Wobbly Wheel..Is It Tyre Slime?

[Watty100]

I had a new front Tourance fitted, fitter said it didn't need balancing, all was fine. After a while, it developed a serious wobble at high speed, after fitting Tyre Slime (the bright green puncture prevention stuff). Took it and got the wheel balanced, all fine again for a while. Now its developed the high speed shakes again. I always used Puncture Safe up to now with no wobble problems, any thoughts on whether the Slime is at fault, or a dodgy tyre maybe??????????? The wheel bearings are OK.
(2007 GS12 with cast wheels)

 

[Nice 'n' Fat]

I'm surprised the tyre balanced up first time without the need for weights

What sort of speeds are you talking about when the shakes start?

 

[Watty100]

I'm surprised the tyre balanced up first time without the need for weights

What sort of speeds are you talking about when the shakes start?

90+ (on the autobahn officer)

First fitter said it only needed 0.5 gram weight, so not needed. Different fitter second time put 7 grams on, big difference methinks!

 

[Neil W]

cast or spoke wheel ? If it is a spoked one get it checked on a balancing machine for ovality and run out

 

[rocky burns]

99.9% it will be the tyre. Had a few dodgy tourance tyres. Take it back and tell them to get you another one. All will be good

 

[Giles]

99.9% it will be the slime

And that's why the first tyre fitter said the wheel was ok without weight, but after you added the slime the next fitter said it did need weight.

But the slime moves about, so how can you realistically balance a wheel that keeps changing? You cant.

Slime and all the other puncture seal products are ok for relative pootling, but once you get a wriggle on your wheels turn into spin dryers with wet towels in

 

[rocky burns]

99.9% it will be the slime

And that's why the first tyre fitter said the wheel was ok without weight, but after you added the slime the next fitter said it did need weight.

But the slime moves about, so how can you realistically balance a wheel that keeps changing? You cant.

Slime and all the other puncture seal products are ok for relative pootling, but once you get a wriggle on your wheels turn into spin dryers with wet towels in

Good explination

 

[Spike]

99.9% it will be the slime

And that's why the first tyre fitter said the wheel was ok without weight, but after you added the slime the next fitter said it did need weight.

But the slime moves about, so how can you realistically balance a wheel that keeps changing? You cant.

Slime and all the other puncture seal products are ok for relative pootling, but once you get a wriggle on your wheels turn into spin dryers with wet towels in

I have always argued this over the years with people with sports bikes, a lot who use it never had a problem with it but i have never used it as its just something else to give you a head ache.

spike

 

[Fanum]

99.9% it will be the slime

And that's why the first tyre fitter said the wheel was ok without weight, but after you added the slime the next fitter said it did need weight.

But the slime moves about, so how can you realistically balance a wheel that keeps changing? You cant.

Slime and all the other puncture seal products are ok for relative pootling, but once you get a wriggle on your wheels turn into spin dryers with wet towels in

Good explination

On the contrary, a rubbish 'Explination' which only goes to demonstrate a total lack of understanding of forces in movement

I don't use slime, or any similar product......too many negative experiences of the stuff, and the aftermath of using it.


However.....

It's a viscous liquid that is designed to spread itself evenly over the inner surface of the tyre......if you start off with a tyre that is a little off weight (and 7g would come into this) then the liquid automatically flows around the inside of the tyre through centripetal force until the point is reached that there is a totally even pressure being exerted on the rotational axis if the wheel......basic physics .


Look up 'Dynabeads', which are basically a load of tiny ceramic balls that you stick into a tyre that automatically balance the tyre as soon as it starts moving.

PS I still wouldn't use slime or any similar gooey stuff.......it's all shit and I'm convinced it's actually potentially dangerous



Watty....your tyre is fucked, get a new one

 

[Giles]

well I'm only going by

i/ personal experience (had it many moons ago and anything over 120 (nurburgring..) and the bike tried to throw me off...)

ii/ the feedback from two separate tyre fitters who both said nigh on exactly the same thing about trying to balance a tyre that had a fluid in it ...

 

[Fanum]

I'm with you Giles....I won't ever use slime, or any of the equivalent snake oil tyre treatments......

I suspect that the tyre technicians will have said that they don't like it because nobody who changes tyres would chose to deal with one that has been gunked up...I certainly don't, it's nasty sticky shit that makes a mess everywhere and takes time to clear out.

The reason you felt the bike trying to throw you off at the Nurburgring?

Well, everyone needs something to blame

As for balance though.....have a look at the dynabead animations, or any similar articles.

 

[Spike]

could it be that the wheel balancing machine does not spin fast enough to get the fluid to where it should be for proper balance.
Would have thought though if a new tyre was fitted then it would balance first before adding puncture fluid???

spike

 

[morty]

get yourself another tyre,use dynabeads, perfectly balanced wheels every time. they are re-useable you know & throw a puncture repair kit under your seat & throw that can of slime in the bin.
Only takes 5mins to carry out a temp repair on a flat or if you can't be assed get recovered.

 

[Giles]

I'm with you Giles....I won't ever use slime, or any of the equivalent snake oil tyre treatments......

I suspect that the tyre technicians will have said that they don't like it because nobody who changes tyres would chose to deal with one that has been gunked up...I certainly don't, it's nasty sticky shit that makes a mess everywhere and takes time to clear out.

The reason you felt the bike trying to throw you off at the Nurburgring?

Well, everyone needs something to blame

As for balance though.....have a look at the dynabead animations, or any similar articles.

At about 110 - 120, the shake on the handlebars was so violent that you just had no choice other than Whoooooaaaaaaa ...... ease off that throttle and breathe !! Scary shit

Spike may be absolutely right that at wheel balancing speeds, it's not quick enough to spread the slime evenly, so the reading is inacurate and the wheel is never truly balanced

 

[D6]

As for balance though.....have a look at the dynabead animations, or any similar articles.

agree with you there on the theory , but dynabeads have been known to produce the odd hammering effect after hitting bumps, quite unnerving ,
my 1200, amongst others have had this, beads taken out, no prob, it was a very high speed problem though
could be like spike says, the wheel might not be balanced on the machine at sufficient speed to get the slime distributed ?
was it even balanced on a machine?

balance your cleaned out or new front and then carry a plug n go ...
imo its prob the tyre, if it was balanced right

 

[Fanum]

At about 110 - 120, the shake on the handlebars was so violent that you just had no choice other than Whoooooaaaaaaa ...... ease off that throttle and breathe !! Scary shit

Spike may be absolutely right that at wheel balancing speeds, it's not quick enough to spread the slime evenly, so the reading is inaccurate and the wheel is never truly balanced

I rather doubt that that is down to slime, it sounds like a steering/geometry/harmonic vibration type thing.......any bike will find that happening to it at various points in its performance envelope......

Hence the large aftermarket supply of steering dampers etc etc.

If you hadn't had slime in, who knows, it might have started at 10-20mph less than it did

I get a weave on my 1150 with panniers on it, at anything between 100 and 110....after that, it gets smooth again until it revs out at 138mph







PS I might have fibbed just a teensy bit there about the 138 mph...It actually tops out at 130!

 

[Giles]

Nope ... Got back, went straight to Watling tyres, tipped the slime out and had the tyre refitted. Problem gone !

I won't use the stuff ...

 

[Fanum]

Nope ... Got back, went straight to Watling tyres, tipped the slime out and had the tyre refitted. Problem gone !

I won't use the stuff ...

Hmmmmmm....

Apart from the fact that you rode away from Watling tyres at 110-120 (good job there wasn't a responsible copper about ) that makes me wonder......

If slime does act under centripetal forces and takes a good few seconds to slither it's way across to even out an inbalance, I wonder if it will slime across to the 'high' side of a tyre on a long fast corner (vertical axis of rotation), and maybe cause an unevenly spread weight to one side of the axle plane when you flip into the next, opposite direction corner??






I still won't use it either

 

[Watty100]

Lots of interesting thoughts and pet hates, no surprises there. Just to clarify, the tyre was put on the balance machine first time without slime, second time obviously with slime fitted, so I take the point about it not being on the machine long/fast enough to spread the stuff about evenly . Again, I've never had a problem with Puncture Safe (or a puncture) on the 3 types of tyre its been put in (Anakee, Tourance, Tourance EXP). Seems odd to switch to Slime and get grief. A Fireblade owning mate had similar problems at 130+ in his newly acquired bike with it already filled in the tyres. (although I don't know what brand it was).
Next move will be to get the Slime out and try again with the balance. I guess I'll owe the fitter a drink for wiping up the mess!!!!!

 

[Rasher]

Put some puncturesafe in my ZZR for a tour, I was told it would be OK well beyond a ton - and it was.

But at around 140-145 the front end would shake like a jack hammer, any "self balancing" effect certainly has a limitation as the effect was repeatable and never happened with tyres not running the goo.

Normally I would have said it is not such a bad thing to have your progress halted at 145 by the bike, but I was rather looking forward to topping out on the auto-bahn, then again I expect my panniers would have been ripped off before the limiter halted fun at 186.