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Old January 22nd, 2022, 09:37 PM   #1
Vansaki
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Wheel Balance Question

I bought a new set of tires for my ninja. I was wondering if I balance the tires with the sprocket, rotors, cush drive on the wheels or should I remove them first? I hope I leave them on...lol

Thanks !!
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Old January 22nd, 2022, 10:42 PM   #2
Singh2jz
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I bought a new set of tires for my ninja. I was wondering if I balance the tires with the sprocket, rotors, cush drive on the wheels or should I remove them first? I hope I leave them on...lol

Thanks !!
You dont need to worry about removing the rotor. The sprocket is attached to the cush drive which you can just pull off easy. No unbolting necessary!

Which tires did you get?
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Old January 23rd, 2022, 06:10 AM   #3
Vansaki
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I got the Kenda K671 Cruiser ST front and rear. 130/90/16 & 100/90/16. Will I have to raise my front fender since I went up to a "90" ??
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Old January 23rd, 2022, 07:35 AM   #4
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I got the Kenda K671 Cruiser ST front and rear. 130/90/16 & 100/90/16. Will I have to raise my front fender since I went up to a "90" ??
I don't think so. I have a Bridgestone BT45 100/90 on mine and there's plenty of clearance.
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Old January 23rd, 2022, 01:13 PM   #5
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Originally Posted by Vansaki View Post
I bought a new set of tires for my ninja. I was wondering if I balance the tires with the sprocket, rotors, cush drive on the wheels or should I remove them first? I hope I leave them on...lol

Thanks !!
Rotor can stay. As Singh2jz mentioned, sprocket, carrier & cush-drive are all attached, so can be removed easily or left on, doesn't matter. These components have low polar moment-of-inertia due to being close to hub. They don't move as quicky as rim & tyre, so won't affect balance much either way.
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Old January 23rd, 2022, 01:30 PM   #6
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Even though it's not a big deal, I'd pull out the sprocket and cush-drive, since nothing is really holding it perfectly centered once the axle is out. If nothing else it'll keep the sprocket from hitting the concrete floor or your foot, teeth first, as you work on the wheel.

That was Inderveer who first answered by the way. I don't want to take his credit. :-)
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Old January 25th, 2022, 12:35 PM   #7
Vansaki
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What about balancing beads. Does anyone have experience with these?
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Old January 25th, 2022, 12:57 PM   #8
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Quote:
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What about balancing beads. Does anyone have experience with these?
They're pretty much a waste of money, modern tires are pretty balanced anyway. Just put the light spot by your valve stem and see how it balances out. If you need to, put a wheel weight opposite the heavy spot and try again.
Don't over-think it... some of us don't bother with fully balancing wheels anymore

I have used beads in the past, just so you know I'm not talking $hit. I bet they do something, but I certainly didn't see the need for them. I didn't notice any difference in tire wear/longevity or handling.
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Old January 25th, 2022, 01:02 PM   #9
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What about balancing beads. Does anyone have experience with these?
They do work, but only really needed on very-out-of-balance wheels. And when you hit bumps, there's fraction of second where they get bumped out of way and have to re-balance themselves. You feel it as slight shudder and makes bump feel worse than it really was.

Trick to getting balance done with minimal weights is to measure wheel and balance it out by itself first. Very rarely is heavy spot actually at valve-stem. Assuming that would cause major imbalance and large amounts of weights used in many cases. At very least, mark actual heavy-spot of wheel 1st.

For example:

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Old January 25th, 2022, 01:15 PM   #10
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T
Don't over-think it... some of us don't bother with fully balancing wheels anymore
That's fine as long as you don't feel any vibration. I used to not worry much about it unless I felt the imbalance at high speed, but I had a pair of Avon AM26 Roadrider 90/90-18s on my 100cc roadracer that were so bad that it felt like the wheels were actually bouncing off the road at 60 mph.

Since then I check them all when I mount them, and almost always need to add some weight to get them right. It's a lot easier to balance a wheel while it's off than to have to remove it later when it vibrates.
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Old January 25th, 2022, 01:57 PM   #11
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I'm sure different tire manufacturers have a lot to do with it. I've been running Pirellis on my Suzuki for the past several years and I generally just move the one or two wheel weights I have on the front wheel to wherever my static balancer tells me to. I quit using wheel weights on the rear wheel when I stopped being able to locate a consistent heavy spot. I get it as close as I feel like messing with, then take the bike out and run it up to illegal speeds: so long as it doesn't shake I'm good with it, and it's been super smooth after every tire change.
I put Michelins on the 250 last Summer and didn't add weights to either wheel. It's fine.
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Old January 25th, 2022, 07:49 PM   #12
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Balancing beads ? We put them in a car tire back in the 1970's and it actually worked real well we had one tire that was way out of balance and so we thought we'd try that ... it was easy right ?
it turns out that the first 2 or 3 miles it would shake like a banshee till it got up to speed then when you stopped at a stop sign you had to go through the whole thing all over again.... OBVIOUSLY that wasn't worth having on the car so after 2 or 3 trips to town I pulled the tire and took the tire off and got the beads out of there.... I had made my own tire changer and was more than happy to do the job just to see how nice my tire changer worked !...
anyway....of the cup of beads that i put in there i got out about 3/4 of a cup and a bunch of lead dust.... and a whole lot of rubber ! we never did that again
..... incidentally, upon removing the tire the last time I discovered a really long wheel weight on the back side of the rim I pulled it off and put the tire back on
and it didn't shake after that ! LOL....
....
I don't remember exactly where we bought those beads but you had to take the tire off one side of the rim to put them in there then put the tire back on that side and air it up.... it did work, but you had to go through the shaking every time you stopped again and again ! .... it was silly !
.... I do hope those are not the same Tire balancing Beads that we used...because they should be banned for use on the highway !
....
I used that home made tire changer for 40 years ! I even had a seperate post and lever to brake down the beads on the tires.... but with lots of soap and water I could put on 4 new tires in about 45 minutes ! ..... balancing them was another story..... never made a balancer for the cars that was one of those " I'll get around to it" things ! and never did ! LOL
....
Bob......
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Old January 25th, 2022, 09:07 PM   #13
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Originally Posted by thedrewski86 View Post
I put Michelins on the 250 last Summer and didn't add weights to either wheel. It's fine.
Michelin doesn't even mark their tyres with yellow/red dots because they claim its such high-quality construction that no balancing is needed! So far I've found they're mostly good on that claim with extremely small amounts of weights needed. Much less than any other brand.
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Old January 26th, 2022, 09:56 AM   #14
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why not just use Balancing Beads 1oz in front and 2oz in the rear
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Old January 26th, 2022, 10:18 AM   #15
Bob KellyIII
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why not just use Balancing Beads 1oz in front and 2oz in the rear
because of what I stated above balancing beads simply don't work like you think they should.... when you stop at a stop sign. all the beads roll to the bottom of the tire.... then when you start moving again it takes them a bit to find the out of balance place.... which they will do but it takes a few miles to do that.... now if they stuck to the tire once set ,that would be different.... but they don't !
.... we were driving to town one time with the beads in that tire and hit a chuck hole about 10 miles from home and it must have been a just right hit on the tire because it started shaking real bad again for a few miles...if finally was perfectly balanced again and we could speed up .... but about 40 mph was tops when it was shaking badly .... it just doesn't work !
.....
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Old January 26th, 2022, 11:26 AM   #16
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because of what I stated above balancing beads simply don't work like you think they should.... when you stop at a stop sign. all the beads roll to the bottom of the tire.... then when you start moving again it takes them a bit to find the out of balance place.... which they will do but it takes a few miles to do that.... now if they stuck to the tire once set ,that would be different.... but they don't !
.... we were driving to town one time with the beads in that tire and hit a chuck hole about 10 miles from home and it must have been a just right hit on the tire because it started shaking real bad again for a few miles...if finally was perfectly balanced again and we could speed up .... but about 40 mph was tops when it was shaking badly .... it just doesn't work !
.....
Bob......
Never run in to problem and work fine for me in bikes I have rode them that had them and as wobble usually only start above 40mph not below that I use to sell tire
Also balance beads or centramatic balance rings the tires remain in balance from day one until you replace them
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