Tyres, Brakes and Suspension » Odd wheel balancing

I swapped out the OEM tires to a set of Dunlop Roadsmart II, the dealer had to use a swath of weights to balance the wheel. After the Road Smart II wore out, I went to a different dealer to put on a set Road Smart III, they had the same exact problem balancing it. Did any of you run into this problem? Looks rather abnormal to have to use so many weights to balance it (both front and rear wheels).

I don't usually bother having bike wheels balanced but after fitting new pilot powers the front had a bad vibration at high speed, took it to be balanced and in needed a lot of weights opposite the valve stem and sensor, not had to do this to any of my other bikes

I have not seen that many weights before.

Next time you get a tyre, see if the fitter will balance the wheel, without the tyre.

It may be a "trick" of the TPM.

I have had new tyres fitted to both ends of my RS by Pablo's (unashamed plug for the specialist tyre fitter in Mulgrave Victoria) and I don't have issues with that much weight.

By the way, Pablos has been going for many years. Its owner at the time I first discovered (1995) it was Scotty. Scotty had Rick as his off-sider for some years. Rick now owns the business and he is a racer and a good bloke.

Scotty referred to Rick as being "Rick with a silent 'P'"

One day I hope to be able to use that myself.....

If I had to use that many weights, I would contact the retailer and/or Dunlop directly. Seems excessive. Typically, like AI suggested, I would balance the wheel first to find the true heavy spot. It could be they have the heavy spot of the tire and wheel aligned. I've never had a rear tire with half as many weights before.

Hi the additional weight is always opposite the valve to counter balance the TPS sensor roughly 50 grams
Brian

I recently installed a Roadsmart III (which I happen to love, BTW) on both of my RS wheels. The rear wheel required four of those stick-on weights, located two spokes away from the valve stem/TPS. The front wheel required 6 weights located opposite of the valve/TPS.

I mount and balance my own tires. If I ran into that, I would break the bead and rotate the tire on the wheel to find the best balance point. It would take an exceptional shop to do that without threat of physical violence. It appears that the weights are 180 deg. from the tire pressure monitor. If the heavy spot of the tire is at the valve stem, you can end up with a load of weights like that. Dunlop usually marks the tire to align with the valve stem. My current tires, Mich. Road 5, have 1/2 oz. on the front and 3/4 oz. on the rear.

Frank

This is kind of good to see, when I had the Road 5 rear put on the tyre fitter pointed out the high number of weights he put on the wheel opposite the valve/TPS. He said it was due to the tyre pressure sensor. Traditionally tyre fitters place the heaviest part of the tyre where the valve is located as that is usually the lightest part of the rim, however these days with tpms fitted there it is now the heaviest part, so tpms and old habit of fitting tyres means lots of weights to counterbalance. No vibration or anything experienced so apart from looking a little unusual the bike rides fine. Maybe next time I will ask if the heavy side should be opposite the tpms.

Having changed tire sets for 2 of my friends GS and my RS with different manufacture tires I can say that BMW's take more weight than any other bike I have mounted tires on. Typical weigh amount is 1.5-2 ounces. But the bikes ride smooth...so who knows?

Just installed a set of Dunlop’s on my RS this weekend. Ended up with slightly more weight added, compared to the 01 Metzeler removed. I’ve included these pics to show how the heavy spot on the (rear) rim isn’t excactly the valve stem position. The other rim is from my ‘92 Ducati, same result. The white dot is the actual heavy spot.
Hope this helps someone
Cheers, David

Here’s the correct RS rim pic