My Shinko Wobbles

[Radioguylogs]

Based on positive feedback from respected members of the forum, I decided to buy a set of Shinko 712's for the Bagger Project.

The back tire mounted and balanced quite nicely.

I'm having trouble with the front tire. It has an off-center wobble.

During the process of mounting it, I noticed the reference rib for centering the tire on the rim was not quite right. I removed the valve stem and broke the bead, then bopped it around the perimeter with a rubber mallet. When I re-inflated it. the bead seemed quite well-centered on the rim, so I went ahead and balanced it.

When I was done, I can see the tire has a wobble, mostly from side-to-side. It seems to move off-center about 3/16" on the edge of the tread, but less in the middle. Roundness seems OK.

I have mounted several tires before and never noticed this wobble. Although I did have more effort to get a Michelin tire bead centered on the rim on one of the Triples.

Is it possible the tire has been stored in a position where it needs to be run to return to the correct shape?

Or the tire has a manufacturing defect?

Or maybe I need to try harder to make sure the tire bead is centered the rim? (It's pretty good right now.)

Or maybe this is normal and not to worry about it?

Comments and experience are appreciated.

[bikerphil]

I have had to send a couple Shinkos back due to out of roundness over the last 5 years. Good vendors will exchange them and pay for shipping no questions asked.

[Prisoner6]

I have had to send a couple Shinkos back due to out of roundness over the last 5 years. Good vendors will exchange them and pay for shipping no questions asked.

Yeah, Mike ...

Based on your post (with everything you did to mount/balance the tire correctly), it does sound like a quality control issue with the tire.

[madmax-im]

I too had issues with a front shinko 712...from brnd new there was always this vibration at cruising speeds...turned out to be the tire was out of round...Shinkos are cheap...Pirelli on front now and its all riding smooth again... It seems.ro.me.rhat the number of defective front tires from Shinko is high in frequency..while i've not.had a problem with the rear 712s there wil never be another Shinko up front...YMMV

[IanDMacDonald]

Dang, hopefully that stays with the 712's, as I'm cheaping out, and buying Shinko Raven's for the Triump soon.

[Radioguylogs]

Thanks

Appreciate the input so far.

Everyone is confirming what I was thinking- that I will need to return the tire to Bike Bandit.

So, I pulled the sticker back out of the trash so I could make it look like new- since it hasn't been ridden.

I bought the tires a couple of months ago....I hope that's not a problem.

Too bad I have to go through the effort.

[BA80]

I run the 712 on the front, have for a while. About ever 3rd one I get a tire that simply refuses to balance. I've never sent one back though, I just use it anyway.

No tire you get is going to be perfect. The one I have on there now, just installed it about a month ago, has runout as you describe but is unnoticeable riding. This tire is perfectly balanced also.

[Radioguylogs]

Quandry

Greg:

Thanks for adding you experience.

That's some of the feedback I was seeking. I know you ride a lot of highway miles.

Mine balanced perfectly. It's fairly round. Its just not straight.

I wondered if it would be noticeable.

After hearing from others, I was thinking to send it back,...but one of my problems is that I balanced it before I changed the wheel bearings. I wanted to balance it with the old free-spinning bearings. Now I have new stiff bearings, and it will harder to get that perfect balance if I change the tire again.

Last night I was sure I should send it back. Now I'm thinking again.Tough call for me.

I think I'll go home after work and spin the front tires on my other three bikes before I decide.

[BA80]

I've also noticed that these front rims aren't always perfectly straight either. The one I have on my bike now has at least 1/8" lateral runout. When I noticed it I checked 2 others and they were pretty close to the same so, I just put this one on and I've noticed no wobble on up to 110mph.

[Radioguylogs]

Some run-out

I have a small amount of run-out on the rim - maybe around 1/16".

I was thinking about that too.

[bikerphil]

I will usually run the front tire about 50 miles at all different speeds and if there is a shimmy I don't like, then I will send it back. I can stand up and lean forward and look over the front fender when riding to see if the tire is spinning true. Like Greg said, sometimes there will be a visible wobble but there will be no noticeable shimmy.