Bought some new tires for my Road King Classic, Had the tires mounted and balanced at an independent shop. (I brought the wheels to them). Test rode the bike, all ok up to 85mph, did'nt feel it necessary to go any faster. When I got home, my wife found both the "stick on" weights used to balance the rear tire next to the driveway where I had washed of the blue coating on the whitewalls. Great I thought, now what should I do? I felt no vibrations, or discomfort, nor out of whack feeling while breaking in the tires for 160 miles on Saturday. Does the balancing of m/c tires matter very much? Or am I just lucky?

 

There are a lot of people that believe that you don't have to balance motorcycle wheels.

 

Yep. Balanceing matters. I don't understand why you weren't getting a vibration, especially at speed. I wonder if the weights came off after your test ride. The shop should stand behind their work and rebalance.
After rereading I see it was you rear tire. Firstly, from experience I can tell you if the weights are improperly mounted on the front tire you will feel it at speed. I would think that the rear tire will wear irregular if not balanced.

 

On my old 97 RK, when I repaced the rear tire the first time I did not balance it
as I read it was not that critical. Like you my max is 80 MPH, and the ride was
smooth. (to me) Then this summer I replace the rear again. But this time I used
the dyna beads (as I remember) with two bags of whatever was recomended.
I had the same result with both tires, as it was smooth from 0 to 80 MPH.
What did I learn from that? NOTHING !!!!! But it did cost MORE for the beads!

Having said that I always have the front tire balanced......Tenn.Vol.

 

Tyres are not perfect out of the mould and the maker marks on the bead where it is out of balance. On top of that your bare wheel may not be in perfect balance and it also has a valve in it (assuming you have tubeless tyres). So there are three components that can either conspire to be close to balance or far from it! A tubed wheel has a fourth source of imbalance.

I have every wheel (on bikes and cars) balanced. That makes for improved comfort while driving and reduces tyre wear.

 

Balancing is more noticeable on the fron than the rear. Years ago it seemed like nobody balanced the rear. Not sure why the weights came off. Possibly the wheels weren't cleaned before the weights were installed or the cleaner you used wasn't compatible with the glue on the weights.
I'd take it back to the shop and ask them to put new weights on or reattach the weights where they were. If you know where they went and the size of weights it shouldn't be a big deal.

 

How much weight was it? We build balancers and can tell you that you won't feel it on a MC. The best test is riding it, I can promise you if someone tells you that they can feel it I can point out someone that's full of schit.

Now it would be different on a car due to the fact of the width of the tire and wheel assembly. That width of the wheel assembly brings in dynamic in-balance something you won't feel on a MC tire and wheel because of the small width of the assembly.

 

small lead stick ons, looks like three 1/2 by1/2 squares that I saw him put on the wheel at the same place on each side. They fell off while washing the blue of the whitewalls. Not after riding. I noticed nothing out of the ordinary. Will I get weird tire wear? I hate to take the rear wheel off again for an unnoticable differance. Only used water to claen off blue on white walls. He used some carb cleaner on the wheel before he stuck them on. I don't care how or why they fell off. I only care if I'm gonna be in trouble from it. As I said I felt nothing abnormal up to 84mph.

 

Sounds like 3/4 ounces of weight. I wouldn't worry about it and no you will not get abnormal wear. To me it's a scam for anyone to be charging to balance MC tires.

 

Look for a small painted dot on the tire. Should be lined up with the valve stem. If it is and it feels smooth then you should be good. I just changed my rear tire myself and added some dyna beads for balance and it runs smooth as glass at any speed. Got the beads at Whitehorse. Those lead weights will keep falling off. Drop them beads in and ride it.