Tyre balancing ?

[tlronny]

I've just had the first rear tyre replaced on my newish steed and was wondering if it is standard practice to remove the factory weights on the inner edge of the wheel and replace them with those horrible stick-on ones around the nicely polished outside ??
Someone told me that new tyres dont need balancing but the rim does and that is why there are the factory ones on the inside.
Are there shops that put better quality ones on or what ?? :spudwhat:

[Motu]

Standard practice,stick ons are quick and easy,like you don't want them to stuff around and waste time,then charge you for it ,do you? The rim should be factory balanced,they tyres are sometimes marked with a heavy spot (or light spot to go at the valve) and some times a low spot(red and yellow dots.But they will always be a little out.

Anyway,you shouldn't have any problems below 100kph....oooh,you don't speed do you????

[tlronny]

Its just that with polished rims the weights look terrible - perhaps they could just fall off ?
Should the original rim weights go back on though ?

[FzerozeroT]

go back to the shop and ask for them to be changed, even if you score the weights from somewhere else they should be happy to help / or lose a customer

[vifferman]

There is an upside to the stick-on weights. The ones that were on it balance the wheel/tyre in one plane only, whereas the stick-on ones are better balanced from a dynamic (3-dimensional) perspective, especially with the wider rims that modern sportsbikes like yours have. At least, that's what I was told when they were fitted to my VFR, which had polished rims, so like you, I thought the stick-on weights were inconvenient (for cleaning/polishing) and were less unobtrusive (more obtrusive??)

When the new tyres were fitted to the VTR, the 'old' weights were left in place. I hope the wheels/tyres are still balanced....

[merv]

When the new tyres were fitted to the VTR, the 'old' weights were left in place. I hope the wheels/tyres are still balanced....

Every time I've had my tyres replaced (Sawyers) it seems they don't touch the weights that are on the centre of the wheels and they haven't fitted any others and the bike has never suffered wheelbalance shakes at any speed. This is unlike cars which seem so susceptible to wheel shake if they aren't balanced right every time.

[FROSTY:Me]

There is an upside to the stick-on weights. The ones that were on it balance the wheel/tyre in one plane only, whereas the stick-on ones are better balanced from a dynamic (3-dimensional) perspective, especially with the wider rims that modern sportsbikes like yours have. At least, that's what I was told when they were fitted to my VFR, which had polished rims, so like you, I thought the stick-on weights were inconvenient (for cleaning/polishing) and were less unobtrusive (more obtrusive??)

When the new tyres were fitted to the VTR, the 'old' weights were left in place. I hope the wheels/tyres are still balanced....

Seems strange that they diddn't peel the old weights off first.
If extra weight was added to the wheel opposite the old weights I;d be asking what they were up to

[NZred]

There is not a lot of mass in a bike trye,.. so they should not need much.
Unlike a car tyre the can equal or exceed the rim mass.

[laRIKin]

Seems strange that they diddn't peel the old weights off first.
If extra weight was added to the wheel opposite the old weights I;d be asking what they were up to

I agree when I put a new tire on I always take of the old weights.
And start a fresh. If all tires were made with the same weight distribution
I guess you would only have to balance the rim once, and never do it again.
I think that they are trying to take a short cut.

[curious george]

Is there anything wrong with the wheel? Or just that it looks different?
It might be interesting to test it to see if it is balanced....

[tlronny]

I'm only enquiring cos the weights look like shit on a big fat polished rim.
Wot I want to know is if a new bike tyre really needs balancing at all and if so why cant they put on proper rim weights like it comes from the factory with ? :disapint:

[FzerozeroT]

I would have thought that the rims would be skimmed at the factory to be balanced - or if you had the time/money you could get it done, tyres are unbalanced because of manufacturing tolerances, obviously for the more expensive tyres tolerances are tighter and may not need weights?

[DEATH_INC.]

Rims are not balanced when manufactured.They normally have a mark to identify the heavy spot.Ditto with tyres.If you shag around turning the tyre on the rim(optimisation) you can often eliminate a lot of the weights,but this takes a fair bit of time.
You can fit the factory type weights but as previously stated a dynamic balance is far superior to a static balance.

Did this help with your headshaking? I'm guessing that's why you did it.....

[tlronny]

Dont know if its stopped the slapping yet as i havent been out for a good thrash but the old BT56J was down to the canvas after 4000km !

[vifferman]

Seems strange that they diddn't peel the old weights off first.
If extra weight was added to the wheel opposite the old weights I;d be asking what they were up to

I guess it was balanced with the old weights on? I dunno. I don't think I saw them balance the wheels after fitting the new tyres, but I wasn't paying a huge amount of attention, unlike with the VFR, which had had a problem with headshake before the tyres were replaced, so I was making sure the new tyres were fitted properly and the wheels were balanced. That's when I noticed the ugly stick-on weights replacing the original clip-on weights, and asked, "Why are you putting them on, Mister?" Hence the story about dynamically balancing the wheels to make sure they were in balance laterally as well as in the plane of rotation.
Could be total bollocks for all I know, but it sounded good.
And the headshake disappeared with the change in tyres and/or change in balancing method, and that was the main thing.

As for the VTR, it seems fine, whether the tyres/wheels were properly balanced or not. Mind you, I haven't had it up to 200 yet...