K60's installed. balance/out of round problem? video attached. help.

[Ridetherock]

first off, i have gone through the l60 threads...

new set of K60's installed on the super ten, tires were installed and balanced at the dealer. vibe/shake free up till about 90kph/50mph, after which if feels like the front end out of balance to the point where my gps is pretty much just a blur. the same level of vibes seems to continue up to my fav cruising speed of 120kph/75mph at after which i did not push things faster. i realize they will not be as smooth as the oem (my bike was buttery smooth from start to max speed), but this is abnormal vibes. it was late at night so i just parked the bike and will be revisiting the issue today to try a few different tire pressures and what not, but before i left i decided to do a rough check to see if the tires were in round. the front looked ok, but take a look at this video of the rear. its about 1.5/2mm out of round though out the rotation. could this be my prob? the bike goes on a truck in a few days to be shipped across the country before it starts a month long scoot across canada and the U.S, but that can not happen with this level of vibes.

K60

 

[Mark R.]

Check all the bolts, etc, involved in mounting the wheels to the bike also. I don't think a tire should be that out of round either.

 

[coastie]

You might want to make sure your rim is true.

 

[Ridetherock]

Rims are true. Tires are installed correctly on the rims, and i reinstalled everything with a nice new tq wrench so its all as per the manual. There are two weights on the rear and one on the front.

however, i may have put to much trust in the dealer, they only put about 24 psi in each tire. They are so stiff they did not feel like an under pressured tire. Going to bump em up to 36/36, or even 40 in the rear that ppl on here seem to be running and report back later.

 

[carrot]

i put my second k60 on in march i could feel it was out of round after putting 1500 miles on it it seems it has smoothed out . my first k60 was smooth from day one except the front you could feel a vibration at 25 mph witch smoothed out also .

 

[tubebender]

I had the same problem.
Short answer – heat cycle them a few times.

Long answer ---------->

Bought a set of K60’s from Jaxon at Ride-On.
A riding buddy of mine owed me a favor so he mounted and balanced (static balance) them for me.

At anything over 55 mph the vibration was really bad; I didn’t feel anything through the handlebars so it had to be the rear. A visual check like the one you did confirmed there was an issue.

I talked with Jaxon and he advised me to break the bead and re-seat it. He has mounted quite a few of these for others and his thought was the tire had not seated on the rim. Anyone who has done their own rear K60 can attest to the fact these suckers are stiff!
(BTW, I had to re-seat the front too because of a leak)
I did that and took it to my local dealer for a spin balance. The weight was the same; they just moved it slightly; this was not enough to affect the vibration.

Another test ride and I still had vibration. I set up my dial indicator and measured .080 run out on the tire, .004 on the rim in both radial and lateral dimension (rim spec is .008 per the manual).
.
Due to a mix up, another set of tires had arrived at my door. I bought them and proceeded to have my local dealer mount and balance the new rear tire. When I picked it up, even they commented on seeing some out of roundness.

Sure enough, dial indicator showed .040 out. I was out of time as I had to leave for a trip the following weekend so I did 2 things. I lowered the pressure to 25 psi (cold) and went for a 30 mile ride. When I got back I upped the pressure to 50 psi and let it sit.

I rode the bike for 4 days 2-up and while I did feel some vibes the first day, I haven’t since.

The only thing I can come up with is that due to the construction and stiffness, they may have taken a set in storage and needed to be heat cycled to relax. I remember this happening to bias ply tires on an old pickup I had when I was young. If they sat for a week or more it was like they were square until they warmed up.

As for the first rear that I took off; I sold it along with a new front to another member of this forum. I told him the story and said if the tire gave him any issues I’d give him his money back. I still have the money!

Now, I’m not saying you don’t have bad tire. It is still possible. But you may want to try some heat cycles to see if it cures your problem.

 

[Ridetherock]

interesting. thanks.


i did set the pressures correctly earlier, and it remained much the same. i did notice that a lot of the vibes i was experiencing seemed to be coming from my windscreen resonating, i had added a touratech gps mount and ram arm setup to the madstad brackets and i think it might be to heavy....reaching forward and holding the screen steady reduces the vibes i am feeling considerably, so i am going to try a new setup. i did a lot to the bike over the winter and between weather, work, and shipping the bike across the country in a few days so its waiting for my summer vacation - 4 weeks on the road, i may have to sort this out now on the road. i will try a few pressure/heat cycles to see if it helps.

 

[BaldKnob]

I don't think it has been mentioned on this thread but I used DynaBeads on my K60s and experienced no balance issues and even wear for over 8000 miles. There is another product similar but I'm not sure of the name. Worth a shot if your problem persists. Good luck on your trip, Rock!

 

[greg the pole]

I ran dynabeads in my rear K60 and the vibes were bad. I was hoping that it would go away, but at 1500km on the tire I gave up.
Returned the tire via my local dealer. The canadian distributor said that the tire was indeed out of round and issued a full refund.

I'm on my first set of mitas Dakar, and loving them. under 300 to my door for the set, can't beat that. Oh and they are round ::025::

 

[Mark R.]

I ran dynabeads in my rear K60 and the vibes were bad. I was hoping that it would go away, but at 1500km on the tire I gave up.
Returned the tire via my local dealer. The canadian distributor said that the tire was indeed out of round and issued a full refund.

I'm on my first set of mitas Dakar, and loving them. under 300 to my door for the set, can't beat that. Oh and they are round ::025::

Can those tires be purchased in the US?

 

[greg the pole]

good question,
the company I deal with is mx1canada.com
I think they were $293 to my door.

ride report here: http://thetenerist.wordpress.com/2013/03/02/mitas-dakar-4-ply-tires/

 

[Mark R.]

Thanks.

 

[tpak]

I was wondering if dynabeads might smooth it out. I think some people over on the Vstrom boards used airsoft pellets or something similar as a cheap easy to find alternative but I'd Google that before I tried it.

 

[thfraser]

I really like my K60's now. When I first got them (with dynabeads installed), the were very rough riding tires. I seriously thought I made a mistake in getting them. But after a few hundred miles and some off-roading, they smoothed out quite nicely and they now offer a nice smooth ride. So tubebender's suggestion of putting them through a few heat cycles makes sense. However, if they are still rough, after a few heat cycle (or a few hundred miles), then they may be out of round.

 

[thfraser]

good question,
the company I deal with is mx1canada.com
I think they were $293 to my door.

ride report here: http://thetenerist.wordpress.com/2013/03/02/mitas-dakar-4-ply-tires/

I just did a quick look a this. If I order these tires (US), I have to pay $75 additional in shipping charges to get them shipped to my address in Virginia (DC area). So, for me, if I use your Canadian supplier, are actually more expensive.

Cost (coverted to US) for Mitas E-07 Dakar, including shipping: $347.60
Cost for Heidi K60's shipped to my house from RevZilla: $323.00

I think the Mitas Dakar E-07's would be a neat tire to try out, but I'll hold off for now. Besides, I still have 12k on my K60's and still have tread left.

 

[Mark R.]

Besides, I still have 12k on my K60's and still have tread left.

That is good mileage. I have 1800 miles on mine and if the rear makes 5000 I would be surprised. I talked to the MX1 people yesterday, and am going to get a set of the Mitas tires next. The center strip is killing me off road. I am getting stuck going uphill in muddy terrain and in other scenarios. I am going to get a tire groover to cut that center strip into discrete knobs, as well as cut the other grooves deeper to help get more traction.

 

[macca]

That is good mileage. I have 1800 miles on mine and if the rear makes 5000 I would be surprised. I talked to the MX1 people yesterday, and am going to get a set of the Mitas tires next. The center strip is killing me off road. I am getting stuck going uphill in muddy terrain and in other scenarios. I am going to get a tire groover to cut that center strip into discrete knobs, as well as cut the other grooves deeper to help get more traction.

I'd avoid cutting deeper in case you expose the tyre carcase, wider and more grooves no problem (expect here its not legal to do so, dunno about your side of the pond)

 

[Ridetherock]

Update

So after removing my complete GPS assembly from the mad stand windshield bracket (sizeable ram mount, tourtech GPS holder and garmen 665) another ride revealed still a slight vibe or resonance in the rear tire ( nothing unreasonable, and the front seems fine) that kicks in around 90 kph and stays largely the same to elevated speeds , but what I felt and seen at the bars with the screen and GPS vibrating was gone, clearly between the touring screen and my gps being extended out on a ram mount , it was to much for the madstad brackets and it was amplifying the slight vibes. I have the proper 1/2" madstad cross bar setup for the tourtech holder on the way. My gps will be a few inches farther away but it should hopefully be a lot smoother, ESP after I get a few 1000 clicks on the rear tire.

The traction control is getting a workout with the k60 though. Never thought IDE see it kick in on clean pavement, ESP in second gear lol. Prob thank the pipe, headers, and power commander setup for that lol.

 

[greg the pole]

I just did a quick look a this. If I order these tires (US), I have to pay $75 additional in shipping charges to get them shipped to my address in Virginia (DC area). So, for me, if I use your Canadian supplier, are actually more expensive.

Cost (coverted to US) for Mitas E-07 Dakar, including shipping: $347.60
Cost for Heidi K60's shipped to my house from RevZilla: $323.00

I think the Mitas Dakar E-07's would be a neat tire to try out, but I'll hold off for now. Besides, I still have 12k on my K60's and still have tread left.

well now you know how we canucks feel.
Any tire company we deal with in the US is not willing or charges insane amounts to get it north of the border. so we either buy locally, canadasmotorcycle.com is another great source for tires, or mx1.
That said, I need to do an update on the blog of the tire wear. At about 3500 km, i'm donw to the mid wear bar. Granted I was very hard on them in california, and i'm leaving on a gravel/road trip at end of month (3xxx km) see how they keep.

if I could convince someone to buy the mitas, the tires come shipped with a new cap, and a lot of stickers! ::015::

 

[thfraser]

Yep, international shipping is not very enjoyable...