I can't imagine it does but would it matter if the balance dots don't line up to the valve as long as it's been balanced? Got my rim back from, Maidstone today and my mechanic put the tyre back on but clearly his eyesight's not as good as it once was as he didn't see the red balance marks on the GT2. I'll let him know but I'm hoping it doesn't need re-doing as I want to fit the wheel to the bike tomorrow. Cheers.
new one on me, ive never known about balance dots on tires! what is the theory? that the tire is marginally lighter where it lines up with the valve to allow for the weight of the valve? as i say, its new to me but there is a hell of alot i dont know!!! i would have thought that the balancing of ya wheel was as much to do with the wheel itself as it was the tire... some bigger brains will be along shortly id imagine!
Yep. The manufacturers put the dot where the lightest part of the tyre is and by fitting this by the valve it should be close to balanced and need the minimum amount of weights, if any.
If the wheel has been balanced then it's balanced. The position of the dot becomes irrelevant, although a bit more balancing weight will have been involved. TB
wonder if the balance weights line up with the dots? if not and the balancing has been done correctly, the dots aint worth a wank....
It minimalizes the amount of weight needed to balance the wheel, and any unsprung weight removed from a bike is a good thing, the further out from the wheel centre the greater the impact as well, that's why lightweight wheels are very popular. (As an aside, if the wheel has a mark, usually a O on the edge of the rim that's where you should line up the red dot, if no mark present then you line it up with the valve, this goes for car wheels as well.)
sorry. what i meant was, given his tires have been fitted with the red dots (the lightest part of the tire) not lining up with the valve, one would imagine, any balancing weights now added would have to be in line with the red dots or the whole theory is shot to shit...
Not necessarily, depends on how the wheel is balanced, static or dynamic, central plane or at each rim edge, whether the rim is "true" on the vertical plane or has any runout, what is bolted to the rim and it's location, any wear on any parts etc, many variables. When I was an apprentice we had a wheel balancer that balanced the wheel on the car, so balanced the tyre, wheel, hub, disc or drum, bearings and the like, made quite a difference, but was time consuming so got the arse.
so you are agreeing that the red dots on the tire have little bearing on the overall balance of a wheel complete with tire then?
No, I'm saying that the red dot lining up helps minimalize the amount of weight required so keeps the unsprung weight lower, and IIRC unsprung weight gain has 3 X the effect of sprung weight, and that's not taking into account the effect on gyroscopic energy etc.
That's all I need to know. Common sense told me that just checking there's no dark magic unseen difference in the tyre. It's gonna piss me off it doesn't line up for a few days though haha.
assuming the wheel is balanced before fitting the tire... for example if the wheel has a heavy spot opposite the valve it would be best to put the red dots on the tire in line with that spot to minimize additional weights... lol.. sorry i got the gist ages ago, im just being a arse now....
As above, the valve or rim mark are at the heaviest part of the rim, hence the red dot is the lightest part of the tyre, that's why you line them up, (I may have the heavy/light areas mixed up)
