New tires

[Windwalker7]

Recently I posted asking what kind of milage you guys were getting out of your stock rear tire. I only got about 4500..... 2300 of which were from the previous owner. It was pretty smooth in the middle barely able to see the tread. Must be the heavy down shifting and hard accelerating


I just got a new rear tire today. It is a Kenda, Kruze or something like that. I picked it up for $72 plus an additional $35 for mounting it on the bike.

I got it from a tire dealer that dealt mostly with car and truck tires. Never heard anything about Kenda motorcycle tires, just ATV tires. It looks pretty good and seems to handle as well or better than the wore out stock that I was used to.

I'm not sure of the quality of this tire compared to more expensive brands but it seems pretty good so far. It has pretty deep tread and looks as though it should last a while.

Anyway, now for my question. Do you guys have your tires balanced?

The stock tire had a few wheel weights on the wheel. The dealer took them off when mounting the new tire but said he had no way of balancing the wheel. He said it seemed to be pretty good with no weights.

I've had the bike up to 65mph and didn't notice anything weird or wobbly.

I never saw wheel weights on spoked motorcycle wheels so maybe they aren't necessary.

What do you think?

It looks like this CompACC: Kenda: Kenda K673 Kruz Tires - Rear

[AJE777]

When I got my new tire put on at the dealer they removed the old weights balanced the wheel with the new tire on it.

[bodie27]

I just got a new rear tyre and today I did a safety course and asked the instructor if it needed balancing. He said yes definately and the machine probably did it but to ask. I have weights on the tyre so i will have to check to see if the tyre guys did it.

[Windwalker7]

With a car it is easy to notice the wobble in the steering wheel when a front tire is out of ballance.

I don't notice any wobble or anything on the bike. I realize the rear tire will make any wobble harder to notice as opposed tto the front. Surely I'd feel something if it were out of ballance.

This has me concerned.

[GregR1]

it's entirely possible that the mechanic happened to line up the tire's heavy spot with the wheel's light spot "by accident" and the tire / wheel combo is pretty well balanced. though the shop should have some way of checking the balance on a bike wheel - might not be as accurate as for a car wheel, but likely better than nothing.

failing that, you COULD check the balance on your own - you'd need a special axle type thing and some other thing, but i've seen writeups on how to do it at home.

edit - here ya go:

Motorcycle Wheel Balancer - webBikeWorld

[Clint]

I agree with Greg. What I'd add is that I'd never have work done on my bike by a shop not equipped to do so. That alone tells you that they're not practiced motorcycle mechanics, and they may miss something important.

I wouldn't buy Kenda, either, but it'll probably be fine.

[Windwalker7]

I did see them put the axle through the wheel after the new tire was on it. They had it up on crates and were spinning it. They said after weights were removed it would not settle the same place. I guess this is similar to how a spin balancer works. These guys are pretty busy with car and truck tires and have a pretty good reputation around town. I'd like to think they have pretty good knowledge of the importance of balancing. Similar to the pic in the above posted link. By the way, thanks.



I never noticed weights on spoked motorcycle wheels before.

If the tire was out of balance, what would or should I notice?

I wasn't sure about the Kenda Kruz tire either but figured for the price, I could wear out two tires for probably less money than if I got something costing twice as much.

I thought it looked pretty good, nice deep tread grooves and all. It handles pretty good so far with about 50 miles on it.

[palanon]

I've been doing quite a bit of research into this subject. One of our fellow members ( Tab B. ) has the equipment and has volunteered to mount and balance my new tires and give me some hands on training. I'm really looking forward to this. The less a shop touches one of my bikes, the happier I am.

Greg is right on the money. Most tires have a dot that marks the lightest point of the tire. The standard practice has been to line up the dot with the valve stem. This assumes that the valve stem is the heaviest point on the rim. However, some times this is not the case. Most of the experts recommend balancing the rim first. As a matter of fact, a lot of racers swear by balancing the rim, mount the tire and go ( no 2nd balancing ).

I also agree you shouldn't go to a shop without the proper tools and training. First for safety reasons, 2nd for damages. You have to be super careful of the brake rotors. If they get bent, your probably looking at over $200.00 a pop.


Oooops, took to long to post. Sounds like they balanced it. I have weights on my bike with spoked wheels.

[Low&Slow]

O.K. I just came from the dealer, I wanted to get a price on a set of metzler tires for the m50, it was $360.69 plus $105 for mounting and "balancing".

[palanon]

Wow !! That seems really high even with shaft drive. Maybe shoot a PM to DrBob. He will know what's reasonable for labor to remove the rear tire. The price of the tires seems high to me even from a dealer.

[jimbob]

I've got a sportbike, so it may be slightly different. However, when I got new tires I had them balanced. If I took the bike there, it would have been $35/wheel. Since I bought the tires from the dealer and took them off the bike myself, they fitted and balanced the tires free of charge.

[AJE777]

My dealer charges $40.00 to mount tires if you bring in the bike. No charge if you drop off the wheel and the new tire.

[Low&Slow]

I think I'm going to take the tires off myself and bring them to a speed shop, they sale tires there they also mount and balance them, I'm told they're more reasonable than the dealer.

[Low&Slow]

I had front and rear tires replaced with metzler me 880, the total with tax was $362.73. Thats with mounting and balancing.