Balancing tires

[Formerharleyrider]

New to Can Am . I recently purchased a 2019 Spyder RTL. I have read the forum over the last couple of weeks and I have noticed that there is a pretty negative feeling toward the stock tires
I looked at tires and wheels and noticed that one of my front tires has balance weights around 1/2 of the tire rim. I had not seen that extreme on Harley’s.
I asked my service manager about the tires and if he has problems balancing them.
His response was they have no problems with stock tires and when they install them they switch to dyno beads for balancing. (Never used these before)
Your thoughts please

 

[h0gr1der]

I'm running a 2018 RTL and went the car tire route after being unable to balance one of my front tires. My belief is the standard Kenda tire brand is perfectly suitable for a wheelbarrow, but not much more. I chose a good car tire because they are more likely to have good manufacturing tolerance resulting in less weights per tire. I also avoided putting anything inside the tire because once you do that it is impossible to do anything but that, I.E. spin and static balance will no longer work. I used a static balance shaft from Marc Parnes and added some of those Centramatic Dynamic Balance rings that Lamonster sells and I must say mine is smooth as it can be.

 

[Peter Aawen]

My thoughts?? Maybe you should try to find a dealer with a service manager who has either already worked with/on Spyders so he knows, cos that one obviously hasn't/doesn't; or find one who doesn't bull**** quite so much! :shocked:

While they have become marginally better over recent years, the OE Kendas are widely recognised by USERS as being, at best, 'quite problematic', even if BRP & their 'always toe the corporate line' dealers/service managers try to sweep this most significant of issues under the carpet of 'ignore it long enough & maybe it'll go away'?! :dontknow:

That said, IF your OE tires and rims are true & CAN be balanced properly (sadly, many OE Spyder tires &/or rims aren't &/or can't! :gaah: ) your local car tire fitters should be able to balance the fronts, altho they (or you?!?) might need to source some smaller dia collet fittings to suit their balancing machines. Or you could simply swap out the Kendas for just about any reasonable car tire, confident in knowing that it's going to work better & likely balance waaay more readily with less effort &/or weights! hyea: :thumbup:

Altho maybe I'm just a little biased against running crap tires on MY Spyder?! :dontknow: :roflblack:

 

[PW2013STL]

I'm running a 2018 RTL and went the car tire route after being unable to balance one of my front tires. My belief is the standard Kenda tire brand is perfectly suitable for a wheelbarrow, but not much more. I chose a good car tire because they are more likely to have good manufacturing tolerance resulting in less weights per tire. I also avoided putting anything inside the tire because once you do that it is impossible to do anything but that, I.E. spin and static balance will no longer work. I used a static balance shaft from Marc Parnes and added some of those Centramatic Dynamic Balance rings that Lamonster sells and I must say mine is smooth as it can be.

Plus 1 on the Marc Parnes balance. When I rotate my front tires I can easily recheck the balance. Last time I did have to rebalance by 1/2 oz. One of the fronts.

 

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

balancing tires

:agree:, 200% with the previous answers ….. Sorry BRP, the Kenda's have the worst record for DEFECTIVE tires than any other major manufacturer of tires, that I have ever heard of ……. Mike hyea:

 

[RICZ]

If you want to use balancing beads, Counteract beads are not abrasive and kinder to the insides of tires. Dyna Beads are ceramic and a bit abrasive leading to a fine black dust inside the tires.
Others here have posted that your tires should be balanced conventionally with metal weights before adding beads. Makes sense to me.

 

[2dogs]

:agree:, 200% with the previous answers ….. Sorry BRP, the Kenda's have the worst record for DEFECTIVE tires than any other major manufacturer of tires, that I have ever heard of ……. Mike hyea:

You don't have to be sorry Mike. BRP knows exactly what they're putting out on the market. In their world (as with many others) it all comes down to lowest bid gets the orders.

 

[PMK]

That certainly sounds like a lot of weight.

Our Spyder when new had a vibration. Since I have a wheel balancer, I removed both fronts and dynamically balanced them. The stock Kenda tires after balancing had about 12,000 miles on them with no issues and likely could have gone more. I did replace them with Federal Fomosa tires. The Spyder had an issue pulling to one side. Brake discs, brake pads, and tires were all suspects.

I will say though, that for us, the quality of riding the Spyder improved, first with the installation of the Yokohama s.Drive in the back, and truly was complimented by the Federals on the front. I run 20 psi in all three tires now.

Myself I would avoid beads in the rear and beads in the fronts. By the sound of it, your fronts should be properly balanced on good equipment by a trained and qualified person. Regarding the rear tire balance. Our original Kenda had a lot of weight on it. When I installed the Yokohama, I checked the initial balance by placing the axle through the hub, and using two jackstands to static balance it. Unfortunately, the rear does not fit my dynamic balancer. After initial static balance, I added the correct Ride On material for fine balancing and have had no issues. Since the rear is a design where the axle is supported on both ends and the wheel is not able to steering, there is essentially no means to induce a shimmy from imbalance as you could in the fronts.

Entirely your call in regards to what you do. Not sure which dealer you used, but maybe speak with them. Ultimately though, I suspect you will remove the wheels yourself, bring them to a good automotive tire shop for rebalancing. Then reinstall yourself.

 

[Jetfixer]

I have the Centramatics. I feel that they are far superior to Dynabeads since they are reusable when it's time to change tires. My 15 RTL rides extremely smoothly.

 

[SPECTACUALR SPIDERMAN]

road force balance corrects most problems or at the minimum identifies them.

 

[BajaRon]

Plus 1 on the Marc Parnes balance. When I rotate my front tires I can easily recheck the balance. Last time I did have to rebalance by 1/2 oz. One of the fronts.

Which Marc Parnes product are you using?

 

[RICZ]

road force balance corrects most problems or at the minimum identifies them.

Thanks for mentioning this method. I looked it up to find what it is and got a good exploitation from a video Motorweek did. Also got locations around me that do it. When i need tires, that's the way I'm going. An amazing system.

 

[jcthorne]

New to Can Am . I recently purchased a 2019 Spyder RTL. I have read the forum over the last couple of weeks and I have noticed that there is a pretty negative feeling toward the stock tires
I looked at tires and wheels and noticed that one of my front tires has balance weights around 1/2 of the tire rim. I had not seen that extreme on Harley’s.
I asked my service manager about the tires and if he has problems balancing them.
His response was they have no problems with stock tires and when they install them they switch to dyno beads for balancing. (Never used these before)
Your thoughts please

A service department that uses dyna beads to balance tires is doing so because they are too cheap to purchase the equipment to do the job right. I would not use that dealer for tires. I cannot count the number of times we have removed tires and the dyna beads were clumped and CAUSING the imbalance and shaking. Nope, balance tires correctly on a spin balance machine or don't do tires at all.

 

[wingit3611]

I cannot count the number of times we have removed tires and the dyna beads were clumped and CAUSING the imbalance and shaking.
I believe the clumpimg comes from using a compressor that has water in it. I know that's what caused mine.

 

[jcthorne]

I cannot count the number of times we have removed tires and the dyna beads were clumped and CAUSING the imbalance and shaking.
I believe the clumpimg comes from using a compressor that has water in it. I know that's what caused mine.

That would be most every gas station and home compressor out there. VERY few have dryers.
In fairness it can be caused by tire mounting lube as well.
Regardless, the clumping is a very common problem with dyna beads and why we do not use them.

 

[h0gr1der]

Which Marc Parnes product are you using?

I worked with Marc on the shaft, be has a new design that fits my 2018 RTL. It works great combined with the Centramatic balance rings, and is not expensive. It also fits the rear.

 

[Formerharleyrider]

A service department that uses dyna beads to balance tires is doing so because they are too cheap to purchase the equipment to do the job right. I would not use that dealer for tires. I cannot count the number of times we have removed tires and the dyna beads were clumped and CAUSING the imbalance and shaking. Nope, balance tires correctly on a spin balance machine or don't do tires at all.

I agree with your statement.. after 50 plus years on Harley I never had a dealer not balance the tires correctly. With 3 weeks on my new can am I am discovering that I will need to be much more vigilant in finding a dealer that will do it right. Iwill search for a shop with the correct equipment. I am getting a laser alignment next week from a can am dealer who has the correct equipment
I will find a place that does it right.

 

[trikermutha]

Counter Act beads dont clump up. In fact I used them on my rear tire .


Yeah the road force balance is all I use on all my vehicles.

 

[BajaRon]

I agree with your statement.. after 50 plus years on Harley I never had a dealer not balance the tires correctly. With 3 weeks on my new can am I am discovering that I will need to be much more vigilant in finding a dealer that will do it right. Iwill search for a shop with the correct equipment. I am getting a laser alignment next week from a can am dealer who has the correct equipment
I will find a place that does it right.

To be fair. The Kenda can be a difficult, if not impossible tire to balance. Many of them are not round. You cannot balance an out-of-round tire. I'm not defending dealerships necessarily. Just trying to put a bit of perspective in play on this one.

 

[BajaRon]

I worked with Marc on the shaft, be has a new design that fits my 2018 RTL. It works great combined with the Centramatic balance rings, and is not expensive. It also fits the rear.
View attachment 177538View attachment 177539

How would I go about getting one of these? I don't see them listed on their site.