New tyre fitted, vibration through bars, why?

mr chips · 17-09-2009 2:40pm #1

Got a new tyre fitted to the front wheel of the trike there just recently, and I'm now getting a fair bit of vibration through the handlebars that starts to become noticeable about 60 mph and becomes a lot worse as you head towards 70 or more (sorry officer). Thought it was about the wheel not being balanced, cos the guy who put it on for me (just in time for the MOT!) didn't have a machine that would balance bike wheels ... but when I rang a local bike dealer they told me that a spoked wheel would never be balanced anyway, which I hadn't heard of. Tyre pressure is spot on, and the wheel certainly seems to be dead straight, i.e. not mounted askew.

I'm getting a new wheel in a week or two anyway, but am heading for a weekend trip to Donegal and will be covering close to 400 miles - would be good to know if the dealer was talking through his hoop and the wheel still should be balanced, or if it might be something else. Any thoughts?

scudster · 17-09-2009 2:45pm

Go to a bike shop and get your wheel balanced. The tyre itself or the wheel may be slightly unbalanced.

Oryx · 17-09-2009 2:52pm

Check for a buckle or dent in the wheel, and yes, (I checked) you can balance spoked wheels and its the most likely cause.

KamiKazi · 17-09-2009 3:05pm

Why would it being spoked make a difference? Could still be differences in the rim / tyre that would make balancing a neccessity I would have thought.

KTRIC · 17-09-2009 3:46pm

My old W650 had spoked wheels as did a lot of my other bikes. I got them balanced when changing tyres, so thats BS to be honest.

seanybiker · 17-09-2009 4:12pm

The marauder I had had spoked wheels and they got balanced. Tell yer man to shut up lol.

Tigger · 17-09-2009 5:11pm

here is the us patent for the tool to put balancing weights on spokes

http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/3999275/description.html

cant balance spoked wheels lol

thetyreman · 17-09-2009 9:06pm

Yea it needs to be balanced,assumeing that it has been fitted with the direction/rotation on the tyre going forward,,:pac:

mr chips · 17-09-2009 10:01pm

Cheers guys, thought it sounded like horse manure but thought it was better to double check!

mr chips · 21-09-2009 12:00am

Yep, that dealer was full of it - got the tyre balanced on Friday and the problem was totally eradicated - had a great trip this weekend and the only vibration was down to the bumpy roads in West Donegal! Cheers for the advice/reassurance folks.

seanybiker · 21-09-2009 1:20am

good to hear ya got it sorted chips

KamiKazi · 21-09-2009 7:36am

good stuff

New tyre fitted, vibration through bars, why?

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