michellin balance dots

[joecoolsuncle]

so, time for a new rear tire. amazon had commander 2 tires ( 150/90/15) for my gl1200A on blowout for $74. i suspected they were blems, old, or old blems. fedex brought the tire yeasterday as i was removing half the bike and i inspected the tire quickly to make sure i didnt have to send it back.
right size? check.
date code, check.......jan 6 of 2019.......acceptable but likely the reason for the clearance.
what i didnt notice until later was the lack of balance dots. no markings whatsoever, no dots, no red or orange , yellow, white blue. notta nuthin.
question is should i believe those who have posted on the nets that michellin is so good that they dont need balance dots?
thanks

[Rambozo]

I wouldn't worry about it. Not all tires have balance dots, and for that matter not all bike wheels do, either. When I spun my 1500 front wheel without a tire it was damn near perfectly balanced. So any tire dots were a moot point. As long as the whole rotating assembly is balanced you are good to go. Aligning the heavy spot of the tire to the light spot of the wheel can reduce the amount of weight needed, but for these size wheels and tires it's not much difference best to worst.

[offcenter]

I run commander IIs on my front wheel.
I've never seen any sort of balance dot on any of them.
I use a couple of ounces of balance beads in the tire
and I've never had any balance problems.

[joecoolsuncle]

thanks for the replies. futher research looks like michelin just doesnt put the dots on their tires. reckon they are saying their tires are perfect ! lol.

[GLRT]

There is no such thing as balancing dots. There are inspection markers . Yellow and red but they have nothing to do with balancing

[Rambozo]

You can get all the details in TMC's "RP243 Tire and Wheel Match Mounting Markings".
But in a nutshell, the yellow dot is the light spot of the tire while the red is the highest radial runout and radial force variation.
Typically, only commercial wheels have match markings anymore.

[GLRT]

Dots not true

......

[joecoolsuncle]

yellow dot to the valve stem. since the advent of paint dots! its a starting point, but is the best starting point. iy you ever balanced tire/wheel combo on a static balancer, you may form a different opinion.

[GLRT]

Best practice is scrub off all dots as they are only inspection markers and have nothing to do with balancing as noted. The rim is perfectly balanced with or without the stem installed. It doesn't matter what one believes the dots are for it makes absolutely no difference where the dots go as the rim is concentric. I actually did a video on why dots don't matter.

[GLRT]

OK here is just a injection of logic. I hope this is helpful



   Never miss a video: Subscribe to the GoldwingDocs YouTube channel today!

[joecoolsuncle]

OK here is just a injection of logic. I hope this is helpful



   Never miss a video: Subscribe to the GoldwingDocs YouTube channel today!

okayyyyy. so that rim is perfectly balanced? sure. uh huh. so we add a tire. now the tire is perfectly balanced. all good . right? i guess those who make tire balanncers, those who balance tires, those who tell us balance beads are requires, even those who make a loving balancing cranks and shafts are all rippoffs and idiots. some internet jujitsu and wahla! no need to balance tires anymore!

[GLRT]

I do believe you missed the entire point of the video. Nowhere did i say you should not balance the wheel once a tire is installed. The point is the dots are meaningless as all one piece wheels are true, round and on balance. It makes no difference how the tire is positioned on the rim.