Wheel Weights

Sudden Braking and I spoke a bit ago and he's now on the right path

 

Oh, so you’re to blame for his decisions going forward, eh?

 

Well he missed a bunch and Jimmy BBS did too, so there's that

 

He's my life coach

 

I have nothing helpful to add, but if Stickboy balances your wheels the pirate duct tape gives better lap times. If he gives you the My Little Pony shit, he doesn't like you.

 

So in talking with il ragazzo delle gomme, he reinforced what Signore Turner said earlier in the thread about the beads setting equally. When mounting the front, the beads were a bit of a pain to get to set so that definitely could've contributed to the issue. However, I also rotated the tire 180* when remounting, so unsure how much that might've helped with reducing the need for wheel weights.

All that being said, the wheel is now perfectly balanced using.....................


























No wheel weights?

Anyhow, going to try spinning the rear and see what that does - have taken all the weights off and there's a clear heavy spot next to the valve (and had no issue seating the beads, so I'd rule uneven beads out as a cause).

 

So was there any truth to the bar code being the heavy spot on the tire?

 

If its not true it worked for me for about 10 years regardless... : )

 

100% not true. There are no dots on michelins because they have a very high quality control and don't have a 'light spot' etc. I've been to Spain to their factory and been though the entire build process so I think I have accurate information haha.

 

Yep... And that was the Walt-way. I'd dare anyone argue his instruction for a Michelin tire!

 

That's pretty much what I was told by the Michelin race tire vendor in Canada when I was racing. Said they're all checked and if they aren't " perfect " they throw them in the grinder.

 

Yeah lube the tire up, so it will seat

 

he makes me "warm the bench"!!

 

I loved mounting those... many didnt believe.

 

So you put the heavy spot where the valve is, or 180 from there?

 

I believe on tires like Pirelli the dots are the light spot so you line that up with the valve stem.

 

When I ran them when I raced I would always pull the wheel weights off before balancing like you're supposed to. But then I realized I almost always put the weight right back in the same spot. So then I started checking balance before removing them and I almost never had to rebalance the tire. It's pretty remarkable how accurate they are.

 

During manufacturing most tire companies place a bar code label near the bead. When the tire is put in the mold and is heated this label is permanently vulcanized to the tire. This bar code is more used while in the factory for various reasons then it is for product handling/warehousing later. And because it is applied during the building process well before it is even close to being finished I don't believe it could placed for marking a light/heavy point. Go google a "green" tire picture.

Whether a tire company adds the dots or they don't they are still doing quality control checks after the tire is vulcanized. These checks include visual inspection, trimming excess rubber flash from around the bead seating area, and sometimes trimming the rubber flash aka tread whiskers. Next they are checked for radial and lateral runout and balance. With each production run X amount of tires are pulled and then drum stress tested and for DOT approval spun up to verify they meet or exceed the speed rating.

As I've posted in the past there are standard engineering and manufacturing processes that tire companies MUST follow to be certified by ETRTO and USTMA. And to have ISO blah, blah certification that automotive companies require it's even more involved.

Want to learn about them then look up ETRTO and the U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association formally know as the RMA?

But what matters the most is that the tire and wheel should be balanced as an assembly and where the dots go is irrelevant!

adding common sense to the beep since 2017

 

I stopped balancing my wheels/tires on my race bikes years ago. Literally have had zero effects whatsoever. Never vibration of any kind ever and don't have tape on my wheels leaving sticky crap, or not sticking and worrying about weights flying off etc. You definitely could have adverse effects if you don't balance, but my gut is you'd have to be requiring multiple ounces before you'd feel anything on the bike.

We used to offer 'lifetime balance' for car owners who bought new tires and some old guys would come in literally every 30 days to get them rebalanced and almost EVERY time they 'needed' some kind of balancing. Never did I test drive a car before and notice anything though. The only time I noticed a bad wheel imbalance was when they required 2-3 oz or in big truck tires that would require HUGE amounts of weight to get balanced.

 

I can tell you from experience on a dual sport with unbalanced wheels,(beadlocks, causing the imbalance) the vibration isn’t how I expected it. It was smooth for a few seconds, then it would hop a few times, then go back to smooth. It wasn’t a constant vibration.