Oh, well, I balanced mine with the pulley. It makes sense to do so since it is part of the rotating assembly and will therefore affect balance. Hmmm... I wonder if I couldn't have used fewer weights by rotating the pulley and using it's natural imbalances to my advantage. Oh, well... too late now.
I got the tire on and went for a ride.
So far, I am satisfied with the setup. The change in gearing from the 140/90 seems quite significant compared to that old 140/80 I took off. Now the engine bears down and takes it like a man
instead of just winding up. There may indeed be a loss of acceleration. I guess the tradeoff is alright. In fifth gear, I seem to run out of throttle a little sooner at highway speeds. Of course, the speedo is behaving differently, so...
Clutch slipping under acceleration in 2nd seems more likely. Pulling out going uphill is more challenging, but then, they dumped fresh gravel lately, so maybe it's just the road's fault the thing tried to slide out from under me.
It took 70 grams, which is well over 2 ounces. That's quite a bit. It was still
slightly off balance, but I reckon it's good enough. If I hadn't started truing the wheel partway into the balancing job, and if I had been better and more precise at hand balancing, I probably could have used a little less weight. I got the rear wheel acceptably true and pretty well balanced. That new $10 spoke wrench got some use today.
A good deal.
Stew, I just got to use the shim you sent me. I don't think it took out all the pulley misalignment, but I'd like to thank you.
We'll see how much it helps when I get the alignment fine tuned. I got it roughly. I can't say it's perfect yet.
I think I may know what some of the problem with the front wheel is. It's a little out of balance and out of true, both off center and laterally. I think I managed to get the rear wheel a little more true than the front. (It was probably a little better anyway. Who knows.)
So far the new tire is more weebly than the other one. I take it that has to do with it's roundness as opposed to being flat.
On the gravel, it felt a little funny. It seems that, with a round tire, the loose gravel levers the bike around, leaning and pushing the bike to and fro, affecting steering. On the other hand, the road surface is a little different.
On asphalt, it feels pretty good. On dirt, the ride is pretty good, perhaps a little better than the old one for the psi. After scrubbing them some, the tire feels rather soft and sticky. The old one could get sticky somewhat after running it awhile, but it was still hard. Big difference to the feel of the hands. the tire also flexes to the hand a bit. That old Metzler was hard as rock. It had a rough ride too. It was pretty good if you had less than 35 pounds in it, but a few pounds more, and it turns into a piece of concrete.
I can say that it has already made a funny wear pattern on one side. I only noticed it after the last leg of my test run. Maybe it had something to do with spinning gravel.
Hard to describe it... cobwebs??? Anyone have a clue what I'm trying to describe? I hope I don't wear it out before 3k miles.
Maybe I should have broken it in easier. Or maybe I'm worrying about nothing. That soft rubber sure is fragile.
For my uses, I'm not sure I'll need much taller gearing. There's a difference between a 150 lb flatlander and a 200+lb hillclimber. I still like to be able to get up and go. I might try a little higher gearing with the chain drive, but I can't say I need it. This setup gives a good balance.
So far I don't have any rubbing problems, although it's pretty tight in there. The bike looks more like a bike now than a chopper with its stance higher. I like being able to lean without as much risk of scraping things. Scraping things causes me to panic.
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