Tires

[Wind Shadow]

Just purchased Metzler 880's for my r1100rt. Shop mounting tires says it's not important to balance tires. I would like to hear your input? Seems to ride fine.

[George Brown]

Not sure I agree with your shop but, if it seems to be riding fine and you don't notice any unusal wear patterns after a 1000 miles or so they are probably OK!

[tallman]

You'll get 2 responses.

Those who never do and say they never have problems.

Those who do, like me, and see numerous wheel/tire combos spun on a high speed balancer that shows the need to balance.

BTW, the service manager I see doing this has 40 years experience, specializing in BMW's.

Do what makes you happy and good luck.

Best wishes.

[dirtrider]

Just purchased Metzler 880's for my r1100rt. Shop mounting tires says it's not important to balance tires. I would like to hear your input? Seems to ride fine.

 

Morning Wind Shadow

 

MY PERSONAL input would be-

 

Usually a “SHOP” that tells you that is saying so because they don’t have the proper adapters to fit & balance the BMW wheels.

 

Most motorcycle tires are close enough as sold to be close on balance (IF) the wheels are fairly well in balance to begin with. But like anything else there are always outliers.

 

Personally I seldom balance directly after my motorcycle tire install. But I do have my bare wheels well balanced so any imbalance would be in the tires themselves.

 

I even have a pretty decent motorcycle wheel balancer, I just seldom do it at new tire install.

 

If the bike rides out to top speed on a smooth road without issues that it. If there is a wheel balance issue they (tire/wheel) then get balanced at about 1000 miles on the tires as by then they have settled into their true shape and nominal runout.

 

If you don’t have the means to re-balance if you have to, don’t have your wheels pre-balanced without tires, & aren’t the type to ride the bike out to top speed to verify possible balance issues then by all means have it done at tire install if possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jjg3]

You'll get 2 responses.

Those who never do and say they never have problems.

Those who do, like me, and see numerous wheel/tire combos spun on a high speed balancer that shows the need to balance.

 

 

I'm in that first group... but then you know what they say about opinions.

 

[Lmar]

In response to:

Poster: jjg3

Subject: Re: Tires

 

Originally Posted By: tallman

You'll get 2 responses.

Those who never do and say they never have problems.

Those who do, like me, and see numerous wheel/tire combos spun on a high speed balancer that shows the need to balance.

 

 

 

I'm in that first group... but then you know what they say about opinions.

 

+1

[OoPEZoO]

I haven't balanced a tire in over 50k miles, and I've never had any issues.

[BerndM]

I've always balanced my own on my 06 R12GS and now on my 05 R12RT.

Its fun and doesn't take much time at all.

I've never ridden an unbalanced tire.

I have it on good authority though that a tire could feel really fine BUT actually be slightly out of balance, and as a result start to wear unevenly. Once a tire developes a wear pattern, it CANNOT be reversed by balancing after the fact. I guess this means that the tire will wear out prematurely as compared to a perfectly balanced one.

How much mileage difference this results in is anybody's guess.

Regards

Bernd

 

[g_frey]

Have not balanced a tire in at least 9 sets of tires. No problems.

[Jaguar]

I've been mounting my own tires for 25 years on various models. I've never balanced a tire and I've never had an issue.