BMW R1200R R1150R/T F800 K1200R R1100R/T R1250R RnineT Message Board

So I made it back to IL. from the Barber Motor sports park in Birmingham AL. (You Gotta go
if you have not been there) And my rear tire is bald, I pulled the wheel to order a new tire
and as I am looking it over, I don`t see any weights. You think they ever go out without
any weights? I bought it with 1200 miles on it from the original owner. What kind of weights
would be used on the R1200R wheel. Think i will use the dyna beads on the new tire.

I remove my wheels and take them to a local shop to have the tires changed and balanced. Most times they need weights. But, this last time one of them didn't need any.

I started changing my own tires this year and studied the options for DIY wheel balancing and wound up using the Dynabeads, mostly because of the lower cost vs a Parnes balancer. As part of my research into the beads I asked a friend who runs a heavy industrial hauling business if he'd ever heard of them and his response was rather colorful as you can imagine from a excavator/trucker Seems he uses them on everything he owns including his motorhome and Honda Valkerie.

I haven't used them on the R yet but do have them in the Battlax BT016s on my ZRX. I've only got about 1,000 miles on them but there seems to be no discernable oddball wear patterns. And as far as balance/wobble issuses there are none that I can tell and I have run it into triple digits a few times chasing some Ducs

I've been changing my own tires for quite some time. Multiple BMWs. The last several that I have bought didn't have weights on the rear when the bike was new. Go to a dealer and check it out. Strange...

http://www.ride-on.com/
Take a look at this stuff. I use it and someone ( I forget who ) else on this forum does also. It balances your tire. Go to the site and read.
I've always been happy with their product.

Mark

celticus wrote:http://www.ride-on.com/
Take a look at this stuff. I use it and someone ( I forget who ) else on this forum does also. It balances your tire. Go to the site and read.
I've always been happy with their product.

Mark

Mark - do you change your own tires? If so, what happens to this stuff when you put on a new tire? Is it messy?

Thanks.

NakedRider wrote:

celticus wrote:http://www.ride-on.com/
Take a look at this stuff. I use it and someone ( I forget who ) else on this forum does also. It balances your tire. Go to the site and read.
I've always been happy with their product.

Mark

Mark - do you change your own tires? If so, what happens to this stuff when you put on a new tire? Is it messy?

Thanks.

I'm not Mark, so I can't say what he finds.. but I've helped change my tires many times - and the answer is no - not messy at all. It all pretty much ends up deposited in the center 2.5-3" of the tire. None on the rim. It's also viscous enough that the tire can be removed without it sloshing around or getting on any of the tire changing tools. Mess is using Slime. Ride-On isn't messy. It is good stuff, too bad it's not tire-pressure-monitor compatible.

I had a new rear mounted at a local independent shop recently and he couldn't balance it because the big center hole couldn't fit on his machine. So I put it on without any balancing as an experiment. I can't feel or see anything different. I'm not advocating going without balancing and I'll switch to a different tire installer next time but truth is I can't tell the difference.

Dale_K wrote:I had a new rear mounted at a local independent shop recently and he couldn't balance it because the big center hole couldn't fit on his machine. So I put it on without any balancing as an experiment. I can't feel or see anything different. I'm not advocating going without balancing and I'll switch to a different tire installer next time but truth is I can't tell the difference.

I'm not surprised. Most new BMWs don't have weights. When I had my HP2 I couldn't balance the rear because the hole was different that other BMW wheels. I never noticed a problem either.

Dale_K wrote:I had a new rear mounted at a local independent shop recently and he couldn't balance it because the big center hole couldn't fit on his machine. So I put it on without any balancing as an experiment. I can't feel or see anything different. I'm not advocating going without balancing and I'll switch to a different tire installer next time but truth is I can't tell the difference.

Unfortunately - most of the bouncing is absorbed by the rear shock, and the rear-drive bearings. Unless it's severe you won't feel it much, but it doesn't mean it isn't there.

If your independent is willing to spend $100, I can probably dig up the PN for the BMW adaptor needed for ALL the hexhead and new EVO rear-drive K bikes. It uses the 5 lug bolts to fasten the wheel to an adaptor useable by any SnapOn style spin-balancer. Trying to balance the wheel using the center hole never worked that well on oilheads, and in my experience is impossible to do with the hexhead. You need the adaptor to do the job right. I finally convinced by independent to order one.. made the last tire swap much easier to do, and the bike was noticeably smoother when he was done.

Not able to get the wheel tire on my No-mar balancer but used several sets of tires and felt no vibrations or seen any strange wear, good to go. Not a lot of mass to be way out of balance any how. don't worry about it.

There was a period of time where BMW was apparently not balancing the rear wheels at the factory. My '07 R1200R came with no weights on the rear, and when I asked about it at the dealership, they said they all came like that at the time. I checked a few new bikes on the floor, and not one had weights on the back. I had them eventually balance it anyway, and it took quite a bit of weight, but it had 3000 miles on the rear tire by that point, so who knows? I never felt any difference.

I'm not sure if this is still the factory's policy, but it seems to have been so with at least part of the '07 models.

Cheers, Tom

Tr250Tom wrote:There was a period of time where BMW was apparently not balancing the rear wheels at the factory. My '07 R1200R came with no weights on the rear, and when I asked about it at the dealership, they said they all came like that at the time. I checked a few new bikes on the floor, and not one had weights on the back. I had them eventually balance it anyway, and it took quite a bit of weight, but it had 3000 miles on the rear tire by that point, so who knows? I never felt any difference.

I'm not sure if this is still the factory's policy, but it seems to have been so with at least part of the '07 models.

Cheers, Tom

I haven't checked my DVD for the R1200R yet but the HP2 Sport and Megamoto actually list the accepted out of balance amounts. They additionally list the max amount of weight you are allowed to add to the wheel. They don't mention what you are to do if the max weight doesn't balance the wheel but my guess is they will be happy to sell you another wheel.

Prolly just re-mount the tire with 180 dgrees rotation to clean up some of the balance issue.

AncientMariner wrote:Prolly just re-mount the tire with 180 dgrees rotation to clean up some of the balance issue.

That might help. I once read about a guy that wouldn't seat the bead on newly mounted tires until he balanced them by continually rotating the tire until he found the best balance point. I'm not willing to work that hard on it myself.