| Author | Message | ||
     Vospertw |
All, Prepping my 09 XB12Ss for a track day Sunday. Bought some Pilot Power 2CT's and mounted the tires. I did not put the stock rim/tire on the balancer (static) but both wheels had three 1/4 oz. weights. The 2CT's don't have any spot on them. Searched the Internet for info - same story from multiple sport bike forums - no spot. Supposedly the tires are well balanced so the going advice was to balance the rim itself first then mount the tire and you'll be close. Now - I did not use that method on the front tire. I mounted the front and balanced it - came out right at the max limit for front tire - 1 Oz (four weights). On to the rear, I did balance the rim first. I balanced it with brake rotor and pulley too since they are part of the rotating mass. Four weights to balance the rim. Mount the rear - came out with a second heavy spot... so much for the well balanced tire. Moved my weights to the new light spot and needed NINE weights - which is 1/4 oz. over the limit for the rear. Take the weights off, deflate tire, break bead, try to align what looks to be the heavy spot for the tire with the light spot on the rim. Reinflate - 7.5 weights. Seems like a lot, but I'm under the limit - good to go. Mount the weights, make a final check... somehow they now appear to be light. Dammit. Take weights off, deflate tire... but now the damn tire won't rotate (one piece of the bead always seems to stick somewhere) and I'm too pissed to pull one side over the rim just to rotate it again, only to have to remount the tire. Back on the balancer, darn near same location but eight weights does the trick. That puts me right at the 2 oz limit for the rear. Now, apples to oranges in a way because the Pirelli that had been mounted at the factory has the dots to indicate the light spot and is a completely different tire. Since I'm taking it to the track I guess I'll take it in to a shop and have the balance checked before remounting - just to give me some piece of mind on how well my balancer is working. What's normal for these rims? I don't think I ever used 2 oz on my dual sports, and I ran those with rimlocks and tubes! Any wisdom/advice would be appreciated. Balancing shouldn't be this hard. | ||
| Irideabuell |
One of the cycle rags has a product in it that is basically some white beads of some sort for balancing purposes. Has anyone used them and do they work? | ||
| Hammer71 |
No dot or mark for pilots . I called them and was told to use the bar code as a reference and so all is good. 3 weights won't be an issue | ||
| Hammer71 |
Somehow half the post is gone. Using the barcode I have not used more than 3 weights and most times I don't have to use any, depends if I'm in a rush. Might be a pain but try mounting them up again using the center of the barcode | ||
| Billyo |
I use dynabeads in the tires of my Firebolt and the wife's Blast and will never go back to weights again. They're great for street bikes but I don't know if they would be appropriate on the track. Let's see what responses this brings! | ||
| Vospertw |
Thanks guys. Hammer, I'd be happy as hell if I had three weights. I may be fine, it did balance and it is in spec, just seems like it should be better. I may use my lunch hour to redo it on the bar code - I'll let you know. Billyo - I had the same thought. Wasn't sure about track use. | ||
| Vospertw |
Well, took the damn thing off the rim, tried yet another position - still about the same. I'm going to leave it as is. The balancer is accurate to around 1/16th oz. and the spec in the manual is to balance to less than 1/4 oz - I'm calling it a day. Will be interesting to see what happens when I remount the Pirelli's after wearing these out. | ||
| Greg_e |
My Pilot Power front has 3 weights on it too. Spent a bunch of time looking and searching for the spot or why there was no spot. That was one thing about Pirelli, they took the time to make sure each tire had a light and heavy spot located (red and green) so you could line it up with the valve stem. I'll have to check my front and see if the bar code is lined up with the stem this weekend. | ||
| Vospertw |
My front has 4, which doesn't seem too bad. I didn't screw around with that one. Took the bike out on the freeway tonight - managed to get to 110 with no ill effects before I noticed that one of vehicles I was now rapidly overtaking was a CHP cruiser... I was pretty sure he wouldn't be impressed with my post-maintenance check flight excuse. I called Michelin and the guy told me the idea of a light spot was a myth - any markings were there for the production process, not for the consumer. Maybe true with Michelin (?) but I know Pirelli and Metzeler have marks, and Metzeler's FAQ online tells you which marks to use - obviously they intend them for the consumer. | ||
| Greg_e |
Probably means Mich. doesn't want to do that extra step of spinning them. |
