[srs713]

Got an SR244 on the bike Friday. Drove it home at 50~60 MPH with no problems.



Now this morning riding around town between 20 and 40 MPH, I notice the tire "jumping".

Got on a stretch of highway and it kinda smoothed out at high speed.



They had to use a lot of weights to get the machine to call it balanced at the shop,

so I was wondering... those of you running the SR244:



Did yours take a lot of weights to balance?



Does yours run smooth?



Any signs of out-of-round condition?

 

[lizrdbrth]

Mine's good to over 60 with no weights.



The tire will probably settle down with use, but there are a couple of things to check if it doesn't.



Is the bead fully seated? There's a "tell" line around the circumference of the tire near where it meets the rim. There should be equal space between the line and the rim all the way around. The tire will squirm if any part of it isn't fully seated.



The static balance marks on the sidewalls should be lined up with the valve stem. Should be a "dot" cast in the tire, on one side or the other from the "Golden Boy" logo. If these aren't lined up, find a new tire shop. They put them there to minimize the amount of weight needed to balance the tire.



The tire is considerably heavier than the stocker. If your fork oil is low or wasted the situation will become greatly magnified as the forks try to control the additional mass.

 

[PalmStateCrawler]

I believe it was about 3ozs to balance mine. Feels fine unless you bring the pressure over 30psi

 

[joeband]

The tire is considerably heavier than the stocker. If your fork oil is low or wasted the situation will become greatly magnified as the forks try to control the additional mass.

not to hijack this thread but, how does one check the fork oil? i'm new to mt TW, and i mine feels like i'm riding a gyroscope... i wonder if you idea is part of the problem? i have stockers front and rear.

thanks!

 

[admiral]

No tire weights on mine and no problems.

 

[gfletcb]

first balancing attempt i had to use somewhere around 2.25 oz and it seemed to ride OK up to 60ish. then with a little too much time on my hands one day, i broke the beads and spent time finding the best balance spot rotating the tire on the rim. got it down to roughly 1.5 oz. been in somewhat winter storage since.

 

[qwerty]

I've not found the balance dots to be exceedingly accurate on any brand of tire. I do as gfl does, sort of. First, I balance the wheel, rimstrip, and partially inflated tube. Then I balance the assembly including the tire, estimate the vectors and mark the apparent heavy spot on the tire, then rotate the tire until the heavy spot of the tire is opposite the heavy spot of the rest of the assembly. A little talcum powder helps keep the tube in place on the rim. I then inflate until the beads pop, then remove the valve stem and fully deflate the tire several times to allow the tube to seek an even distribution inide the tire. This procedure allowed adequate balancing of Tdub's SR244 that the addition of RideOn was all that was needed to provide perfect manners and no vibration on pavement up to 77mph, downhill, with a tailwind.

 

[small's]

Mine also took 3oz in one spot to balance. Its kind of what srs described. I dont see a balance dot on mine and if the dot by the G in golden boy is it then why are the dots in different spots on each side of the tire? My valve stem lines up between the dots on each side of the tire. It does start to wobble a bit around 65+mph but not bad. I can push/pull on the bars a bit and it usually stops, but im not to concerned because i rarely go over 60 unless im hunting down a faster bike.

 

[Turwilliger]

I noticed that same "jumping" at speeds above 45mph after initial install. No weights were used, nor did i balance the tire aside from the "dot" stamp orientation to the valve stem.



The bike sat 3 months for winter and my first ride it felt like it evened out.



Dont get me wrong, the sr244 still feels squirrely and drops into turns suddenly.

Has anyone put mileage in this tire that can say if it will settle down as the knobs wear?

Im sure a good balance at a shop could help it feel more planted...

 

[admiral]

I noticed that same "jumping" at speeds above 45mph after initial install. No weights were used, nor did i balance the tire aside from the "dot" stamp orientation to the valve stem.



The bike sat 3 months for winter and my first ride it felt like it evened out.



Dont get me wrong, the sr244 still feels squirrely and drops into turns suddenly.

Has anyone put mileage in this tire that can say if it will settle down as the knobs wear?

Im sure a good balance at a shop could help it feel more planted...

I have put several hundred (not a thousand yet) miles on my SR244 and have not experienced any of the ill effects you describe at any speed. Mine has no balance weights and under my supervision, handles the same now as when I put it on. I suspect the "jumping" has something to do with balance, but have not had any "squirrely" feeling or problems in turns, either when it was new or now. Has felt as smooth during cornering from the get-go. I know this is subjective as we all "feel" something differently. The only difference I have felt, is when my tire pressure is too high when on gravel or dirt. Definitely more grip off-pavement with lower tire pressures.

 

[lizrdbrth]

I'm with Admiral on this one.



I'm about to reverse mine on the rim to counter some braking wear after about 5,000 miles. It's just starting to "feather under" but other than that it's shown little wear.



I've experienced none of the issues mentioned, including "squrrelinesss" or excess balance weight, so I'm kinda puzzled by the differences in results.



Mine handles far better than the stocker in all situations, including pavement.



I have no advice for Turwilliger other than the possibility that he has so much sag that his steering has steepened and is causing it to drop into turns. The tire is taller than the stocker and if anything the opposite should be occurring.



Mine doesn't sit for any length of time. It could be possible that it developed a flat spot during winter storage since you said it evened out after riding.

 

[lizrdbrth]

Here's mine after about 5,000 miles. It's just beginning to backslope. I'll prolly get at least one and possibly two more reversals out of it, maybe as much as 15,000 miles. We'll see:

Not much rounding of the lugs, either. Of the 5,000 miles, 1,800 were continuous road miles on our honeymoon and other than the occasional errand here and there most of the rest was spent at ridiculously low inflation pressures through rockpiles, DG, and deep sand. The thing is really holding up well.



I'd kill to have a knobby look this good after 5,000 miles on any of my other bikes.

 

[Kankujoe]

Here's mine after about 5,000 miles. It's just beginning to backslope. I'll prolly get at least one and possibly two more reversals out of it, maybe as much as 15,000 miles. We'll see:

Not much rounding of the lugs, either. Of the 5,000 miles, 1,800 were continuous road miles on our honeymoon and other than the occasional errand here and there most of the rest was spent at ridiculously low inflation pressures through rockpiles, DG, and deep sand. The thing is really holding up well.



I'd kill to have a knobby look this good after 5,000 miles on any of my other bikes.

Can you define "reversal" for me? Do you mean you will unmount the tire & reverse mount it? Can this tire be mounted either direction?

 

[lizrdbrth]

Yes. Not true in all cases but this particular style of tire is reversible.



I generally flip them when they show the first signs of feathering so I can extend their mileage. Wait too long to do this and they'll go rapidly downhill, reversed or not.

 

[Kankujoe]

Yes. Not true in all cases but this particular style of tire is reversible.



I generally flip them when they show the first signs of feathering so I can extend their mileage. Wait too long to do this and they'll go rapidly downhill, reversed or not.

Thanks! I learned something new today. How do you know which tires are reversible?



Are the TW stock tires "reversible?" The front tire on my 2008 is starting to feather. Maybe I should reverse it?

 

[lizrdbrth]

It's a non-directional tire. Some tires have a tread design that only works properly in a particular direction and sometimes these can be dangerous if reversed.



Sometimes they are directional by virtue of things you can't see, like the alignment of the belting in the carcass. Directional tires are usually marked as such.



This particular tire is kinda unique in that it's manufacturer-approved for use as either a front or rear tire and is not directional. It's a judgement call but anything with symetrical lugs that are the same whether "coming or going" (K270's, etc.) can generally be reversed.





The stock Bridgestones are all directional and marked on the sidewalls with an arrow indicating the direction of forward travel. The tread blocks are tapered on the forward edge to suit that direction of travel. I'd hesitate to flip anything with a directional arrow

 

[Turwilliger]

I did see other posts describing the tire as tending to suddenly drop into turns.



It's probably owing to a higher center knob height and/or spacing comparative to the ones closer to the sides of the tire. I've definitely noticed it and it's really hard to ignore.



I doubt I'm overriding the compression of the fork (weigh 190 fully geared up). Chances are a combo of high pressure and the tire being a bit taller and heavier just changed the feel and I'm feeling less planted along with a tire that wasn't perfectly seated.



What pressure are you guys runnin on/off road?



Good to know my problems are likely tweak-able. For the record my initial comment wasn't clear- the wheel was jumpy the first time I rode it 3 months ago. After sitting it is now better- so no flat spots were ever noted.

 

[lizrdbrth]

I dunno. Mine's a 5.10. The 4.00 and 4.60 will each behave differently, as well. I can play with my front end geometry a bit, others won't have that luxury so my experience won't totally relate. I've been running stock recomended pressures up front and so far the wear has been pretty good. I suspect higher pressures would tend to make it ride on the single center lug even more and make what you're describing more apparent.



I've gone as low as 5 psi. I'm generally religious about stopping to air up before I get back on pavement, but I've been known to get lazy about it. Prolly ridden at least a couple hundred total paved miles at 10 psi when connecting the dots. Ride was acceptable there, too.



Given reasonable care I think most of the D.O.T. knobbies will live a long time on the front of a TW, whereas a lot of them won't last 5,000 miles on the rear of a 650-class dualsport.



Play with pressures, check your fork oil and try to find some joy with this tire. I've said before that if it wears like mine has it's gunna be around for awhile.



It's going to take some honest reporting of experiences among us to sort what all these various tires are good at.

 

[Kankujoe]

It's a non-directional tire. Some tires have a tread design that only works properly in a particular direction and sometimes these can be dangerous if reversed.



Sometimes they are directional by virtue of things you can't see, like the alignment of the belting in the carcass. Directional tires are usually marked as such.



This particular tire is kinda unique in that it's manufacturer-approved for use as either a front or rear tire and is not directional. It's a judgement call but anything with symetrical lugs that are the same whether "coming or going" (K270's, etc.) can generally be reversed.





The stock Bridgestones are all directional and marked on the sidewalls with an arrow indicating the direction of forward travel. The tread blocks are tapered on the forward edge to suit that direction of travel. I'd hesitate to flip anything with a directional arrow

Thanks again for the info. I guess my front tire is not feathering, it's the normal taper. I thought it was wearing that way. I'm glad I asked. Got alot to learn.

 

[lizrdbrth]

By "feathering" I mean that the lugs are wearing at an angle, front-to-rear. Other factors such as fork oil contribute to it, but the main cause is braking.



This happens at a slightly higher rate with disc brake bikes because discs aren't as progressive as drums and "skid" imperceptably almost every time you apply the brakes. Once it starts the isn't a lot you can do about it with a directional tire.