Rear wheel weights and bearings questions

[RickyB]

Hello gang
I’m in the process of Replacing the original Kenda with a new Kuhmo car tire on the rear of my 2017 RT .I’m going to take the wheel to
a local tire shop and I assume they won’t be able to balance the tire/ wheel based on what I’ve seen on other posts. My questions are: should I remove and discard all of the factory wheel weights? Do I need to remove bearings And O ring from the wheel so that tire shop can mount the tire without damaging anything? Any comments appreciated

[AeroPilot]

Hello gang
I’m in the process of Replacing the original Kenda with a new Kuhmo car tire on the rear of my 2017 RT .I’m going to take the wheel to
a local tire shop and I assume they won’t be able to balance the tire/ wheel based on what I’ve seen on other posts. My questions are: should I remove and discard all of the factory wheel weights? Do I need to remove bearings And O ring from the wheel so that tire shop can mount the tire without damaging anything? Any comments appreciated

I pull the sprocket wheel off and scrape the existing wheel weights off of the inside of the rim. I also unbolt the brake disk rotor from the hub so that it isnt accidentally bent or dropped on that side... If your tire shop is one you trust, you probably dont need to remove the rotor.

I don't remove the wheel bearings, I just clean the seals, and it they look a little bare, I add a little high temp bearing grease as well as clean and lube the spacers before reassembly.

[Possible]

Just FWIW, I do my own tire changes, and with first time wheels, I leave the weights on and see how the wheel balances without
the tire. Then I mark the heavy, or light, spot on the wheel and see how much weight it takes to balance the bare wheel. Then when
I mount the tire, I know what kind of weight should be needed if the tire is a good one.

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Just FWIW, I do my own tire changes, and with first time wheels, I leave the weights on and see how the wheel balances without
the tire. Then I mark the heavy, or light, spot on the wheel and see how much weight it takes to balance the bare wheel. Then when
I mount the tire, I know what kind of weight should be needed if the tire is a good one.

You my friend are very smart ..... correct the Wheel first , then correct if necessary after the tire is mounted ..... Mike

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Hello gang
I’m in the process of Replacing the original Kenda with a new Kuhmo car tire on the rear of my 2017 RT .I’m going to take the wheel to
a local tire shop and I assume they won’t be able to balance the tire/ wheel based on what I’ve seen on other posts. My questions are: should I remove and discard all of the factory wheel weights? Do I need to remove bearings And O ring from the wheel so that tire shop can mount the tire without damaging anything? Any comments appreciated

I have balanced the rear wheel one time the next SIX I didn't - no issues with vibes etc. ...... I have had three Spyder all three still have the orig. Bearings ..... they are lots tougher than people realize ..... jmho .... good luck .... Mike

[Steve W.]

When I had the Vredesteins installed, the shop could not balance the rear, which appears to be typical of a non-motorcycle shop. When I got the tires home, I put the axle through the wheel and put it up on jackstands. Using my usual technique of rotating the tire and noticing where the wheel stops, I found that NO weights were necessary.

One front wheel needed 1/2 ounce, the other wheel needed nothing.

.

[Peter Aawen]

Just FWIW, I do my own tire changes, and with first time wheels, I leave the weights on and see how the wheel balances without
the tire. Then I mark the heavy, or light, spot on the wheel and see how much weight it takes to balance the bare wheel. Then when
I mount the tire, I know what kind of weight should be needed if the tire is a good one.

You my friend are very smart ..... correct the Wheel first , then correct if necessary after the tire is mounted ..... Mike

Wiv wot 'e says!! Bofe ov'em!!

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

When I had the Vredesteins installed, the shop could not balance the rear, which appears to be typical of a non-motorcycle shop. When I got the tires home, I put the axle through the wheel and put it up on jackstands. Using my usual technique of rotating the tire and noticing where the wheel stops, I found that NO weights were necessary.

One front wheel needed 1/2 ounce, the other wheel needed nothing.

.

.......Vredestein's are a top tier tire .... And the rear Vredestein would have balanced fine - if they had the equipment needed .....jmho .... Mike

[PinkRosePetal]

Three things:
Yes you should balance the tyre/wheel. Your tyre will be marked with a dot showing the lightest part, this obviously tells you the tyre is unbalanced otherwise it wouldn't have a dot!

The way most modern tyre changing mchines squeeze the tyre to break the bead will put side pressure in the brake disc and it will bend. It is possible to hold the wheel squint while breaking the bead to prevent this but you'll need to be sure of your tyre fitter, if not, remove the disc.

Unless you live in a completely dry area or you don't ride in the rain, change the rear wheel and sprocket seals, they're always worn...and grease them well. They wear within a few hndred miles of use from new! Just one of those dopey BRP things that never get sorted.

[Possible]

Just another FWIW, I've found from checking bare motorcycle wheels, that the valve stem isn't necessarily the heavy spot on the wheel.
On cast wheels, material is removed from the wheel to allow a valve stem to be installed. Sometimes the amount of material removed is
more than the weight of a valve stem, sooo the valve stem is now the light spot on the wheel.

And yes, I knew that the different size tires mounted wouldn't interfere with the alignment, but was wondering if they were using the different
size tire as their basis for not doing an alignment. Not a valid reason, but if they didn't want to do it in the first place...

[AbNormy]

I had my rear bearings fail on my 3rd back tire, guess it was about 32k miles on my 2012. Don't know if they weren't greased adequately when made or possibly the belt tension not set right but it made a grinding noise. luckily I didn't need a hub. Driving a 2014 RT now and I've got around 28 k on it. Already went through a Kumho(9300 miles) and Arachnid rear (7200 miles and down to the wear bars). Bought a generic rear tire off ebay rated as well as the good ones lets see how long it lasts. IMHO ANY generic rear tire is better than a stock Kenda. But the 1330 will smoke the rears a lot quicker than the 990. Thanks to previous posts about balancing wheel and the tire. All great info!

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Three things:
Yes you should balance the tyre/wheel. Your tyre will be marked with a dot showing the lightest part, this obviously tells you the tyre is unbalanced otherwise it wouldn't have a dot!

The way most modern tyre changing mchines squeeze the tyre to break the bead will put side pressure in the brake disc and it will bend. It is possible to hold the wheel squint while breaking the bead to prevent this but you'll need to be sure of your tyre fitter, if not, remove the disc.

Unless you live in a completely dry area or you don't ride in the rain, change the rear wheel and sprocket seals, they're always worn...and grease them well. They wear within a few hndred miles of use from new! Just one of those dopey BRP things that never get sorted.

Why " should " ??? .... I haven't found it necessary, not " static ", or " spin " or beads or with some tire " goop "......jmho .... Mike

[RogDawg]

Anyone using Centramatic dynamic wheel balancers from centramatic.com?

[IGETAROUND]

FWIW, 57K on my 2014 GS, 3 rear tires after the OEM passed and never balanced a one, never replaced bearings. Had clear, vibration free mirrors and checked and inspected bearings @ each tire change. No problems.

Al in Kazoo

[billybovine]

You are correct and the local tire shop will not likely be able to balance the rear wheel. But you never know. The bearings and seals will likely be fine. Except the big o-ring. It always seems to be damaged. I always have a full set of bearings and seals on hand just in case. The o-ring is not an off the shelve item that I have found so far. Need to get it from BRP. Just Remove the sprocket and take the rest to the tire shop.

In my opinion the Kuhmo sucks. Just too hard and won't stick to the road. Wet performance is just horrible. It will last forever but who cares if it does not work well. Pick a better tire.

[AeroPilot]

Anyone using Centramatic dynamic wheel balancers from centramatic.com?

Yep - Rolling smooth on the 16 F3T and 15 RT at 70,000 miles. One less step to worry about and saves a balance charge. We order two tires at a time from Walmart and no charge to mount. We got ours from Lamonster Garage.

[PinkRosePetal]

Why " should " ??? .... I haven't found it necessary, not " static ", or " spin " or beads or with some tire " goop "......jmho .... Mike

Because there will be out of balance forces. You being insensitive to them doesn't make them go away for everyone else in the world who rides a Spyder.

[Woodaddict]

Anyone using Centramatic dynamic wheel balancers from centramatic.com?

i use them too, put on rear at tire change that i did

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Because there will be out of balance forces. You being insensitive to them doesn't make them go away for everyone else in the world who rides a Spyder.

You're right, there always will be out of balance forces. Zero out of balance is pretty near physically impossible. But that's not the issue. The issue is are the out of balance forces small enough to be essentially undetectable? Mike is just saying in his experience high quality tires fall in the undetectable category and there's no good reason not to expect that to be the case for everyone else. Will it always be? Probably not, but why not go with the reasonable expectation in the first place? Particularly in the case of the Spyder rear tire where balancing can be a problem to accomplish.

[Peteoz]

Except the big o-ring. It always seems to be damaged.

Na......that would never happen, Billy.
28F2229A-5FA5-4615-B402-B1CF5E472E4D.jpg

Pete

[Peteoz]

Because there will be out of balance forces. You being insensitive to them doesn't make them go away for everyone else in the world who rides a Spyder.

Bugger......looks like I’m insensitive, too. I have never had an issue with not balancing my rear, high quality, car tyres, PinkRosePetal.

Pete

[Possible]

Just curious if any of you balance the tires for your cars/trucks?

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

I can't say if I've got an insensitive butt or not! The local tire guy put Liquid Balance in all the rear tires he's changed out for me. It's the same stuff they use in pickup and truck tires that are too big for their balancer. My rear tires have all run smooth. Is it because the tire is well balanced as made, or because of the Liquid Balance?

[Steve W.]

I can't say if I've got an insensitive butt or not! The local tire guy put Liquid Balance in all the rear tires he's changed out for me. It's the same stuff they use in pickup and truck tires that are too big for their balancer. My rear tires have all run smooth. Is it because the tire is well balanced as made, or because of the Liquid Balance?

Now you are starting to throw curve balls by introducing some variables. Previous ASSUMPTION was that you were not balancing tires at all. Now you say there is a "balancing medium" that has been added. By doing that, you are supposedly constantly balancing them.

Mike is right in stating that better-quality tires will likely need fewer weights because they are made better. Does that mean that you (or the installer) should just blindly never balance the tire? NO. It only means that better tires are more likely to need fewer (or no) weights, so you might get by with none, but you should still check to verify.

.

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Now you are starting to throw curve balls by introducing some variables. Previous ASSUMPTION was that you were not balancing tires at all. Now you say there is a "balancing medium" that has been added. By doing that, you are supposedly constantly balancing them.

You know what happens when you "Assume"!!! I've mentioned in previous posts about balancing that my tire guy put Liquid Balance in my rear tire. This might be the one: https://esco.net/products/esco-liquid-truck-balancer/ When that was done I was not familiar with the argument that it most likely wasn't necessary. And since the tire guy regularly used the stuff in pickup and truck tires, so he said, why not go ahead and use it. At that point in time I was still of the belief that balancing was necessary.

Does that mean that you (or the installer) should just blindly never balance the tire? NO.

That's the same argument PinkRosePetal makes. And Mike and Peteoz are saying because of the quality of highly rated car tires, based on their experience, you can "blindly never balance".

So who's right? Only time and many tire experiences will tell. But one thing we all agree on. You better balance the Crapendas. Otherwise you have a high probability of having bouncing and shimmying wheels!