not round tire!

finally bought myself new tires. I got Heidenau K60's.

problem is, I think the front tire isn't perfectly round. I have no tools to check it, but it looks like the rim is still straight (tested by just looking down at various speeds), however the rubber is noticeably out of shape by spinning it even by hand. gives nasty wobbles at low speeds, and a bit shaky at over 60 mph. I've had it on for almost a week now, and put about 300 km on it.

what should I do about this? is it reasonable to assume it'll adjust itself (ie become round) with time or.....??

Should I inflate it to the max rated pressure (think it says 42 psi on the rubber) and leave it sitting for a few days??

or just go back to the mechanic that mounted them for me?

just looking for some suggestions... doesn't feel very confidence inspiring riding like this

One thing that you could check is to make sure that the bead is seated on the rim correctly. There is usually a mold line that you can follow around the rim to make sure that it is uniformly seated. This could make the tire wobble around.

or there could be a weird wrinkle in the tube...try pulling the valve core and draining all the air out and filling it back up to spec a time or two

I've got the Haidenau's on mine as well. Never had any trouble with them so far. +1 on what Duane said...more times than not it's a misalignment ion the rim and it didn't seat properly. If everything looks seated, I'd take it back to the tire dude and show him the hoop you can physically see. I wouldn't trust something like that either.

I've got the same issue with the pilot power on the front. It's not visible, only seems to be an issue at 37-40 mph.

I've double checked the mold line and it's good on both sides so I'm thinking the wrinkled tube theory is plausible.

I'll pull it loose, deflate, bust the bead on both sides, relube, and reinflate this weekend and see if it helps.

*edit* I wasn't entirely sober last time I checked the mold line I guess... 3K miles with a partially seated bead on both sidewalls. I broke the bead yesterday, lubed the edges, and inflated to 50 psi. Seated solid all around this time. Haven't ridden yet to verify the hop is gone.

I am running the Bridgestone battlax 090 front. Between 70-80kph it hops. Other then that its good.

my tire isn't round on the sides. so it doesn't hop, but wobbles.

I am now running them both at 35 psi, and they run perfectly fine, because they are so pumped up that they only contact in the middle. (the uneven-ness is on the side of the tire)

however 35 psi sounds ridiculously high for such a light bike. probably will result in less grip and bad wear.


shewolf, what pressure are you running your heidenau's at?? I think you got the scouts, I got the normal K60 though.

I used to run my TW at around 17-22 psi on tarmac.... running the k60 at that pressure makes the wobble at the front quite bad.

think I really should visit the mechanic... though if its just a slightly deformed tire (which is my case), I don't see what he could do (unless he would put new ones on for free which I find very unlikely!)