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mounting pilot roads


capt22

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I have been lurking here for a while. I recall some one saying that the pilot roads do not have a mark for the "light" spot of the tire. Can this be confirmed?

This is a great place to learn about just about anything BMW related and quite entertaining as well.

TIA Capt

(I am sure the title of this post will raise some eyebrows)

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I just mounted a pair and didn't see any markings on either tire. Be sure and take your time and balance them. Also, now's a perfect time to check your brake pads.

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russell_bynum
Thanks,

That is what I wanted to know. This will be a week end project. What did you use to lubricate the tires? cool.gif

 

A little bit of soapy water works fine.

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Al Navecky Jr
Thanks,

That is what I wanted to know. This will be a week end project. What did you use to lubricate the tires? cool.gif

Soapy water. 1 tablespoon to a cup of water.

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I always used to use soapy water with no problems, but then started hearing about how it was bad for the aluminum wheels (what?), so I bought a gallon of tire mounting lube from Napa for $10. The jug says it is propylene glycol. The guy at Napa said it has a shelf life of "forever" and that's about what a gallon will last me even though I change all my own car tires too.

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Paul Mihalka

Since the arrival of tubeless tires I was using WD40 or equivalent. You know it is slick and does not damage anything. Not recommended for tires with tubes, as supposedly the tire might slip on the wheel and tear out a valve.

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What did you use to lubricate the tires? cool.gif
The "real thing" works much better than soapy water or WD40 - I use NAPA RuGlyde.
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Shawnee Bill
Thanks,

That is what I wanted to know. This will be a week end project. What did you use to lubricate the tires? cool.gif

Yamaha sells tire mounting lube in a spray can, about $5. Works much better than the soapy water which I used for many years.

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Thanks,

That is what I wanted to know. This will be a week end project. What did you use to lubricate the tires? cool.gif

Yamaha sells tire mounting lube in a spray can, about $5. Works much better than the soapy water which I used for many years.

 

KY or Astroglide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry, wrong forum.

 

 

I'm a WD guy, but only because my wife got real bent out of shape when I made the soap dissappear. confused.gif

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I put a pair of Pilot Roads on my RT last summer. I didn't notice it until I had the tires on, but the little hair like pieces of rubber that stick out of the tire were right where the bead needs to make contact with the wheel. I had leaks all over the place. I had to break the bead, and use a pair of needle nose pliers to pull all of them off so it didn't leak. I put another rear tire on this spring, and didn't have that problem.

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There are no markings on the tire. My front was balanced without trying. The rear did need balancing. As to installation, I strongly recommend NAPA Ruglyde and some plastic protectors.

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There are no markings on the tire. My front was balanced without trying. The rear did need balancing. As to installation, I strongly recommend NAPA Ruglyde and some plastic protectors.
The guy who mounted my tires (Metz Z6) did a cool thing... When he saw that the wheel would need some [stick-on] weights, he spun the tire on the wheel (tire moved, wheel did not) to see if he could get it to balance better... In the end he couldn't, which made me think the wheel was balanced, but the tire was not...

 

Might be interesting to check the balance of the wheel without the tire... I plan to do this next time.

 

Eric

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Jim VonBaden
There are no markings on the tire. My front was balanced without trying. The rear did need balancing. As to installation, I strongly recommend NAPA Ruglyde and some plastic protectors.
The guy who mounted my tires (Metz Z6) did a cool thing... When he saw that the wheel would need some [stick-on] weights, he spun the tire on the wheel (tire moved, wheel did not) to see if he could get it to balance better... In the end he couldn't, which made me think the wheel was balanced, but the tire was not...

 

Might be interesting to check the balance of the wheel without the tire... I plan to do this next time.

 

Eric

 

Good advice. I do that as well. If you do have a mark, it can them be set to the balance of the wheel to minimize the need for more weights.

 

Jim cool.gif

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Thanks,

That is what I wanted to know. This will be a week end project. What did you use to lubricate the tires? cool.gif

Shouldn't take the whole weekend! grin.gif Actually, it should take less than an hour a tire (less, once you get experience).

As others have said, use kitchen dish soap (palmolive or similar), a good squirt in a full cup of water.

 

As for the orientation mark, most tires have a dot of (usually) white paint on the sidewall that indicates the lightest point. Install the tire with this mark opposite the valve stem.

 

Don't forget you still have to balance them!

 

Bob.

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Just last night I installed a new front tire with much help from Jamie (KMG_365) with Mitch's nifty Mojo tire changer & bar.

 

After removing the old tire and cleaning the wheel, we used the Marc Parnes wheel balancer to find the heavy spot in my wheel, and determined HOW far out of balance it was by taping wheel weights on temporarily. (15g, in my case.)

Then, mounting the tire (a Metzler Z6 with 2 red dots on it) to line up with the known out- of balance spot on the wheel, netted an out of balance of just under 15g in the opposite direction. (Meaning the tire was net out of balance by ~ 30g.)

 

Had I inadvertently lined up the heavy spots on the wheel and tire together, I'd have needed a whopping 45g of weight to balance it.

 

I'm installing the rear tire on Saturday. maybe we can get some good pics.

 

Hope this helps!

G

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Shawnee Bill
The guy who mounted my tires (Metz Z6) did a cool thing... When he saw that the wheel would need some [stick-on] weights, he spun the tire on the wheel (tire moved, wheel did not) to see if he could get it to balance better... In the end he couldn't, which made me think the wheel was balanced, but the tire was not...

 

Might be interesting to check the balance of the wheel without the tire... I plan to do this next time.

 

Eric

I balanced my wheels one day, since then with Pilot Roads the weights to balance are always the same. Pilot Roads don't have the 'mark' and seem to be very well balanced.

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Leslie and I use Pilot Roads and we go through about three sets each every year. Needless to say, I've installed quite a few (friends have done theirs here too). Most of the PR's do not have marks, but some do. When they do have marks it appears that they need more weight to balance them. It is like they have a tolerance (maybe 10-30g?) below which they consider them balanced and don't bother to mark them? confused.gif

 

I've balanced all of our wheels sans tire and have the light spot marked with the value (in GRAMS, Bob! tongue.gifgrin.gif ) with a sharpie on the inside of the wheel as well. If there are dots near the bead (the tire's light spot), I then place the dots 180* out from my known light spot and inflate before re-balancing the whole assembly. Also using a combination of BMW weights (which come in 5g increments) and the strip weights Marc Parnes sells (which come in 7g increments) I can get pretty DAMN close! thumbsup.gif

 

I also use and recommend the RuGlide! You might lose a bit of "run-flat" capability, but it makes spinning the tire 180* 'cause you f'ed up the dots much easier as well as breaking the bead at the next tire change interval. It is Propylene Glycol, though, so keep it away from pets and kids. The sweetness attracts animals and can be deadly if ingested in any quantity. tongue.gif

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Thanks to all for your help and experience. Rear tire was mounted on Sunday, no problems thanks to Mitch's tire bar, Mark Parne's tire ballancer and liberal use of Ru-glide.

It took about 2 1/2 hours but that also included setting up the Harbor Freight tire mounting device.

Tire is nicely ballanced and ready to go.

I plan on doing the front later after a little more wear on the current tire (it has only about 5,000 miles on it). wave.gif

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I have to put on a set of tires for the season and have been thinking of investing in the equipment to do it myself. Use the money saved from the dealer to purchase equipment I could use many times. I have looked into the Harbor Freight device but it seems to have mixed reviews. I am not looking (i.e. can't afford) professional equipment but I also don'e want to spend money on stuff that won't last. frown.gif How was your experience and your take on the quality of the HF changer?

 

Mark parne's tire balancer is also on my list. Your experience?

 

Bert Congdon

1999 R1100RT Boston Green

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One of the tricks I use is to first see where the heavy (Low) spot on the rim is before mouting the tire. It isn't always the valve that's the heaviest spot.

 

Once the heavy spot is determined, match the light mark on the tire to that spot and you'll use a lot less weights.

 

Rpg

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Mark parne's tire balancer is also on my list. Your experience?

Fantastic. First time using it was on my current set of Pilot Roads and it produced glass-like results, correcting for less than perfect results from a shop's computer dynamic balancer. Total weight needed was 14 grams front, 20 grams rear. According to Marc, at the race tracks, the tolerance used by those guys is 1/4 oz. (7 grams) increments.

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