Just got back from a morning ride and noticed this on my back tire. Original weights, just over 2K miles on the bike. Glad they didn't let go while riding. Maybe someone didn't clean the wheel good before install?

 

I'm kind of blown away by how many weights are on my wheels. With that many, it's probably the wheels themselves, not the tires. You'd think HD would do a little better job balancing the wheels during manufacturing.

FWIW, I use balancing beads in all my bikes and will do so at the first tire change on my Low Rider. Balance is perfect, and you get rid of those wheel weights.

You'll find lots of videos if you search "Dyna Bead Fail" on YouTube, but all those look like somebody went crazy with soap and water mounting the tires. I use simple Windex spray to mount tires, and then inflate, deflate, reinflate the tires twice to get out any excess moisture in the tires before installing the beads.

 

Have never used the beads as all my past bikes have had spoke wheels and tubes. I do have friends who use them and are happy with them. For the short term I marked the location, cleaned wheel with isopropyl alcohol and reapplied the weights with 3M heavy duty double edge tape.
Agreed in the excessive amount of weights used, I have used less weight to balance a steel wheel on my jeep

 

Kind of got my attention because I see a LOT of weights on some wheels of new bikes. I didn't remember seeing that on my bike and I just checked,,,,,,,ZERO weights, front or rear and bike rides smooth.

 

I'am not surprised by all the wheel weights, my new 2019 Softail Slim has a bunch of weights also . My 2016 883 Iron had no wheel weights ! But that was before Harley closed their New Castalloy owned wheel factory in Adelaide Austrailia . Your rims / wheels are now made in China/ Taiwan , Those Australian workers were probably making a liveable wage , Harley cannot have that, better to go with the slave labor . That takes our Harley's below 30% of USA made parts , it is a shame , Castalloy made world class rims . Remember a few years back that China was caught using scrap alloy to make US made car rims and they were crackig , but wait just a minute , China makes quality products, right ?

 

I've never had that happen with the stick on wheel weights...

If you don't want to have wheel weights, might want to check out Ride-On sealant and balancer.

https://www.ride-on.com/

Works on tubed or tubeless. If you do some searching on this site and others, you'll find a lot of positive reviews. Many swear by it...

 

On spoke wheels, I liked the weights that slid onto the spokes. Too bad that Harley quit using them on the laced wheels.

 

I used the weights that clamped on the spokes as well, I was introduced to them when stationed at Coronado.