Wheel Balancing Limits

[David.]

Having recently had a pair of Dunlop RoadSmart II tyres fitted, the rear wheel required 50g of balance weights.

The tyre is fitted as per Dunlop recommendation with the balance dot at the valve. The number of weights used made me question what is the maximum permissible. Found this on BMWMOA, https://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.ph ... s-on-R12-s it's for a Hexhead 2008 RT.

"Up to 80 g balance weight is allowed."

The 50g weight is made up of 10 x 5g, a strip of weights which is ~ 120mm long on one side of the rear wheel. To make matters worse, these were black weights on a silver wheel. Out came some silver paint and it now looks more acceptable but still an eyesore.

The front tyre only required 5g on one side of the rim and 10g on the other.

How much balance weight is there on the front and rear wheels on your bike.

[Sullivj]

60g on the front, and none on the rear on my RT.

I'm sure I was told on another bike that balancing the rear, isn't as important as the front.

[David.]

I'm sure I was told on another bike that balancing the rear, isn't as important as the front.

You may find that the reason the rear isn't balanced is because the tyre fitters don't have the correct equipment to do it. I've heard that excuse myself too.

[Doctor T]

I've got roadtec 01 fitted with no weights front or rear. I haven't noticed any vibrations or shimmer. Can't tell you what it's like above 100MPH as i haven't gone that fast. The bike had no weights that the previous owner had fitted at BMW. I think balancing is more important to cars and vans due to the weight of the vehicle. Lorries have no wheel weights fitted.
My Tiger 1050 was fitted with BT23 them Road Tec 01 both unbalanced. On the Autobarn in Germany at 130MPH again no adverse effects.

David, you say a lot of weights were fitted and your tyre was positioned in the correct way but you have to take into account the extra weight of the TPM fitted to the wheel. These can make a heavier spot on the wheels. Those little dots are usually placed in the heavy or the lightest part of the tyre as you know but due to the modern ways of manufacturing these days, there are no heavy or light areas anymore.

[David.]

My wheels are not fitted with TPM.

I have read elsewhere that some tyre manufacturers QC is better than others which is why some tyres have dots on and others don't. The Dunlop RoadSmart II's have a dot which is the lightest part of the tyre and should be fitted at the valve on the wheel. (This assumes that the valve is the heaviest part of the wheel). One solution is to check the wheel balance first without the tyre fitted to find the true heavy spot. Then, if the tyre is marked, fit the lightest point here and recheck the tyre and wheel balance together. This is twice the work for the tyre fitter and may cost the customer more which is probably why it isn't usually done this way.

[Doctor T]

True, who knows where the heaviest area of a bare wheel is? Each wheel even from the same manufacturer may have different heavy/light spots