Motorcycle Safety & Driveability: Tire Change, honda cb 650, bad tire

Question
Hello William.
I recently had the front tire of my 1980 Honda cb 650 changed because of age. I removed the wheel of the bike and took it to a shop for tire replacement and balancing. After I put the wheel back on I took it for a short test drive. I haven't changed a front wheel before and wanted to be sure it wouldn't fall off. During the test drive I noticed that the front tire was bouncing.(I mean a real noticeable bounce) I took the bike back to store where I bought the tire and told them the problem. They removed the wheel from the bike and put it on the balancer. They said it was right on balance. Put the wheel back on and it still does the same thing. They said it could be that the bike was short on fork oil. I changed the oil in the forks and put in the recommended amount of oil according to the Clymer's manual. Still did the same thing. Any suggestions on what it could be and is it safe to ride the way it is? I think there is something wrong with the new tire because it didn't bounce with the old one. Is there anyway I can check if the tire is out of round?

Thank you

Answer
Rod,

Thanks for the question.

The way I read it, I'm pretty sure the tire is not balanced. Whatever shop you took it to either has a bad balancing system, or someone does not know how to work it, or both.

There really is no way to check if a tire is "out of round", and it's highly unusual a so badly flawed tire would make it past the quality checks of any major tire maker.

Take it to another shop and tell them you put it on yourself, and that it needs to be balanced. Pay to have them remount it if neccessary. DON'T say "Joe just balanced it at his shop", just let them start from scratch. See if the result is different.

Bottom line, the new tire should behave EXACTLY like the old one, no hopping or bouncing. And since you redid the forks and such, it should ride BETTER than before, not worse.

The chances you got a bad tire are slim, but there. If another shop cannot balance it (or you find it still bounces while riding despite being told by the 2nd shop it was balanced), then it may indeed be the tire but that is really rare. Possible, just not probable.

I'd bet good money the tire is not properly balanced. Get a 2nd opinion, and go from there.

Whatever you do, don't ride the bike other than to the bike shop. An unbalanced tire is a disaster waiting to happen. Get it fixed as soon as possible.

Good luck!

Bill Roberson