Hey - I'm going to replace the stock Dunlops on my '08 Nightster with the Metzler 880's. Motorcycle Superstore appears to have the best price for the stock size tires - $247 for both front/rear.

If I change tires myself, any need to bring the wheel down to a local shop and have it spin balanced? I wouldn't think of changing tires on any one of my cars without getting the wheel balanced, and I presume it's the same with bike tires.

 

For my bikes I've always mounted balanced my tires manually on a little rig I made up of a stand and a few extra wheel bearings I had laying around. I ussually cruise around 75-80mph on the freeway and never had any noticable vibration from the wheels. Most of the local shops by me want $30-50 for combined mounting/balancing per tire if you bring in the wheel off the bike, so I say screw that. I just can't bring myself to pay that much when I can get a flat $15 per tire rate on my car tires mounted and electronically balanced.

 

I agree with you. Harbor Freight has a bubble balancer that's fairly cheap. It may work on bike wheels. I'll take a look at it and see if it works.

 

Get some Dynabeads and forget about weights.
http://www.innovativebalancing.com/motorcycle.htm

 

I've heard good things about dynabeads. Sounds like a better way to go.

 

Don't know where you guys are, but if you happen to be in the Dallas area, Bates Cycle will mount and spin balance for $20 a tire. I had always done my own before, but I thought there price was right.

 

I suppose another advantage to the beads is that they would self adjust as the tire wears.

 

+1 - Ugly wheel weights are yesterday. Dynabeads work great and are the way to go IMO.

 

Dynabeads are the way to go.

 

I switched to the beads . Running them in 2 bikes now with no problems. Got the info on another forum ordered them from foxindustries.com for about $7.00lb. ordered (1.5mm zirconium silicate beads )