What did you do to your FJ-tracer-gt today?

[Stew]

Just now, texscottyd said:

Are there weights anywhere else on the wheel?   I can’t tell from the discussion if your current guy actually dismounted the tire from the wheel to check everything out, but I would be very tempted to do so if not.   I’m usually not the paranoid type, but that just seems so unusual for a Michelin (assuming nothing else is going on).    My experience with Michelin has been that the weights actually balance the wheel, and swapping on new tires often requires zero (or very minimal) change to the existing weights...   odd indeed.  

If nothing else, I would be tempted to spin the tire 180 degrees on the wheel and see if it balances with less weight.   It could be random ‘tolerance stack’ that happened to put the heavy spots of the wheel and the tire together, but even then 100 g seems like way too much lead.    

He was so stunned by how out of balance it was, just from putting it up on a stand and spinning the front wheel. It was hilarious.
He was so convinced that the tyre must have something inside it that he took the tyre off. He said the tyreless wheel needed 10g to get it balanced.

There is one small nasty scuff on the rim from where the tyre guy removed the single balance weight that was there before. Because it took all the paint off with it.

All I know is that the bike is vibration free again. And that I won't be using the mobile tyre guy again. (And here was me in fantasy land thinking I might get 2 rears to a front with these tyres, but I'll replace the front when the rear is shot, just to lose all that weight off the front end. Wheelie control, primitive version, slap 100grams of lead on your front wheel.

[Stew]

Oh, and I appreciate the feedback @texscottyd . My brother in law is a head mechanic in a big car dealership, so next time I am up visiting , we are going to rip the tyre off and whack an old one on just to see what happens, cos we are inquisitive about things like that.

[peteinpa]

wow! are you sure his tire lever isn't in there?

Per the manual there is a limit on the amount of weight you can run on a rim. Might be in my ST1300 manual, now gone. I think it was 60 grams per wheel.

That tire shouldn't have left the factory.

[Stew]

I am thinking I mibbe give Michelin a wee shout, ask them their opinion.

[dazzler24]

7 hours ago, Stew said:

I am thinking I mibbe give Michelin a wee shout, ask them their opinion.

That might not be a bad idea!  If the tyre is indeed the culprit, I'm sure - would have thought/expected - that a premium brand such as Michelin would be only too pleased to know if there is something wrong with quality control and to right the wrong for publicity purposes if nothing else!

Or am I being naive and still believe that everyone is honest and there is integrity still out there?  Cynical...moi? 😉

[koth442]

5 hours ago, dazzler24 said:

That might not be a bad idea!  If the tyre is indeed the culprit, I'm sure - would have thought/expected - that a premium brand such as Michelin would be only too pleased to know if there is something wrong with quality control and to right the wrong for publicity purposes if nothing else!

Or am I being naive and still believe that everyone is honest and there is integrity still out there?  Cynical...moi? 😉

The engineering staff will be very interested, and appreciate the feedback. The business staff probably won't care unless he threatens to never buy another Michelin again. So it all boils down to who the messages gets relayed to from customer service.

[BBB]

It’s a mystery @Stew. Ideally you’d have the tyre/wheel balanced on a manual /static set up as this is better for narrow wheels like motorbikes. It would also be informative to rotate the tyre 90 degrees on the wheel and to see if the imbalance follows the tyre movement.

Two other (random) thoughts; tyre deformation is unlikely to occur from storage on a shelf as they aren’t subjected to a high mass static load (as they can be on an over-wintered bike). It would be to swap out the valve, in case there is some weird resonance going on.

Wheel Balancing 101 - Static vs Dynamic Wheel Balancing | E-Quipfix Ltd

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Wheel Balancing 101 - A simple guide to basics of wheel balancing and the...

 

[Stew]

12 minutes ago, BBB said:

It’s a mystery @Stew. Ideally you’d have the tyre/wheel balanced on a manual /static set up as this is better for narrow wheels like motorbikes. It would also be informative to rotate the tyre 90 degrees on the wheel and to see if the imbalance follows the tyre movement.

Two other (random) thoughts; tyre deformation is unlikely to occur from storage on a shelf as they aren’t subjected to a high mass static load (as they can be on an over-wintered bike). It would be to swap out the valve, in case there is some weird resonance going on.

Wheel Balancing 101 - Static vs Dynamic Wheel Balancing | E-Quipfix Ltd

---

Wheel Balancing 101 - A simple guide to basics of wheel balancing and the...

 

The fitter balanced it using some fancy electronic balancing rig in the back of his van. I didn't see it, just what he told me.

The mechanic who sorted the vibration issue used a manual jig. He also said that the weights that were on the wheel were in the wrong place, making the situation even worse. (and as an aside, he knows the fitter, who has in the past 12 months hit the booze hard sadly, and thinks his judgement was to say the least impaired when he fitted the tyre)

All I know is the bike is vibration free now, but I have the heaviest front wheel outside of Sturgess

I have contacted Michelin, both via their website and via their twitter contact. Just to see what they reckon.

[betoney]

1 hour ago, Stew said:

The fitter balanced it using some fancy electronic balancing rig in the back of his van. I didn't see it, just what he told me.

The mechanic who sorted the vibration issue used a manual jig. He also said that the weights that were on the wheel were in the wrong place, making the situation even worse.

I don't know if it has already been discussed, but one other recommendation for next time you change tires is to check the wheel without the tire, stem and weights, perhaps the rim itself is excessively out of balance?  If nothing else, at least you know what your starting point is before introducing a tire into the equation.

[redfjniner]

3 hours ago, Stew said:

The fitter balanced it using some fancy electronic balancing rig in the back of his van. I didn't see it, just what he told me.

The mechanic who sorted the vibration issue used a manual jig. He also said that the weights that were on the wheel were in the wrong place, making the situation even worse. (and as an aside, he knows the fitter, who has in the past 12 months hit the booze hard sadly, and thinks his judgement was to say the least impaired when he fitted the tyre)

All I know is the bike is vibration free now, but I have the heaviest front wheel outside of Sturgess

I have contacted Michelin, both via their website and via their twitter contact. Just to see what they reckon.

I once had a Avon that  took a ton of weights.  I wrote (email) Avon and they replaced the tire through the dealer that sold the tire to me.  Avon had a limit to the number of grams needed to balance the tire.  Maybe Michelin has a similar standard.  My experience with Michelin is that they usually take none or less weight than the other brands.

[redfjniner]

Last weekend I was riding in Northern California and turned over 100,000 miles.  I thought that this might be a good time to share my maintenance records.  I have attached two jpg files, open if you can to read them.

Today I will take the FJ out to do a Yamalube Ring Free Shock Treatment, just to clean out all the carbon that may have built up over the last 40K miles since my last Valve Check.

 

[2and3cylinders]

13 hours ago, betoney said:

I don't know if it has already been discussed, but one other recommendation for next time you change tires is to check the wheel without the tire, stem and weights, perhaps the rim itself is excessively out of balance?  If nothing else, at least you know what your starting point is before introducing a tire into the equation.

I think they said they dismounted and remounted the tire but I don't recall them saying if they weighed in Balance the wheel itself

I recently had Dunlop replace a front tire for IMO too much weight required but not many manufacturers limit the amount of weight, I know Dunlop doesn't but I can be persuasive

 

[2and3cylinders]

39 minutes ago, redfjniner said:

Last weekend I was riding in Northern California and turned over 100,000 miles.  I thought that this might be a good time to share my maintenance records.  I have attached two jpg files, open if you can to read them.

Today I will take the FJ out to do a Yamalube Ring Free Shock Treatment, just to clean out all the carbon that may have built up over the last 40K miles since my last Valve Check.

 

You are a madman and even more anal-retentive than I am by a factor of 4 I think explanation point

[peteinpa]

I LIKE it.

Can you elaborate on the valve checks/adjustments? What they were each time?

[lospsi]

Respect for the time and kms on the bike and for the detailed history of maintenance!