Front tire hop

[zlittle16]

I saw this covered in another posting but that was using beads in the tire. I replaced the dry rotted front tire on my 97 SE with a Elite 4, had it balanced and now I have a hop between 25-30 MPH. I was thinking out of balance but spinning the tire, it never stops in the same place like a heavy spot. The bike is 25 years old and it's sat on the front springs all this time; could the springs be screwed up or weak or should I pull the front and have it re- balanced?

[Greenwinger]

Wow, I was just coming here to ask the same question as I have the same problem with the same bike and the same front tire. Enquiring minds want to know.

[Andy Cote]

I have not used one of the E4 tires yet but have seen posts of these and other tires having a “hop” like you describe. It can happen if you leave it parked on side stand for a week or so. It can be out of round. It can be slightly off on the bead seating. You could have the guy that installed it check it again.

[bbrackett]

1988 GL1500 E4s about 10K on them, no tire hop, I run 32 front, 41 rear, no counter beads
have you ever checked your shock oil?

[Swagonmaster]

Realize that at speeds less than about 30-35 mph wheel weights don't matter, the wheel isnt spinning fast enough yet for an out of balance to show up, if you could feel an out of balance at that speed the bike would be undriveable going faster. If you are feeling a hop at that low a speed it is the tire or rim that is causing it. If the tire is new you might try letting the air out of the tire and reseat it as uneven bead seat is the most common reason for new tire out of round (where we are talking about a tire that hasn't had time to wear out of round). After that tire construction is the next most likely and while possible that is really rare in a name brand tire. And finally yes, cold tire flat spotting can happen but will go away after riding a bit and getting the tire warm.

[bbrackett]

now that I recall I bought a Front Tire for my 1200, that had a bump in it.. was fine when warmed up.. but yup..
could be defective tire where the tire comes together.. good luck.

[zlittle16]

I starred at that tire for a hour until I realized, it's mounted backwards.The rotation arrow is pointing counter clockwise. Looks like it's getting re-mounted and balanced. It took me 3 months to figure it out but I'm not inclined to pay for it again.

[WingAdmin]

I starred at that tire for a hour until I realized, it's mounted backwards.The rotation arrow is pointing counter clockwise. Looks like it's getting re-mounted and balanced. It took me 3 months to figure it out but I'm not inclined to pay for it again.

Been there, done that. I checked two, three times, to make sure the tire was going on the correct way. At the last minute, I looked at it one last time, and realized - "whoa, I'm actually doing it backwards! Good thing I caught it!" I then mounted the tire, which is no easy task.

I put the wheel back on the bike...looked at the tire...and saw the little arrow, pointing the wrong way.

I said some VERY bad words.

I pulled the wheel back off. De-mounted the tire. Re-mounted the tire the right way. Put the wheel back on.

[zlittle16]

There's still a little hop but it feels different. In another 1500 miles of going in the right direction it should cancel out the last 1500 and i can start at square 1 again.Well it's a good story anyway. I'll just live with it.

[Solo So Long]

The tread is "harmonized" for direction that it's supposed to go, meaning that the pattern is optimized for the best ride/least noise. Riding it the wrong direction probably made this worse by putting the wrong wear patterns in the tread, rounding the wrong edges and keeping the others sharp.

Riding it a while will wear the wear where the wear isn't where the wear is supposed to wear.

[Swagonmaster]

Does anyone think that this thread is getting sort of "wearing"?

[oilboy1162]

Just my two cents. My 2013 was doing the same thing after having full Traxxion install and new tires. Tried different “suggestions “ until I put a new from t tire on. Was told that the torquing sequence was not done properly and causing the problem. Mechanic who rebuilt the Traxxion front end (it was due)showed me why. Grabbed a handful of brake sitting still and bounced the front end lo and behold, you could feel the sticking points! He loosened the wheel bolts and axle bolts and retorqued in the proper sequence along with a good wheel set bounce before final tighten. Bounce gone!

[sledzil]

There can be multiple causes, many listed in separate reply's, but here are all the reasons I can come up with:

If the axle pinch bolts were not loosened then tightened after tightening the axle, the forks could be binding

Flat spotting, especially if its cool and/or the tire pressure is a little low

If your bike has the original fork springs and fork oil, its damping ability will be less than optimal ( soft )

IF the damping in the forks is soft, it would be harder to control bumps, out of round tires, an imbalance, or improper tire pressures ( high )

Flat spotting can be felt at any speed, but possibly worse at certain speeds due to harmonics. These do go away after a few miles. Is the tire mounted properly? Spin the tire and look at the tread from above. Does it move side to side. Viewed from the side, does it move up or down? Where the sidewall is against the rim, there is usually a line in the tire that should be evenly spaced from the rim all the way around on both sides. Remounting can solve these problems.

One other possibility, tire balance. I know it was balanced, but bear with me. If the tire is out of balance to an extent beyond the suspensions ability to dampen it, it will be felt. Every part has a harmonic frequency where vibrations will build upon themselves. How can it happen if the tire is balanced? This is something that I ran into. New tire was mounted, and put on an electronic spin balancer. As I later learned, electronic spin balancers are accurate to .1 to .25 oz ( 3 to 7 grams ).
When riding, I could feel a vibration. I brought it back, had it rebalanced, but still had vibration, no matter what they did, it still vibrated. I ended up using my static balancer. It is a shaft with cones that goes through the center of the rim. The shaft sits on 4 low friction bearings. Placing the tire in the balancer, it rotated til the heavy spot was low. Multiple attempts from different positions gave the same result. I removed the weight, let the tire stop and started taping weights to the rim. Once I was close, I started cutting the weights down. Eventually, rotating the tire to any position and releasing would result in virtually no movement. Most times I can do this in 10 min or less, tricky tires can take 20 min. I figure I can get within 1/2 a gram if I am patient.

The debate would be that static balancing only balances a tire in a vertical plane while an electronic balancer is supposed to take into account the off center balances due to the width of the tire. For example, if a tire is heavier to the outside, the machine will indicate to put the weight to the opposite side to counter the radial imbalance. My static balancer is unable to take this into account. I think that the ability of the static balancer to be so precise works better due to the smaller diameter and width of motorcyle tires. When changing rear tires, I usually start the bike and run it through the gears while on the lift ( yes I know, not the safest thing to do ). Shop balanced tires will often be bouncing around on the unloaded suspension by 30 to 40 mph, but feel ok on the road. My hand balanced tires can usually go 50 to 70 mph before showing vibration in the unloaded suspension.

I have also used Airsoft BB's in the tires. 1 oz of .2 gram bb's just poured into the tires. It takes up to 30mph to get the bb's to settle into position and balance the tire, but they stay in position down to 10 mph. They seem to do a good job, and are great for those emergency road side tire changes.

Could a careful hand balance solve your problem? I dont know, if you have someone that can do it, its worth a try. I'm sure there are people who would disagree on hand balancing vs machine, but in my experience, hand balancing m/c tires works best.

[Farmboy57]

Add me to the tire hop list with Dunlop E4 tire. Could it have anything to do with its suitability for tube or tubeless applications? Mine is tubeless. First time I've had any issue (besides ever-present cupping) with any make front tire on a1500. Feels like an old tire lol.