Tire balance..Counteract, Ride On?

[cScjhb]

I am looking at options for tire balancing. I am fairly new to trikes and know they ride differently than 2 wheelers. I recently had some problems corrected with my trike. There were some broken brackets and I had the drive shaft and suspension updated. I am now feeling a lot of lumpiness at 65 and above. It is constant and consistent even when pulling the clutch in. This may have been there all along but masked by other issues that I addressed with the updates. My steering head bearings feel good with no wobble at any speed. The lumpiness definitely feels like tire balance to me. The tires are all new. My RR has one stick on weight and my LR has TEN. My front tire has only one small stick on weight. I am inclined to have all 3 re-balanced just to know that imbalance is not the cause of lumpiness. I am looking at options of perhaps using Counter Act or Ride On balancing systems. I can also take the bike back to the dealer and have all 3 wheels removed and re-balanced with stick on weights. Looking for advice from those who have had experience with Ride On and Counter Act. They look to be my easiest and least expensive options. But once going down that rabbit hole I don't think I could do traditional balancing without undoing the beads or liquid. Suggestions and ideas welcomed. Thank you..... Jim

[paws]

I put Ride-On in all 3 tires...LOVE it....on a good road, at 70mph I can turn loose of the handlebars, clap my hands above my head, stretch my shoulders, and this trike goes straight down the road until it meets an anomoly in the road taking it on a not-so-straight path.

I put R-O in originally as I wanted less chance of a flat tire...the balance was icing on the cake...I don’t have lead weights on the tires.

This has been MY experience on my GL1800. There are others here on TrikeTalk who ride other brands of trikes that can’t say enough bad about the product... but that’s their experience.

[FuzzyWuzHe]

I've alway used ridden in the Gold Wings with great success. Had a bad experience with the Tri ... but I believe, and so does RideOn, that the indy I had install my tires and put RideOn in, use the ATV formula that isn't designed for speed and that caused the issues.

I ended up going with Dyna beads in all three wheels, but kind of miss the piece of mind you get from the self sealing aspect. I do carry a plugging kit and a mini compressor, so that's some piece of mind.



Heard good reports about this kit, so, I think I'm covered.

[hogcowboy]

I've only used Ride-On on two wheelers and love the stuff. But with the larger car tires i'm not sure I would go that route just because of the amount and extra expense of the larger tire. After my last change of tires I failed to put Ride-On in(or I think I might have) and I'm missing it as the bike does shack much more at higher than speed limit speeds. But now with half the tire life I'm not sure it would be worth adding it. And even with Ride-On, I did get a flat once but it wasn't Ride-On's fault per say. It was a ¼ inch size hole I got and they say up front it won't seal those. I just wish the stuff wasn't so expensive. I have no idea about the beads. Maybe that is a better option on trikes. But you don't get the puncture proof part with those. And to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure our Texas heat doesn't dry out Ride-On(see above). I got no proof it does but on two tires when replaced them, the stuff was indeed dry which surprised me. Yet on all the others where I used it, it was still a liquid. I have read others claim it dries out too which is a concern. When a liquid it works and works well. That's a fact. But I do have that little concern now which makes me wonder about the bigger trike tires.

[tfdeputydawg]

My RR has one stick on weight and my LR has TEN.

There's your problem, most likely!!!!!!

Also, I've used RideOn for years. Good stuff, if you follow directions when dispensing it into your tires.

[FuzzyWuzHe]

I have read others claim it dries out too which is a concern. When a liquid it works and works well. That's a fact. But I do have that little concern now which makes me wonder about the bigger trike tires.

As for the drying out and "clumping", I was told by RideOn that they have many reports of this and everyone they have investigated turned out to be the ATV RideOn was installed and not the motorcycle RideOn. Supposedly it's a different formula and that makes sense.

I too have always had good results with two wheelers and RideOn. After a trip once, I noticed something "shinny" in my rear tire. I removed a jewelers screw driver from the rear tire and never lost air. I did replace the tire, but, I was not stranded in the middle of the Wide Open Spaces out here. I also put RideOn in an 08 Gold Wing with a Champion solid axle conversion and had no issues with it. On the 14 Tri, I had RideOn installed in all the tires and had no issues with the rears and vibration or shaking, but, when I pulled the tires to remove the RideOn, I did find "clumps" where it had appeared to dry out. The indy took pictures of that and sent it too RideOn and they said it was the ATV formula.

I got the impression that Avon, the Indy that put the RideOn in and RideOn were all covering their rears a bit. Couldn't prove it, but, that was my impression. I was refunded $$$ for the RideOn, and all the subsequent "fixes", so I was made whole, all I lost was time and my frustration.

After removing all the RideOn, I did go to the Dyna Beads and liked them a lot. They lessoned the "Hum" in the front wheel, but, didn't get rid of it. Finally had the AV91 removed and installed a Dunlop American Elite. I kept the AV91 and was shown dried clumps of the RideOn that was never removed from the tire. Those clumps where probably the reason the AV91 was humming. They were all on the right side of the tire which is the side of the bars that hummed the most. I think had all the RideOn been removed, I would not have had the issues with the AV91. Since I wasn't paying for the subsequent fixes, I didn't get to be in the decision process that much. I wish I would have insisted to see the inside of the tires before they remounted them after removing the RideOn. Lesson learned ... again ... "You always get what you inspect, not what you expect."

As an interesting side note, Both Avon and RideOn DO NOT RECOMMEND putting RideOn in the AV91 tire. Never got a straight answer why, but, if they both are against it, must be some reason.

[CrystalPistol]

I have some vehicles with stick on weight, some with clip on weights, and some of each that have a few ounces of Air Soft "RED JACKET" .22 hard plastic BBs in them. Trike has 3 ounces of them in it's front Avon Cobra Trike Radial and there are 3 ounces in ear rear cat size radial as well as a couple clip on weights on the inside lip. Smooth.

In 2019 I had 4 new 275/55R20 Pirelli tires put on my '07 F-150, a rim & tire weigh near 70 pounds. The installer balanced them twice and really got them "pretty good", but not "perfect". I pulled each tire/wheel off one at a time, rolled into my shop, broke the outer bead loose after deflating … and poured 3.25 ounces of the same Air Soft BBs, now it is as near perfect as I've ever felt it, it is a truck, you feel the road.

Even my older '77 F-150 with 31/10.50-15 off road tires has about 5 ounces in each in addition to whatever wheel weights were clipped on years ago.

When I want to remove them like for at home tire changes, I just use a small shop vac with long 1/2" hose or tube inserted into lowest part of tire past the bead, pull them into the empty vac, then rinse, let dry, and put in the jug with the others for reuse some day. They show NO signs of distress.

Only our Forester Sport doesn't have them as we just bought it last year "BC" and it's on it's OEM rubber & air still. It and my '77 F-150 are the only two that still have rubber stems too.

I used Ride On once in my GL1200 in the Y2K era, it was lumpy at next tire service brought about when I found white residue oozed out between the rims & tire beads as I replaced a bad stem that left the rear tire flat. Only flat ever on less than 4 wheeler. Took scrubbing and soap and water to clean the beads enough too seal. I pitched some unopened, still sealed Ride On then. I've had people tell me the problem was install, but it was put in per instructions. Now, I'll never have that issue with Ride On again.

Never had a rolling flat on a bike or the trike in near 50 years ridden, carried a plug kit in the GL1200 and the trike … as well as in my cars/trucks with compressor all in a soft tool bag that goes with me. I trusted in luck on my Britt Bikes with tubes, I got lucky too. Did have a few flats on cars and I carried my plug kit bag on duty in my police cars as it was often enough easier to do if I had a flat at 2am. In the case of police cars, I'd change the tire out later in the office parking lot or my driveway.

I did use my Stop-n-Go with the little rubber rivet looking plugs that I kept in the trike's trunk for a friends front tire on his trike, I think he got 20-30 miles before it was down again and that time I put in a brown twisted rope type plug, same hole, it held then.

[paws]

Jim..if you go with Ride-On, in the trike discussion on their website, they suggest you use the motorcycle product in the rear car tires instead of the car tire product as they say the motorcycle product seals much quicker than the car product does.... or else it said that when I applied it to my tires... I haven’t looked at the website since then.

Good luck with whatever you choose... let us know what you decide and how it worked out for you.

[cScjhb]

Thank you all. I decided to go with RideOn motorcycle formula in all 3 tires as Carla suggested. I went to my dealer today and they have bulk RideOn that they inject in trike tires (all 3) for twenty buck per tire. I specifically asked if another formula of RideOn should be used in the rear auto tires of the trike and they said no. The stuff they use is orange and they have not had any problems here in the hot desert. This is a dealer I have a lot of confidence in and have done business with for many years. They are also the new owners of Champion Trikes having done many hundreds of trike conversions and servicing over the years. This is the first step to eliminate the lumpiness at freeway speeds. I am now confident that this will resolve it, if the problem is tire balance. I will keep y'all updated..... Jim

[paws]

Just a word of interest.... if the bike has not been ridden for a few days, when you first start out you will probably experience a very disconcerting wobbly-shakey feeling for a mile or 2... don’t get excited.... it is just the product distributing itself in the tire. It will smooth out after the initial “spin” cycle. If you ride every couple of days you won’t notice this near as much, if at all. Really cold weather makes it do the same thing if the bike has not been ridden for a couple of days.

[hogcowboy]

As for the drying out and "clumping", I was told by RideOn that they have many reports of this and everyone they have investigated turned out to be the ATV RideOn was installed and not the motorcycle RideOn. Supposedly it's a different formula and that makes sense.

All I can say to that is they had a packaging problem back when I installed it in that one pair of tires as I got the motorcycle Ride-On. I considered the ATV stuff since it was much cheaper but I read the warnings and got and installed the motorcycle stuff, not a dealer, I did it. Learned the trick to get it in too. At least that's what the package(bottle) stated. Would they admit they had a packaging problem back in 2016? Not likely. I suspect our Texas heat was the major contributing factor. I put some miles on back then at interstate speeds. I saw 112º more than once on the thermometer and long waits in construction zones as well. Will I use Ride-On, you bet. Even with that one odd result.

[cScjhb]

Here is a follow-up of my vibration dilemma. The owner of the shop where I bought the bike and have all my servicing done insisted he take care of the problem at his expense. The rear tires were put on new when I bought the bike. He removed the wheels and sent them back to the tire dealer to be road force balanced. One of the tires was not mounted correctly and had to be adjusted (spun) on the rim. I got the bike back today and it is as smooth as can be up to 80 MPH.

I know that everything on the bike comes together at the steering head. Rear tire issues can feel like it's coming from the front. Knowing that, I would have sworn my vibration was coming from the front anyway. Wrong! Happy with my bike. Happy with my dealer..... Jim

[LadyonaMission]

Jim, thanks for posting the update. I love good news.

[rhino 2]

Apples to Sardines here.....When i put Ride-On in all 3 tires of my Slingshot it always felt a little like one or more of the tires were slightly out of balance, I only put a thousand miles with the ride-on when i sold the Slingshot..So i never checked to see if it was the ride-on......

But my Mechanics 101 class always taught me if a problem just pops up! You should go back to the last thing you monkeyed with...