Excessive Wheel Weighting

[Samm]

Bought a Metzeler Karoo 3 a couple weeks back. I've always seen bad reviews on them but I needed a tire that was a) cheap, and b) available, since I had run down my Kenda Big Block beyond its limits. I threw the new tire on quick and didn't bother balancing since a) I was lazy, and b) I wanted to ride. 

 

She was smooth enough at speed but when chugging along slow in 3rd I noticed an imbalance so I pulled the wheel off after a couple rides and got to balancing. I found the heavy spot on the tire, broke the bead, rotated the heavy spot opposite the valve stem, and reset the bead.

 

It took a whopping 100g to statically balance this tire...on the valve stem side! Does this seem excessive to anyone? I balanced the Kenda Big Block with about 25g and its knobby as hell. I'll ride it tomorrow and make sure it doesn't shake the bike to pieces and next season I'm going back to the Mitas E07 I had before the Kenda, price be damned...

 

[Hollybrook]

I don't think you can find the heavy spot on the tire while it is on the rim.  I suspect you have the heavy side of the tire next to the valve stem. 

 

Usually tires are marked with a dot that should be placed by the valve stem.  Once this is done, you can balance the wheel. 

 

Pretty cool making your own weights! 

Edited September 2, 2022 by Hollybrook

[Samm]

The heavy spot is opposite the valve stem. As soon as I put it back on the balancer stand after remounting the valve stem consistently settled up at the top so that’s where I started adding weight. And I couldn’t find a marking on the tire like the nice big yellow circle on my new Dunlop 606 front…

Edited September 2, 2022 by Samm

[Hollybrook]

@Samm How do you know the heavy spot of the TIRE is opposite the valve stem?  From reading your first post, it sounds like you determined the heavy spot of the WHEEL & TIRE combination as originally assembled.  That may or may not indicate where the heavy spot of the TIRE is. 

 

The wheel and tube are fixed (though you can flip the tube 180 degrees around the valve stem), but you can rotate the tire into the best possible orientation. It seems unlikely to me that the tire would be so out of balance that you need to add 100g plus the weight of the valve stem to get it to balance. 

 

If I were in your situation, I would break the bead and rotate the tire 180 degrees and try to balance again. 

[Hollybrook]

I had another thought about this.  If you really suspect the tire is that far out of balance, it might be worth the trouble to remove the tire and tube to see how well balanced the wheel is by itself.

[Samm]

7 hours ago, Hollybrook said:

@Samm How do you know the heavy spot of the TIRE is opposite the valve stem?  From reading your first post, it sounds like you determined the heavy spot of the WHEEL & TIRE combination as originally assembled.  That may or may not indicate where the heavy spot of the TIRE is. 

 

The wheel and tube are fixed (though you can flip the tube 180 degrees around the valve stem), but you can rotate the tire into the best possible orientation. It seems unlikely to me that the tire would be so out of balance that you need to add 100g plus the weight of the valve stem to get it to balance. 

 

If I were in your situation, I would break the bead and rotate the tire 180 degrees and try to balance again. 

I think you're splitting hairs. I understand what you're saying about me not finding exactly where the TIRE's heavy spot is. However, I figured the tire is now in the best possible location for balancing because with it on the wheel and the wheel on the balancing stand, the side of the tire opposite the valve stem settles to the bottom and the valve stem sits on top. If I do as you say and rotate the tire 180 degrees I will be adding the excessive tire weight to the valve stem side and I'll be even further out of whack. This is assuming that the valve stem is the heaviest part of the wheel/tube combo which might not be true at all. You're point about balancing the rim alone is good advice but I would have to do that with the tube on it (and a little air to keep it snug on the rim) to factor in the valve stem and extra thickness rubber in that fixed location as well. 

 

Oh well the wheel's back on and it rolls pretty smooth so I'm not too worried. I'm still blaming this one on Metzeler haha!

 

 

[JRS700]

I always check the balance on the rim on all my bikes. I mark the heavy place so I know how to mount the heavy mark on the tire. Some rims are pretty close and some are a long way off. It makes balancing the tire a lot easier.