Lasertec wobbles

[Bakeoff]

After building my bike...

...I've finally put about 500 miles on it. From the get go I knew the front wheel had a little side to side run out. Probably a 1/16". so, I ignored the fact that the front had a little shake. While on a ride with some friends a couple weeks ago, one of the guys mentioned my back wheel looked completely bent. When I got home I checked the rear wheel for run out. It's about as true as you can get a spoked wheel. A paper's width of run out. But the tire is all sorts of fucked with about 3/16" of wobble to it, as if the tire mold was completely messed up. I'm starting to think the front is more affected from the tire than the wheel run out as well, but I'll be truing up the wheel to verify.

Is anyone else having issues with Lasertecs? Is there anything better I can throw on there?

 

[Bert Jan]

I guess every tire without that problem would be better

wow, that's nasty. Did you mount the tires yourself and if so, wich method did you use? Unlikely, but you could have put the inner tire between the tire and rim or you could have damaged the tire bead iron wire.
If a bikeshop mounted them, they would have checked that as they would put weights on the rim to balance it. Then it would have been noticed.

I'm pretty sure you could get a refund when it's a factory fault.

I would not ride it anymore as you can't look inside the tire and something could be about to break. Take care with that!

 

[Flugtechnik]

I have the same problem with my cheng shins. I plan on replacing them as soon as possible.


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[Bakeoff]

We all know these wheels make tire mounting a pain in the ass since they don't have a drop center. I let a local shop do it and shot the shit with the guy while he was working. If I'd had access to a tire machine, I would have done it myself. The bead wasn't damaged from my view (5ft away) and I haven't had any issues with inflation (tires have been mounted about a year while I was working on the rest of the bike).

At this point the tires have been in my possession a little over a year. Receipt is long gone. And with a handful of miles on them, I doubt they'd do anything for me.

I really doubt there's anything wrong with the tires aside from the mold. While searching to see if anyone else was having these problems, I came across a lot of issues with Triumphs that use them as the stock tire. Lots of owners complaining that their bikes had a wobble, straight from the dealership, that was fixed with a replacement tire.

 

[Bert Jan]

Hmm ok. i see what you mean. I guess replacing them with a quality brand is the only way then.

 

[Big R]

Are you certain the tire is beaded properly in the rim? Sometimes the tire can "catch" on a dry spot when it's inflated, causing a low spot in the bead.

 

[Bakeoff]

I can't be certain without checking, but I seem to remember checking that the tire was even all the way around the rim. I'm have to double check and remount if needed. I'll let you guys know. Thanks for the reminder!

 

[Bakeoff]

No one ever follows up on posts like this, so the next guy with the same issue doesn't get help. So, here's what I found:

The rear wheel had a little run out on it. Not out of round, just not true. So, I trued that up (all the years of slamming BMX bikes and lacing my own wheels made it a piece of cake) and got it within 1/32". Can't complain for my first try.

The front wheel is the one I knew was out of true. Worked on the sucker for about 20 minutes and got it almost as straight as the rear. I might play with it more, but I was headed to a bike show the next day (where I took best Japanese bike!)

Results: the bike doesn't wiggle down the road anymore. No hands on the bars still gets a tiny...I can't even call it a wiggle cause that sounds too violent. Its just a little sway. All in all, I'm happy and totally have to eat my words about the tires. It handles so well I might throw on the leathers and see how dragging a knee on this thing feels.