yellow dot on tire and rim

[fredkb_imp]

This topic may have been discussed, if so, my apologies. When I bought my cb1100 new, there was a yellow dot on both wheel rims. There was also a yellow dot on my bridgestone tires that was lined up with the yellow dot on each rim. When I had my front tire replaced with the oem bridgestone tire, it also had a yellow dot. However, the dealership mounted the tire with the yellow dot 180° from the dot on the rim. They also added 3 stick on weights to balance tire. Should they have aligned the yellow dots like they were when new, would the tire have been better balanced and not needed the stick on weights?
I am now getting rear tire mounted. Shoud I have the dealership make sure to align yellow dots on rim and tire?
Picture of front tire and rim when new.


Picture of rear tire and wheel when new

I thought I heard somewhere that Honda puts a yellow dot on the heaviest part of rim Bridgestone puts a yellow dot on the lightest side of tire. By aligning the yellow dots, the tire and wheel cancel each other out, therefore making wheel more balanced and needing few, if any stick on weights to balance. Does any one know if I am right or wrong. There were no weights on either rim when new. Thanks.

[the Ferret]

From HondaTech ( same for motorcycles I understand)

"Just as it's very hard to make a tire or wheel that's perfectly round, it is also very difficult to make tires and wheels that are perfectly in balance.
You can help minimize the amount of weight needed to balance a tire and wheel assembly by mounting the tire so that its light balance point is matched up with the wheel's heavy balance point.
All new Bridgestone truck and bus radials are factory- marked with a yellow dot at the light balance point. Generally, the heavy balance point of a wheel is at the location of the valve stem. This is true regardless of whether the wheel is steel or aluminum."

http://honda-tech.com/wheel-tire-56/f-y-...s-3167869/

[CA200_imp]

Honda won't tell you what that dot on the rim is for, but I am sure it
is a balance dot. It wears off as the years go by. If you notice it is most of the time near the valve stem. Even most of the owners manuals tell you to mount the tire balance dot by the stem. Most times when I was mounting tires I would mount the tire balance dot by the valve stem. There have been times I have tried to remount a tire 180 degrees from the balance dot to get a better result.
Most times it was with HD Dunlop tires made in the US. Many times I would run into a HD tire that wanted to much weight(80- 100grams)
Some shops just kept adding weight. When we were in biss. I would
just mount another one. We always had at least 6 of every HD tire in stock. I would send the other one back. Now I can't do that when people bring me tires to mount.
Michelin and Avon do not put balance dots on their tires, they say theirs are better and don't need balance dots. I have proven this wrong by remounting many of their tires 180 degrees to get a better
result. I don't miss standing over the tire machine 8-10 hours a day.
Now I don't mind it at all, I mounted a 100 tires last year and it kept me off the streets

[Motogeezer1949_imp]

IMO, pretty much moot. If it's balanced, it's good

[Rocky_imp]

I didn't pay any attention to this issue until I saw this tread.
Both of the dots on my Bridgestone's are perfectly aligned with the dots on the rim.

[Deanohh_imp]

Shoud I have the dealership make sure to align yellow dots on rim and tire?"

They should mount the tire where it's at the best balance. The dots are a rough guide but not always work right.

When new, my rear dots lined up perfect but still had 8 big balance weights at the same place as the dots. So probably the heaviest place on the tire should have been there, if the factory would have taken the time to do it, which would be 180 deg apart for the dots. To minimize use of balance weights. ..........or the tire could be borderline to start with.

[CA200_imp]

Most stick on weights come in 5gram or 7gram(1/4 oz.) size. Anything over 60g is a lot for our type of rim. Most places won't break the bead
to rotate it 180 degrees to get a better result but I used to do it about 10% of the time. Any time you started to add 80-100g and can't make it work I considered the tire defective.

[Mike Bee_imp]

My 2013 CB doesn't have the yellow dots.

[the Ferret]

My 2014 dlx has one on the left rear and rim and tire dot are together, no dots I can find on the front rim or tire either side.

[Kai Ju_imp]

The yellow dots were there to align original fitment of the tires with the wheel to minimize the amount of wheel weights.
Subsequent replacements are to be installed in the conventional fashion, i.e. the dot on the tire is to be aligned with the valve stem and the wheel is to be balanced as normal.