Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[flhse]

My curiosity is getting the best of me here, has anyone looked at how well the "wheel" only is balanced without the tire?  The wheel has the rotor (one or two) and the pulley (rear) plus the tire when the assembly is balanced, but is it the tire that is out of balance or the wheel?  Or both? 

Has anyone looked at how well the "wheel" is balanced from mother Harley?  Wonder what the spec is they use?  What is good and what would be bad??

Just curious.

Brad

[Twolanerider]

Have done it with the American Wire 100 spokes on the Road King and with the old 9 spoke wagon wheels that were stock on the old Road Glide.  The wagon wheels were off a 1/4 ounce on one wheel (back if I remember).  The American Wire wheels were a 1/2 ounce off on the front and good on the rear.

[RayG]

I never gave that a thought but it makes sense.  One dealer rarely put more than 2 weight on the rear.  The last dealer I went to put 5 weights on it and when I complained he told me they routinely install 8 or more.  Maybe that is one contributing factor to the amount of cupping I had since I went to this dealer.  The last 3 tires started cupping around 3,000 miles.  I'm out of dealers in my area, have used 4 dealers and none are good but 2 are down right awful with the quality of the work.  I know this has been discussed numerous times without any degree of proof but I rarely had an issue using 3 ounces of Dyna Beads in the rear and one ounce in the front.  In the future I will have them balance them the way they always did so I have an idea on the amount used then remove them and install the Beads required.  May not make sense but after used 15 rear tires to get to 61K on her I don't have much trust in their normal balancing method. With my tire being a Dunlop propriety tire I'm kind of stuck for now with the Brand for now.

[Twolanerider]

Don't want to leave a misimpression that I was balancing the wheels separately from the tire and wheel combinations for any purpose.  Any final balance for use would have been with the installed combination.  Only did the wheels one day because it was crappy weather on a Saturday, they were in the shop and I was bored enough to be looking for something to do.

[2018_FLTRXSE]

There is a small painted dot on the outer edge of a tire that in most cases aligns with the valve stem hole.

It is supposed to minimize the amount of weight needed for balancing.

In my younger years in the tire biz, some MFGs would reverse that and the dot went opposite the stem.

If the wheel/tire seems to need a lot of balance weights, rotate the tire 180 degrees on the rim and try it again.

[Midnight Rider]

There is a small painted dot on the outer edge of a tire that in most cases aligns with the valve stem hole.

It is supposed to minimize the amount of weight needed for balancing.

In my younger years in the tire biz, some MFGs would reverse that and the dot went opposite the stem.

If the wheel/tire seems to need a lot of balance weights, rotate the tire 180 degrees on the rim and try it again.

X2...

Tire cupping can be caused by several things:  Faulty tire; air pressure; poor suspension response; not balanced properly, or a combination of any of the last three.

[flhse]

Don't want to leave a misimpression that I was balancing the wheels separately from the tire and wheel combinations for any purpose.  Any final balance for use would have been with the installed combination.  Only did the wheels one day because it was crappy weather on a Saturday, they were in the shop and I was bored enough to be looking for something to do.

ROFL.....  Same thing here, the monsoon season has struck and I needed a new rear.  My luck was not as good as you may think, 1.6 ounces out of balance.     Crap, is it the big pulley I wonder???  Remove that, still 1.6 out in the same spot.   

Guess that explains why that wheel always needed a lot of weight at every tire change.  Gotta love that HD quality control, but the chrome hasn't peeled off this wheel. 

Brad

[flhse]

Had the opportunity to check two new limited wheels by themselves yesterday.  They were not all that good, front was better than the rear, which I guess is why the rear wheel had a lot of weights on it.  These were dealer take offs a buddy bought, without tires. 

I'm starting to wonder if mother Harley has any specifications on "wheel" only balance?

Brad

[grc]

Had the opportunity to check two new limited wheels by themselves yesterday.  They were not all that good, front was better than the rear, which I guess is why the rear wheel had a lot of weights on it.  These were dealer take offs a buddy bought, without tires. 

I'm starting to wonder if mother Harley has any specifications on "wheel" only balance?

Brad

I'm sure they do, but the tolerance is plus or minus whatever the supplier ran that day.  It's funny how the auto industry can hold their suppliers to tight tolerances and specs, but Harley can't even hold their own operations to tight tolerances much less their suppliers.  Wheel suppliers can produce a very well balanced wheel, but they won't if the customer doesn't insist on it and pay for it.  I get the impression that Harley just shops for the cheapest price and quality doesn't enter into the equation.

Jerry

[Fatboy]

 On my PM wheels I was told by their tech support department that all their wheels are all trued and perfectly balanced in the manufacturing process and when using Metzler 880's there are two red dots on the tire from the factory which should be mounted directly opposite the valve stem (think valve stem at 12 o'clock and red dots at 6 o'clock).
 
Following those instructions I've never had a issue or needed to make any further adjustments.

Must be Harley using cast wheels can't meet the same tolerences as PM or maybe they just don't care enough to try. Hey what's a new fender here and there...