Wheel balancing - a LOT of weight!

[Jack_the_Lad]

I've just changed the tires on my 2018 R1200RT.  A small group of friends bought a No Mar tire changing machine, which made the job surprisingly easy. I swapped somewhat tired Roadtec 01s for a pair of Road 5 GTs.


Two things of note - these are the first tires I've seen that don't have any dot for the heavy or light spot, but apparently that is becoming more common according to a professional wrench friend who works at a large multi-brand bike shop, and also another contact who works at one of the bike parts supply places.  These people see a lot of tires, so presumably have good info.


The second thing bothered me quite a bit - the amount of weight required to balance both wheels.  One of our number is a serious bicycle aficionado, someone spends a lot of money on fancy rims, tires etc and knows quite a bit about tire balancing.  In the last 45 years, I've balanced a tire or too as well.


We balanced the front wheel - three times - down to 1/8 oz - using the super sensitive Marc Parnes balancing device, and in each case found that we need 3 ounces for the front wheel (and 2-1/8 for the rear wheel),which is a lot more than I've ever used.  We did the front wheel first, balanced it, decided that was too much weight, popped the bead, rotated the tire 180°, rebalanced, still required 3 ounces directly opposite the TPM.  Repeated at 90°, and still the same thing.  In each case the heavy spot was the TPM.  We also tried spinning the wheel fast, and also started from stopped, with the heavy spot 90 degrees away from bottom.  Same results, very consistently. 

I think BMW recommends about 1-1/2 ounces but I have no idea what is supposed to happen if you exceed that.  Can't imagine it resulting in anything very exciting.


Has anyone had a similar experience? 

[Boxflyer]

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[Jack_the_Lad]

[size=2px]Thank you again - your posts are always helpful and frequently very detailed which is much appreciated.[/size]
Since not everyone is on all possible related sites, I've found it often to be worthwhile posting in more than one place.  Usually, I remember to note that I've posted in various places.
[size=2px]I expect there are quite a few RT owners - especially those across the water - who don't spend much, or even any, time on ADV since the BMW section there is heavily geared mostly toward GSs.  Although not heavily trafficked, I've found quite a bit of useful info here, specific to the RT, not available elsewhere.  Of course, there's an element of the usual cross-Atlantic snobbery in both directions;)  [/size]
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