marc |
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Visionary
Posts: 8144
New Bohemia, VA | some use weights, some never use weights; line the valve stem up with the dot, lining the valve stem up with dot don't work no more. sheeesh, I think we can all agree to disagree.
I got to start mounting and balancing my own tires this month, I'll give you full report when I do. Maybe I'll turn the tire inside out and try it that way since nobody has done that yet...  |
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No wheel weights?