Ballancing question

STooRay

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Just made my first a to z tire change. New Mich gt4 -old Avon Storm ultra 2
When ballancing with a static ballancer I found the rear tire to have 25 grams. The old Avon was having 45 grams.
Sounds maybe normal to me.
The front tire was just to have 5 grams. The old Avon had 75 grams, and that weight was placed on two different places on the rim.
Seemed a bit odd to me, but what say you experienced guys?
Got a little suspicious when I found that the last person who changed the rear tire had forgotten to put the bolts back in the muffler clamp. Blurry picture below.

Tested the tires last night. I cannot believe the difference. Bike felt so much lighter and fast responding.
On the other side the old ones was totally gone.
I posted a picture of them earlier but here they are again ( with the new for comparison).
Thanks for your advice/opinion
Stu
 

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ScubaDave

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I have been through many PR's and found they need very little weight. Some even no weight.
 
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I balanced my wheel first, ( needed no weight), then the PR4. It needed no weight to balance. I think they are getting closer to tires which are well balanced. I did put beads in the tire after balancing. It runs smoother than ever.
 
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STooRay

STooRay

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What are these beads?
Don't know of this expression other than the steel wire at the edge of the tyres....
But then again, this is an island off the west coast of Norway.
We don't know much :bow1:
Stu
 
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I get my tires installed. I'm on my 2nd set of PR4GT's. They seem to get the same amount of weight as previous Michelins & Dunlops.

The PR4GT's are superb handling tires. Never had any tire remotely this good in 100k miles of riding.
 

thekaz

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I just put another set of PR4's on a month ago. Rear needed nothing, front took 1.0 OZ ..... I always try and split the weight :) that maybe an OCD thing though LOL
 

Byron

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When mounting and balancing motorcycle tires, without a balance reference mark on the tire, it's just a random placement of the tire on the rim. Once it is on the balancer if the weight seems excessive I'll deflate the tire and break the beads and rotate the tire on the rim putting the heavy side of the tire over the light spot of the rim before weights were added. Basically sliding the tire 180 degrees on the rim. Back to the balancer and usually the weight is more reasonable and good to go, done.

I've gone through the process of balancing the bare rim, first marking the light spot and then adding weight until balanced. Then mounting a tire and mark the heavy spot. Then break the beads and rotate the tire so the heavy spot is over the rims light spot. Remove the rim weights used to balance the rim only and then balance the whole assembly. You can use less weight to balance the assembly this way but the time required for marginally less weight was just not worth my time in the long run.

Either the tire balances with acceptable weight the first time or it gets rotated 180 and balanced is good enough for me. Unless I just want to challenge myself and then I'll take the long route just to see what happens. :)
 
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STooRay

STooRay

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Thanks for the advice Byron!
Strange how I learn from this forum every day....:hat3:
Stu
 

ST Gui

240Robert
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Byron said:
When mounting and balancing motorcycle tires, without a balance reference mark on the tire, it's just a random placement of the tire on the rim. Once it is on the balancer if the weight seems excessive I'll deflate the tire and break the beads and rotate the tire on the rim putting the heavy side of the tire over the light spot of the rim before weights were added. Basically sliding the tire 180 degrees on the rim. Back to the balancer and usually the weight is more reasonable and good to go, done.

As I don't mount/balance my tires how about this:

The tire guy balances the bare rim (with valve stem?) and the light spot is marked. Then if the tire has a balance mark it goes over the light spot. If not then spin the tire find the heavy spot and put it over the light spot and rebalance. Weights added only once when the tire is on the rim? I don't want the tire guy to charge me (much) more for putting him through some extra steps.
 

ST Gui

240Robert
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How ya gonna spin the tire if not on the rim?
I thought that step was understood. I was curious about the part were weights were added to the bare rim and then removed when the tire was mounted. Was that necessary or part of the original more OCD method?
 

Byron

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There are many ways that tires can be mounted and balanced. Most of the time if a tire is marked by the manufacture the mark is aligned with the valve stem or any mark the bike manufacture may have put on the rim for tire mounting purposes. I've thought about building some sort of jig that could hold a tire to find the light or heavy spot but so far no luck.

What may have been left out is to clean the bead area of the wheel before mounting the tire to ensure a good seal. Most tire shops NEVER do this.
 

Byron

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I thought that step was understood. I was curious about the part were weights were added to the bare rim and then removed when the tire was mounted. Was that necessary or part of the original more OCD method?
More my OCD I guess. :)

You don't need a tire machine to mount your own tires. Some zip ties and maybe a tire iron or two a balance stand and some weights.
 
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