Ride-On Tire Sealant and Balancer

[jpcfjr]

In my recent NEPRT posting on my experience with Michelin PR3s, I wrote that I DID NOT balance the tires and let Ride-On Tire Sealant do the balancing.

Over the 10,752 miles, the ride was silky smooth and the tire wear has been amazing. When the tires were new, the tread depth on the rear tire was 8/32". The front tire measured 5/32". Currently, the rear tire has 5/32" of tread depth remaining while the front has 4/32" remaining.

Damn!! That means that your front tire should last you another 40k+ miles and the rear will be good for another 17k+ miles, for a total mileage of 28k miles.

We should call you Ponce 'de Leon as I think that you have found the tire mileage fountain of youth!!

I honestly don't know what "silky smooth" would feel like or how to attain it. There just seem to be way too many factors involved. An engine that buzzes significantly north of 4,000 rpm, wind buffeting when at highway speeds with a car, pick-up, or SUV in front, roads that are FAR from smooth...how the hell can you tell what's going on with your tires?

As for tire wear, well there is a double edged sword if I've ever seen one. I'm not sure I want my tires to last for 15,000 miles. If they did, that would mean they'd be on the bike for the better part of a year. Since it's heat that provides the grip we so crave, I WANT my tires to get hot. Ride-On says it keeps the tire cooler...a good thing? I'm not so sure. It's also heat cycles that kill a tire. That means when you keep it for 1.5 times as long, you get 1.5 times the cycles...a good thing? I'm not so sure.

Having said that, I just don't know how critical the balancing really is given my experience so far. I will change my own tires now. The data in this thread is quite contradictory regarding Ride-On, parallel universes and shit. Not sure what I'm gonna do about balancing.

 

[Bill]

In my recent NEPRT posting on my experience with Michelin PR3s, I wrote that I DID NOT balance the tires and let Ride-On Tire Sealant do the balancing.

Over the 10,752 miles, the ride was silky smooth and the tire wear has been amazing. When the tires were new, the tread depth on the rear tire was 8/32". The front tire measured 5/32". Currently, the rear tire has 5/32" of tread depth remaining while the front has 4/32" remaining.

Damn!! That means that your front tire should last you another 40k+ miles and the rear will be good for another 17k+ miles, for a total mileage of 28k miles.

We should call you Ponce 'de Leon as I think that you have found the tire mileage fountain of youth!!

I honestly don't know what "silky smooth" would feel like or how to attain it.

To me, silky smooth means that the front end doesn't bounce up and down at speeds north of 90 mph.

When I first got my Cycle Hill Tire Changer and Balancer, I did the tires on my CBR1100XX and the front end noticeably bounced at higher speeds. I tried to balance the front tire a second time and went much more slowly and actually neutralized out the rim so that I could more easily find the light spot on the tire. Well, the second time only took a quarter of the weight that I'd original used and all of the high speed bouncing disappeared.

With the PR3s I did find the light spots on the tires and matched those up with the heavy spots on the rims. Although they still required a fair amount of weight to balance, I decided to not use weights and just see if the Ride-On would satisfactorily balancing the tires. I rode the bike about 400 miles before starting the SCMA USA Four Corners Tour so that I could add weights to the tires if I felt any vibration or bouncing.

When I found that the ride was completely smooth, at any speed that I cared to accelerate to, I decided to not add weights.