The new tire was a Metzler 880 Rear 130-90-16 tire. When I replaced the tire, I put new tube and bead strip on at the same time. When I was balancing the tire using a static balancer, I found that it was way out of balance. I removed the previous weight, which was at 3 o-clock with Valve stem at 6 o-clock. What I found is that I had to add 4 1/4 ounces of weight directly opposite of valve stem to balance the tire. I placed the red-dot on the side of the tire at the valve stem (I thougth that the dot represented the lighter side of the tire), but it did not matter. Then I placed the red dot at the opposite side of the stem, but it did not make a difference.

I do not like that I have to put 4 1/4 ounces worth of weight on the tire to balance it, and figured I would check to see if this was normal. The previous tire only required 1-chrome weight on the spoke (I dont know what weight it is).

Is this normal, or do I have another issue?

03 Road King Classic

what kind of static balancer did you use?  how did you perform the balance?

because it does not matter where the tire is mounted, if the weight is always opposite the valve stem; the imbalance seems to be with the tube. "edit: new tube?"

is the tube 'heavy duty'?  does the tube have a sort of inflexible plate at the valve stem?  is the valve stem sort of flexible, or is it ridgid like it had a steel core covered in rubber?

just for grins, check the rim for off center (edit;up&down, not left to right).  did the old tire wear very unevenly? (bald in one area while decent tread elsewhere?)(dont tease me with, 'the edges looked fine, it was the middle that wore out.')

hope some of those harley dudes get on this problem.

nobody rides half as well as they know how.

I did check true side to side, but didnt think to check to see if it was oblonged. While checking side to side, I didnt notice any changes in the position of my pointer as if it were oblonged.

The tube was all rubber with the exception of the valve stem. The valve stem was metal, but there wasnt much in the way of extra metal at the tube.

I didnt notice any abnormal wear spots on it. I usually put my bike on a stand while cleaning the spokes, so every 2-weeks I would have a good look at the tire. Especially to get the whitewalls clean, and get between every spokes, so i usually have my hands all over the tires. I did have 1-spot where it looked like I picked something up. It looked like a nail hole, but the tire never went flat. I am not sure if this was a pre-mature spot that wore out before the rest of the tire. It just looked like I had a small hole in the tire, but not in the tube.

I did several trips a SS1000, Dallas to Little Rock, Dallas to San Antonio, Dallas to Calif within the last 4-months, so the middle of the tire was worn mainly. My buddy kidded me about having chicken strips because the sides still had alot of tread. Since I was mainly doing alot of straight highway driving, I did not think it was out of the ordinary. The wear on the middle was a good 2-3 inch strip of completely bald while the ends showed almost no wear.

03 Road King Classic

if you really want to know, then there is nothing for it but to dissemble stuff and check.   dismount the tire & tube and check the naked wheel for balance.  put just the tire on the rim and check that for balance.  move the tire on the rim and re-check the balance with the tire in several positions.  note all these efforts.  dismount the tire and put just the tube on the rim with enough air for shape.  check that for balance, both ways.  maybe the combined weights required for tube and tire balance add up to 4.5oz.  you might come up with combined postions that allow less balance weight.

granted, that seems like a lot of effort for the result.  i had hoped one of the forum's know-it-all harley persons would be in on this by now.  of course, it just might be that your average harley person has no clue that their bike wheels are balanced and by how much.  they got cell phones and credit cards and that seems enough for 'em...

nobody rides half as well as they know how.

Gfurlo (8/19/2007)

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Fran, Fran, Fran, Fran,

What a flame thrower your last statement was.

My experience is that most of the HD owners I know do work on their bikes and most of the BMW guys take theirs in for service..

yep. nothing like a friendly exchange of a few malotov's to spice up a harley thread.

i went to the harley factory site looking for info.  also checked a couple harey specific forums looking for an appropriate thread.  i aint too good with this internet search stuff.  i'm willing to swim the soil pipe for a little ways to help a biker or find a lost dog.  i got 3 (t'ree) harley riders livin' within a half block of me.  Dont ask how i managed to locate 'em.  got phone numbers for all of 'em.   called 'em up for this problem.   might as well have been talkin' to the three hammers on my garage wall.   decided that harley folk were not going to be enlightening in this instance.

therefor, i attacked the problem from an independant point of view. went looking for somebody who might know about wheel balancing including bike wheels.  ah ha!  www.innovativebalancing.com

their chart says that 130mm wide bike tire ought to take 1oz of weight.  so i figured that a harley tire might be the exception and surmised that another ounce might be appropriate. Total=2oz so far.  then i guessed that the tube might be out because it was so big and i had no guess as to its possible balance.  so i added another ounce for the tube, totalling 3oz.  remember that the Dyna-Beads are in the tire and out at the tread surface when in operation. how much more weight might be required to have it work correctly if placed around a spoke nipple perhaps 3 inches closer to the axel?   another whole ounce?    if so, the total grows to 4oz.    that aint too far from 4.5oz that is on the wheel now.    but, if he is using stick-on weights, the weight might be 3/4-1 inch further from the axel with the subsequent attendant leverage requiring a bit less weight than at the spoke nipple.

thus, it is what it is.  knowing what little i know about harleys, this helps explain why harleys are sooo effing slow.   better than a half pound of lead required just to balance the wheels.   bwah-ha-ha..

what i would like to see is some dyed-in-the-harley-jersey-wool afficianado come out of the woodwork and help the guy out.  if this forum is supposed to have the best, i would hate to think that i am it in this case.

nobody rides half as well as they know how.

I am going to get more experience with that balancer this week. My buddy that has the equipment needs help with changing his tires. He had an accident a while back, and still doesnt have all his mobility and strength back. Has enough to ride, but not enough to change a tire. He has a K1200LT, and we will change both front and rear tires. I guess there is a BMW ride coming up he wants to put some new shoes on for!

I will let you know whether we have any more issues with it. For now, I also appreciate the information on having the spoke weights, and not needing as much. I figure I will use the spoke weights, and decr