Where besides dealers do you get tires mounted and balanced?

[DickB]

I pulled the rear wheel on my 2014 RSS. My local tire shop says they can install a new tire but can't balance because the center hole is too small. The nearest Can Am dealer is 2 hours away. Others have reported that tire shops can do it. What shops specifically?

[troop]

I have a local trike builder who mounts my rear tire. That said, take it to any other motorcycle shop. They should be able to do it.

[Gwolf]

https://www.amazon.com/tire-bubble-b...ubble+balancer

[Knizar]

You can learn to do your own tires!

That's what I did, purchase a manual bead breaker, 3 or 4 small spoon bars, soapy water sprayer, & watch some tire changing videos. Takes patience and a "Can Do" attitude!

Rear tire is easier than the front because it's wider, and a helping hand is a big plus.
The more you do the easier it becomes. My brother & I have done 10 different tires to date, I'm 73 years next week.

We use centramatic balancers Good LuckBill

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

I pulled the rear wheel on my 2014 RSS. My local tire shop says they can install a new tire but can't balance because the center hole is too small. The nearest Can Am dealer is 2 hours away. Others have reported that tire shops can do it. What shops specifically?

I have reported on this issue for many years, I posted the complete technical explanation as why, but it was rather lengthy and I'm a two finger typist .... my experience is with AUTO tires .... the rear doesn't need to be balanced. Mike

[shakin_jake]

You can learn to do your own tires!



Rear tire is easier than the front because it's wider, and a helping hand is a big plus.
The more you do the easier it becomes Good LuckBill

~~~glad to hear the rear is easier because, the fronts were nothing short of Bears, using hand tools. Others may have better and different ideas



Best,


Jake
Reddick Fla.
We always like a little bit of volume- Phil Campbell

[CloverHillCrawler]

I go to a local tire shop that not only works on cars but does can am side by sides and UTVs, they are more than happy to mount my tires for me and have the equipment to balance them although next time I am going with a 3 0z bag of balance beads as that is what the dealer did when they put on this Kenda to replace the rear Quatrac that was destroyed when I was rear ended back in Sept.

[Leaping1]

Forget balance just put some "ride on" in the tires and you will be set.
Leon

[DickB]

I have reported on this issue for many years, I posted the complete technical explanation as why, but it was rather lengthy and I'm a two finger typist .... my experience is with AUTO tires .... the rear doesn't need to be balanced. Mike

Well, my rear wheel has three weights on it.

[Jdr00ejr]

Well, my rear wheel has three weights on it.

When I do tires for folks - I pop off existing weights and use 3oz of Balance Beads. What I believe BlueKnight was trying to say is that it's not critical to balance the rear. I agree with this statement.

You have weights because the last person to put a rear on was able to balance it - but if you a) left those weights and just mounted a new tire or b) removed those weights and mounted a new tire - with no other weight options like beads, ride on, etc - you still likely won't notice on the rear if the tire is a bit out of balance. Adding the beads is easy if you are worried about balance.

Just my 2 cents.

[BajaRon]

As has been said. Put Ride-On or balance beads in the tire and you're good to go!

[Mikey]

Got any custom bike shops around? Like said above, you may not need to do anything! When I did mine last season, I didn't have much weight on the tire to get it balanced! Probably could have done without, but it would be a PITA if we were wrong!! Good Luck

[DickB]

.... the rear doesn't need to be balanced. Mike

I ended up taking it to a dealership. They needlessly put on all this weight. I told them "but I read on the internet...", but they were unimpressed.

BTW for those who may be following, they needed the hub and brake rotor attached to properly balance.

[BajaRon]

I ended up taking it to a dealership. They needlessly put on all this weight. I told them "but I read on the internet...", but they were unimpressed.

BTW for those who may be following, they needed the hub and brake rotor attached to properly balance.

Why do you say 'Needlessly'? That is a Kenda tire. You're lucky it didn't need more weight to balance. And if the out of balance is due to being out of round, it will never be a smooth riding tire. You can't make a tire round by putting weights on the wheel.

I've been thinking about getting a tire shaver/truer. I could fix some customers Kenda's with one of those. But they want an outrageous amount of money for them. I'd never break even.

[Peter Aawen]

Why do you say 'Needlessly'? That is a Kenda tire. You're lucky it didn't need more weight to balance. And if the out of balance is due to being out of round, it will never be a smooth riding tire. You can't make a tire round by putting weights on the wheel.

I've been thinking about getting a tire shaver/truer. I could fix some customers Kenda's with one of those. But they want an outrageous amount of money for them. I'd never break even.

I tried that on a bunch of Kendas early in the piece - those that didn't break thru to cords/plies somewhere after the first pass still wouldn't run true/round &/or not vibrate/oscilate/cause (extreme) collywobbles while riding; and it wasn't my machine, so my time using it was restricted... I pretty much completely gave up on trying to 'fix' any Kendas about then! If they don't balance/run true first time around on the balancer &/or after an alignment, they get converted into lawn ornaments!

[pegasus1300]

I have always had good luck with my local independent tire shop getting my tires mounted. They have been able to balance the fronts but not the back but since the do know how to properly orient a tire when mounting neither the fronts or the rear have needed much in the way of balancing and the rear none.

[BajaRon]

I tried that on a bunch of Kendas early in the piece - those that didn't break thru to cords/plies somewhere after the first pass still wouldn't run true/round &/or not vibrate/oscilate/cause (extreme) collywobbles while riding; and it wasn't my machine, so my time using it was restricted... I pretty much completely gave up on trying to 'fix' any Kendas about then! If they don't balance/run true first time around on the balancer &/or after an alignment, they get converted into lawn ornaments!

Well, that is good information Peter. Saves me finding out the hard (and expensive) way. I wondered about that myself. Some Kenda's are so lumpy. I was afraid I'd have to shave to air before getting them round. Well, another pipe dream dies an anguishing death. It isn't the first.

[Peter Aawen]

Well, that is good information Peter. Saves me finding out the hard (and expensive) way. I wondered about that myself. Some Kenda's are so lumpy. I was afraid I'd have to shave to air before getting them round. Well, another pipe dream dies an anguishing death. It isn't the first.

There's no denying that they are better than they used to be, but it's only a little better!!

I've already seen a few on fairly recent brand new Spyders that've been instant throw-aways... And it seems that it pretty much takes a Supreme Court Action to get any warranty action from dealers on them, even when it's clear to blind freddy that they're really not great, if not outright unsafe!!

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

When I do tires for folks - I pop off existing weights and use 3oz of Balance Beads. What I believe BlueKnight was trying to say is that it's not critical to balance the rear. I agree with this statement.

You have weights because the last person to put a rear on was able to balance it - but if you a) left those weights and just mounted a new tire or b) removed those weights and mounted a new tire - with no other weight options like beads, ride on, etc - you still likely won't notice on the rear if the tire is a bit out of balance. Adding the beads is easy if you are worried about balance.

Just my 2 cents.

..... The short version of WHY (the rear AUTO tire) doesn't need to be balanced is because of the way it's secured to the suspension .... By comparison, the front wheels are quite loosely mounted & the tie rods will convey every little pebble on the road & a very small imbalance to the wheel/tire ..... I don't do my Rear tires, but by all means do yours if that makes you Happy .... I love it when folks are Happy

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Well, my rear wheel has three weights on it.

I'm not surprised .... it was a "KENDA" tire ..... My post #5 above refers to ... "AUTO" tires ....Mike

[DickB]

Why do you say 'Needlessly'?

-----

[Mikey]

Why do you say 'Needlessly'? That is a Kenda tire. You're lucky it didn't need more weight to balance. And if the out of balance is due to being out of round, it will never be a smooth riding tire. You can't make a tire round by putting weights on the wheel.

I've been thinking about getting a tire shaver/truer. I could fix some customers Kenda's with one of those. But they want an outrageous amount of money for them. I'd never break even.

Would you have any tire left by the time it was balanced?

[BajaRon]

There's no denying that they are better than they used to be, but it's only a little better!!

I've already seen a few on fairly recent brand new Spyders that've been instant throw-aways... And it seems that it pretty much takes a Supreme Court Action to get any warranty action from dealers on them, even when it's clear to blind freddy that they're really not great, if not outright unsafe!!

Maybe it's different in Australia. Or maybe my dealer is just easy. When I purchased my 2019 Ryker, the right front tire was so out of round that Daniel, riding behind me, could see the right wheel hopping. I went right back to the dealer and they said they would get it re-balanced. Well, I could have done that at the shop but I knew it was out of round and you can't balance that out.

They called me later that day and I rode it a mile before turning around. They had another Ryker still in the crate and they said they'd swap out the right front tire with one from the other bike. It was quite a bit better, but only because the 1st one was so bad. I decided to live with it and so my right front is still shaking some. It's hard to promote a tire that seems to be a Russian Roulette proposition.

[Peter Aawen]

Maybe it's different in Australia. Or maybe my dealer is just easy. When I purchased my 2019 Ryker, the right front tire was so out of round that Daniel, riding behind me, could see the right wheel hopping. I went right back to the dealer and they said they would get it re-balanced. Well, I could have done that at the shop but I knew it was out of round and you can't balance that out.

They called me later that day and I rode it a mile before turning around. They had another Ryker still in the crate and they said they'd swap out the right front tire with one from the other bike. It was quite a bit better, but only because the 1st one was so bad. I decided to live with it and so my right front is still shaking some. It's hard to promote a tire that seems to be a Russian Roulette proposition.

Yeah, I do believe that there's a lot of the 'dealer cop-out' stuff going on in Australia atm - the same dealer network holds too much sway over BRP Sales & servicing and they're arguably abusing that position... and funnily enough, there's currently an inquiry at Federal level & numerous State level reviews/inquiries looking into just this sort of behaviour here with the aim of stamping it out - altho it is already technically illegal!

But you're right with this bit ^ - while the quality of the OEM Kenda tires across the board is generally a whole lot better than was just a few years back, it still really is a Russian Roulette proposition - only I don't think it's just ONE live round/dodgy tire out of every Six, I reckon it's AT LEAST TWO, maybe even more, even if some owners/riders might never realise &/or ride hard enough to recognise how bad their OEM tires are! Mind you, I will freely admit that I probably get to see/hear about more of the dodgy tires &/or have them drawn to my attention than most because of my recognised interest in them; but given the number of Spyders I do see/owners I interact with who are concerned about their dodgy Kendas, it seems to me like it's an even higher percentage!!

Just look at the ongoing results of your two recent polls - atm, about 40% of owners are reporting issues with their OEM tires, but only about 2% are reporting any issues/concerns with their aftermarket replacements... Can you imagine the furor if any non-Kenda/mainstream tire manufacturer got that sort of dissatisfaction rate reported on their tires?! IIRC, the eventual 'Firestone admitted' defect rate of the Firestone tires involved in the Firestone/Ford debacle was a single figure percentage (some 25,000 tires out of 400,000, or just a bit over 6%??) while the 'reported by owner' percentage of those tires with issues was somewhat lower again; and yet here we are, looking at about 40% of the Kenda's fitted to our Spyders being reported by owners as not being up to par.... so given that the example above may be the general situation, where many owners just don't even recognise that they have potentially problematic tires, possibly the real % of dodgy Kendas is something higher than that 'reported by owners' 40% your poll suggests?!


Those stats suggest it's still likely more than one dodgy Kenda tire out of every three; and likely getting very close to if not actually passing TWO dodgy tires out of every three....

So it seems some Spyder/Ryker ryders/owners have been extremely lucky - others, and quite a few others at that, not so much!


Just Sayin'

[Leaping1]

My riding buddy just got 2 new Kenda Kanines for the front of his 2020 RT and one was really bad out of round. He does his own mounting and balancing. The tire dealer told him they would not refund on a used tire. He explained that it had not been on the ground that he had just mounted the tire and realized it to be out of round. They still would not do anything. He even called Kendra who referred him back to the dealer.