Honda-SOHC
Other Stuff => Misc / Open => Topic started by: nairb on October 06, 2024, 02:47:33 AM
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So I purchased a spanking new set of Michelin "road classic" tyres. 3.25x19 and 4.00x18 for a bike that has been waiting for new rubber for 5 or 6 years. It says they can be fitted with a tube.
I usually fit these by my self. I was surprised to find that there is no yellow/red dot on the tyre any more.
And searching about on the net, it appears these tyres are so perfect they dont need them.
So I fitted them....... with a tube. I then went to balance them.
The front tyre needed 60+ gram weights to get the wheel to be nearly balanced. Utter tosh.
Anybody else had this issue?. I will try to turn the fitted tyre on the rim and see if it helps. The old tyre had just one 10g balance weight.
Ta
Nairb
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I haven't got any balance weights on mine, tyres are from DSS but I'm not sure my local bike shop extends to balancing anyway. Considering I seldom ride with my nose between the clocks anymore surely it isn't very important? :-\
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So, in the end, I needed nearly 70g to balance this wheel. Something was not right..... I removed the tube and put the tyre back on.
I kept moving the tyre around the rim to find the low and high spots. I finally put the low spot at the valve point.
Then refitted the tube. It did need to be balanced, but only needed 20g this time and was just right. So it seems it's best to find the low spot on these "spotless" tyres when fitting a tube.
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How strange, we haven't got weights on any of our own Honda fours and never had to fit any to all the bikes we restored and sold 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
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Thats very odd, I have never had to balance a tyre on any of my Hondas, mind you one was slightly out of balance after a one rainy night when I had to mend a puncture by the roadside and a tyre lever managed to end up in the tyre.
I got home fine apart from some loose fillings
The next day I took the tyre off to find that the lever had left a perfect imprint on the inner tube.
Cheers
Dennis
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Not sure how folk on here balance their wheels, but when working in the motorcycle trade for many years I seldom found new motorcycle tyres not requiring wheel balancing when mounted on a professional electronic wheel balancer.
But to get back to the original topic, I also have Michelin Classics on my F1 and they took a fair bit of weight to balance them properly.
And previous to that my Avon Roadriders and Bridgestone BT45s also required balancing.
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I have to post the following pic of my Honda cl450 k5. It has those old lead spoke balance weights. I suspect in times gone past tyres might not have been quite so perfect as they are today..........
[attach=1]
The rear wheel of this bike just has one balance weight. Suppose I could get brass ones.
These are Metzeler tyres...... maybe 6/7 years old. Maybe not all Honda wheels are as perfect as they could be
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In the forty plus years I have been riding, I have never noticed a motorcycle tyre to be out of balance to an extend that it has caused a problem. I haven't ridden a bike with tubeless tyres. I don't know whether that is any different.
I believe the lead weights are to do with wheel balancing not tyre balancing. Personally I would not alter them.
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All the bikes I've ridden in the last 25/30 years have had the wheels balanced after tyre fitting. My old Brit bikes 50 years ago, as far as I can remember, never got balanced. It wasn't a problem back then, I never worried about it.
I fitted the front tyre on my 400f myself. It's an aluminium rim, spoked wheel. It needed 30g to balance, I didn't ride with it unbalanced so I don't know if I would have felt it at speed.
The rear wheel is the same set up and needed 40g to balance.
I believe that the front wheel is the most important wheel to balance to avoid vibrations or shimmies through the steering. Anyone who's had a full on tank slapper at high speed would avoid anything likely to trigger another one!