TIRE TALK - when the rubber meets the road

Could you have omitted anything from the rear wheel, like the sprocket carrier spacer, during installation? Would make things interesting :woohoo:

Could it be a wheel out of balance?

The tire might be either out of balance or out of true. If you are going to crank 90+ mph, the tire may have to be trued. Back in the 60's, they trued the tires before balancinh them on fast cars. I watched the guy do it. There was a lathe assembly they swung over and he "trimmed" the tread face first until it was dead true then balanced it. Those tires rand dead smooth up to 120 mph on my old Dodge Charger.

I can only add one thing here.
My experience with tire installation is the tires I have purchased in the last 10 years are already balanced as long as you reindex the tire on the rim properly. I havent had weights added or moved since my shops first rebalanced the rims from the factory settings which were a little off. This has been on my Kaw 1000 and Harley Ultra and I have bought sets for them both in different states at different times and they all ride great with no balance problems at any rate of speed. So unless their is another variable like out of balance tubes or valve stems and caps seems odd to me that getting the balance right is a problem.
Now that being said My new Avon Venoms do need to scuff in before they stick well and dont feel greasy. Good Luck

faffi wrote: Could you have omitted anything from the rear wheel, like the sprocket carrier spacer, during installation? Would make things interesting :woohoo:

Nope everything went back together straight and tight, nothing left when I was done..."Now, I wonder where THIS came from" lol

I've had the bike up on a jack, both tires appeared to be balanced and the 'wear pattern' I.e. scuffed in portion was even and straight. I just got the bike back together today, heading to my buddy's shop tomorrow to do some other stuff, top-to-bottom checks and torquing all around. From what it felt like I'm guessing it's just a tire pressure issue. I've also noticed some types of interstate pavement (Iowa uses concrete) can cause a wobble at speed as well. The weird finishing ridges in the concrete aren't straight, and some portions are worse than others. Def. gonna be aware of any issues as I figure this out. Thanks again, everyone :side:

2,000+ miles on this set of Shinkos already this summer, they are holding up very well as far as I can tell, still have a solid round shape and the knubbies on the edges.

For what I paid (via Amazon.com) I would definitely recommend these tires to anyone, low budget or not, only problem I had was a valve stem leak, simply replaced the insert and it was fine.

Being a heavier bike, and having no desire to lay it down or end up in the hospital I haven't really pushed too hard but I havent felt even a tiny bit of slip or slide, even in some pretty heavy rain on twisty rural blacktop.

And they still look killer from any angle, way better than those old HD dunlops, lol. Showed some friends pictures and they thought I'd done more than just change the tires, it really looks that mean

Cool. Glad you like them. I'm still digging my 712 on the rear. Been thinking of running a set on my KLR650 on my road wheels.

Sorry to bring up a semi-dead thread, but I just picked up my 82 1100 A2, and it needs tires.

What do you guys typically recommend for brands and styles? Is there any upgrades size wise?

Any info would be freakin' spectacular.

I really like my Pirelli Sport Demons! Ed

650ed wrote: I really like my Pirelli Sport Demons! Ed

Me too !

What kind of mileage are you getting out of your tires? I'm especially curious about the rear tire.

Can you post the tire and how many miles you're getting before replacement?

I'll go first. I just ran through a Dunlop K70 rear in about 3,000 miles.

I currently have about 5,500 miles on my Pirelli Sport Demons. They have loads of tread left, so I suspect the rear will last a total of 8-9,000 and the front more than that. Ed