Rear tire wobble - with video

[moarcoffeeplz]

Hello everyone,

I purchases a horribly neglected ‘99 GL1500 SE and am going through it fixing and replacing everything as needed. I replaced the rear tire (which was very bald, I did not ride on it), added balancing beads, and took it for a ride. Once I got to about 45-50 mpg, I experienced a lot of side to side wobbling in the rear. I thought the back end was going to fly out from under me!

Once I got back home, I put the bike on the center stand and noticed the rear tire wobbles side to side. The rim didn’t appear to wobble at all. I took the wheel off and reset the tire beads on the rim with a little lube a few times, but the problem didn’t go away.

So I took the tire off and put the wheel back on. There is no noticeable wobble (see video). I put the tire back on, rotating it about 90 degrees from its previous position, and the wobble was still there (see video).



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I’ve tried pumping the air up to about 50 psi for a few days and leaving the tire in the sun before remounting it.

My main questions are:

Is the tire wobble in the video enough to make the bike as unstable as I described? and
Is it possible the tire is defective, or am I not mounting it properly?

Thanks and happy riding!

[Rambozo]

I've seen tires with more runout than that run with no problems. Since you have no history, you need to do a complete inspection. Wheel bearings, swingarm bushings, shocks, etc.
You can swap the tire back and see what happens. That would tell you if it is a tire defect.

[ct1500]

I would not accept that tire wobble on my car let alone a MC.

[Sassy]

In the vid it looks to me that the tire isn't beaded completely.
If you still have the old tire mount it or another on for comparison.

[FM-USA]

I had a few tires do exactly what yours is doing.
Sassy seen this also.

Look at your video 0:36 to end.
Where the tire meets the rim you'll see a faint line that should be showing even distance all the way around (both sides of the tire). That's an inspection line for full bead seating.
I'm seeing that line is wobbling, you can reseat the tire bead on one side of the bike.
Inspect for junk in the rim's bead area while the tire is off one side.

Petroleum products & rubber don't mix in the long term.
I've had no long term issues using silicone spray lube on an ornery bead (6 inch area).

FM
.

[moarcoffeeplz]

I've seen tires with more runout than that run with no problems. Since you have no history, you need to do a complete inspection. Wheel bearings, swingarm bushings, shocks, etc.
You can swap the tire back and see what happens. That would tell you if it is a tire defect.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll do some research and dig into it.

[moarcoffeeplz]

I would not accept that tire wobble on my car let alone a MC.

Same here. I need to determine if it's something I did wrong, something else, or an actual problem with the tire. I've seen a few threads with folks having problems with Shinko SR tires, which is what this one is.

[moarcoffeeplz]

In the vid it looks to me that the tire isn't beaded completely.
If you still have the old tire mount it or another on for comparison.

The old tire is pretty hard and brittle, definitely not ridable. I can still probably mount it, but I'm not sure how good of a gauge it will be given it's condition.

[moarcoffeeplz]

I had a few tires do exactly what yours is doing.
Sassy seen this also.

Look at your video 0:36 to end.
Where the tire meets the rim you'll see a faint line that should be showing even distance all the way around (both sides of the tire). That's an inspection line for full bead seating.
I'm seeing that line is wobbling, you can reseat the tire bead on one side of the bike.
Inspect for junk in the rim's bead area while the tire is off one side.

Petroleum products & rubber don't mix in the long term.
I've had no long term issues using silicone spray lube on an ornery bead (6 inch area).

FM
.

Thank you for taking a look. I'll have to wait till tomorrow to get a better look, but maybe I'll make another video.

I've reseated the beads probably 3-4 times using SlipTac tire lubricant, all with the same result. The most recent time I reseated the beads, I completely removed and remounted the tire and heard two distinct "pops" when adding air to the tire.

The rim's bead area is pretty clean with the exception of a little bit of gunk. I don't think it's enough to make the tire seat so badly, but I'll clean it when I take it off again.

[ct1500]

Easiest check to make is marking the high or low spot of runout on tire. Rotate tire 180 on wheel and reinflate, if the high or low spot on tire is the same it is a tire problem. The main concern with Shinko tires is poor tread life.

[FM-USA]

I too had nice double pops, about a 6-ish inch part of a bead still wasn't seated, as per rim line.

IF the bead was damaged a tire will act like yours.
I Gorilla'd one of my Moto-tires half century ago to get over the rim, heard a tear.

I did my Schwinn bicycle tire, 26s tire on a 26 rim. They're not the same diameter, as I found out later.

.

[hayo]

AVON!!! - and everything is clear.

[cbgray-ghost]

I had a wobble at higher speeds cause the the rear universal. Replaced and it went away. My old 88 GL1500.

[moarcoffeeplz]

Thanks everyone for the advice and suggestions. I finally had the chance to do a bit more testing. Here is what I did and what I found out. There’s another video linked at the end of this post.

I removed the wheel and inspected the rear wheel bearing. It appeared to be fine.

Then I used a chalk pen to mark spots where the rim and tire were moving out of place.
- Red chalk on the aluminum rim was a poor choice. It’s hard to see, but the red line goes all the way around the rim, indicating it is not bent or misaligned.
- The white chalk is the starting point, which identifies the bulge on each side of the tire.
- The blue and green chalk is after removing the tire, letting it sit in the sun for 20 minutes or so, remounting it, rotating the tire on the rim 90 degrees in each direction, and reseating the beads. I tried to estimate the middle of the tire bulge, which is very close to the original white marks.

This leads me to believe that the dramatic side to side wobbling a speed was due to a misshaped tire. I’m hoping I’ll be able to return or replace it. For what it’s worth, this is a Shinko SR series tire.



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[hayo]

AVON!!! - and everything is clear.

Shinko no better, what this tire does to GW on the white stripes on the roadway is indescribable.

[Snowmoer]

There is a reason we call the Gold Wing tires from them Stinkos. Very few people have had good luck with them. I could see the wobble before you even put the white marker on it.

I would switch over to a Dunlop or a Metzler. I had great luck and mileage out of both of them when I had my 88.