There have been plenty of threads about tires, balancing, beads, methods and more. I just want to contribute my recent experience:
New Dunlop AE2 tires installed on my rims. Great looking tire. Instead of having my HD dealer mount and balance the tires, I worked with a small local independent bike garage. The tires were mounted without problems. His balancer is a static vertical balancer and he guaranteed the results to be very close to perfect. When I picked them up I began to worry. "What if the balance isn't really that close? I don't want to have to go thru the whole process of putting the bike back together, only to tear it down again for a balance issue". I thought it might be smart to have them checked and verified. I found a bike dealer and they said bring them in today and we'll check them.
As it turned out, the front was balanced perfectly. The rear was off by a quarter ounce....insignificant on a tire/rim of that weight and diameter. The static balancer proved itself right there to me.
I asked the lead tech there about using balance beads. He said he thought that accurate weight placement was still the best way to know your tires are balanced. You're not relying on simply the lack of vibration as your prime indicator. The tire IS balanced and proven so from zero to any speed. Then he threw out something I didn't know. I checked it and he was right:
Dunlop does not recommend the use of dry or liquid balancers/sealers and will not warrant tires into which these materials have been injected. Tire and wheel assembly balance must be checked with a balance stand or computer wheel balancer.
So right or not, I'll continue to run weight-balanced tires. I now plan to buy a static balancer so I can check balance whenever I have the wheels off the bike.
New Dunlop AE2 tires installed on my rims. Great looking tire. Instead of having my HD dealer mount and balance the tires, I worked with a small local independent bike garage. The tires were mounted without problems. His balancer is a static vertical balancer and he guaranteed the results to be very close to perfect. When I picked them up I began to worry. "What if the balance isn't really that close? I don't want to have to go thru the whole process of putting the bike back together, only to tear it down again for a balance issue". I thought it might be smart to have them checked and verified. I found a bike dealer and they said bring them in today and we'll check them.
As it turned out, the front was balanced perfectly. The rear was off by a quarter ounce....insignificant on a tire/rim of that weight and diameter. The static balancer proved itself right there to me.
I asked the lead tech there about using balance beads. He said he thought that accurate weight placement was still the best way to know your tires are balanced. You're not relying on simply the lack of vibration as your prime indicator. The tire IS balanced and proven so from zero to any speed. Then he threw out something I didn't know. I checked it and he was right:
Dunlop does not recommend the use of dry or liquid balancers/sealers and will not warrant tires into which these materials have been injected. Tire and wheel assembly balance must be checked with a balance stand or computer wheel balancer.
So right or not, I'll continue to run weight-balanced tires. I now plan to buy a static balancer so I can check balance whenever I have the wheels off the bike.
