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I've had a balance problem with my Bridgestone Potenza
ReE730s since rotating them. I took tham back to the
dealer who re-balanced and that improved things but I
still had vibrations. I found a local shop that has a
more sophisticated balancing system (a Hunter GSP 9700).
Here is the web site for the equipment used to balance:
http://www.gsp9700.com/
The interesting thing is you can use the site to find
shops that have this eqipment.
The GSP 9700 can place a load on the tire (to simulate
driving conditions) and when they did this they found
my left front tire is pushing pack at a force of 27 lbs
every time it rotates. This probably indicates a variation
in sidewall strength at some point in the tire (very rare
for Bridgestone's to have problems like this the shop
owner noted). He also added that, in general, they
don't want to see more then 6 lbs of force measured.
Also, the tire is balanced when there is no load on the
tire (so the original shop that sold me the tires was
probably balancing them as well as they could using
their equipment).
At this point they recommend I replace the tire or rotate
it to the back and keep it there. The balance is pretty
good now and I only notice the slight problem since I know
to look for it. The other choice is to dismount the tire
and try to position it on the wheel taking into account
the wheel's balance. Apparently you can match up tires
and wheels to reduce vibration this way.
I'll probably replace the tire after I see if the shop where
I purchased it from will replace it (I'm thinking there eyes
are going to glaze over when I tell them my story).
So, if you are having tires mounted you might want to
check the web site listed above and find someone to do it
that has good balancing eqipment.
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