Americanmototire.com order

[Joe Nardy]

I've ordered from Americam Motorcycle Tire http://americanmototire.com
Before with good results but I just had a strange experience with them. I ordered two sets of tires online yesterday, a set of Avons for the FJR and a set of Pirelli Sport Demons for the GS. Today I got an email saying the Pirellis were out of stock for two weeks and therefore they were cancelling the order and refunding my payment. I'm glad they told me what was going on but I don't understand why they wouldn't still ship the Avons or give me the option of accepting the partial order and cancelling the Pirellis or waiting for them to come in. Anyway, I ordered from http://ridenow.com Hopefully I'll have better luck with this order.

Joe

[bwringer]

I wonder if there are availability problems with the Pirelli Sport Demons? It took two weeks for my set to get here from http://swmototires.com . They contacted me right away via phone and email to let me know it would take a while. SW Moto Tires had the lowest delivered price because they offered free shipping on a set.

Cancelling the enTIRE (get it?) order may have been a simple human error -- most people only order one set at a time. I'd definitely contact them about it.

The Sport Demons are AWESOME tires for a GS, by the way, which might explain why they are a little scarce. I've never felt any tire that was so precise and neutral in the corners.

They also took the smallest amount of balance weight of any tire I've seen -- one 1/4 ounce weight on the front, and just half of a 1/4 ounce weight on the back. That definitely makes me feel all warm and fuzzy about their quality control.

I stole your idea of using inline skate bearings and made a set of balancing stands out of an old pair of jack stands and some scrap brackets I had lying around. With the axle riding on two small, virtually frictionless bearings on either end, you can get phenomenal accuracy. I located the true heavy point of each wheel before mounting the new tires, and used that marking to place the red dot on the tire. The true heavy points were both 80-90 degrees away from the valve stems, BTW.

Hopefully, I'll get decent mileage out of these Pirellis. With only 1K miles so far, it's hard to tell. But with handling like this, I really don't care as long as they last 5K or so at least.

[Nessism]

I stole your idea of using inline skate bearings and made a set of balancing stands out of an old pair of jack stands and some scrap brackets I had lying around. With the axle riding on two small, virtually frictionless bearings on either end, you can get phenomenal accuracy. I located the true heavy point of each wheel before mounting the new tires, and used that marking to place the red dot on the tire. The true heavy points were both 80-90 degrees away from the valve stems, BTW.

How about a photo of your balance stand? I did my wheels using the bearings in the wheel but I know it would be better to use something with lower friction.

Ed

[bwringer]

The original idea to use inline skate bearings in this configuration was from Joe Nardy. He posted pics a while back of a similar setup supported by a couple of old 4X4 wooden posts. I happened to have a couple of jack stands I wasn't using, plus two brackets of unknown origin that I modified. I also have a supply of stainless 8mm bolts and metric taps, so I drilled and tapped the holes in the brackets to hold the bearings.

Use whatever you have lying around -- it doesn't have to be precise or pretty.

My lug wrench is standing in for a motorcycle wheel in the pictures. You simply remove all the spacers and put the axle back into the wheel, then place the ends of the axle on the bearings for a virtually frictionless setup. You can literally breathe on the tire and it will start rotating. It's very easy at that point to consistently locate heavy spots.

[bwringer]

I'll post this in the "Tips and Tricks" section, too.

[duaneage]

I balance my wheels by mounting an old axle in my bench vise. I use a level to make sure it is straight and it seems to work OK