[laj48]

I use dynabeads and feel they are probable as effective as Centramatics At least as far as not having to mount weights and constant balancing for tire life. I checked web sight and still have questions on installing. Do you have to spread fork tubes or have the caliper rotor alignment affected? Does the rear balancer space your rear wheel to the left? I want to make up my mind while holiday sales are going on.

 

[laen]

For the rear tire-put the bike on the centerstand. take off the 5 lug nuts. Pull the tire out from the bolts letting it rest to the left. The wheel DOES NOT NEED TO BE REMOVED OR PULLED OUT FROM THE BIKE. For the rear there is room to slide the centramatic disc over the bolts. The flat side goes on to the right. Put the rear tire back on and torque bolts to 80 lbs.

For the front loosen the pinch bolts take off front fender. Leave bike on center stand. Jack front wheel up 1/2". No jack?Have someone sit on bike thus elevating front tire.Loosed right axle bolt-pull out on left side. Loosen both side calipers-let dangle or support. Take off rotor one side at a time and put centranatic disc on each side-smooth flat side should face outside of wheel. Reassemble. Should take 50 minutes:lol:

 

[SteveU]

I use dynabeads and feel they are probable as effective as Centramatics At least as far as not having to mount weights and constant balancing for tire life. I checked web sight and still have questions on installing. Do you have to spread fork tubes or have the caliper rotor alignment affected? Does the rear balancer space your rear wheel to the left? I want to make up my mind while holiday sales are going on.

I didn't have to spread my for tubes or notice anything different about how the rotors align into the calipers. Once you have the front ones installed I put the wheel back on like normal being sure to bounce the front end before tightening the pinch bolts. Rear one has to be removed before you can get the wheel out and left out until after you get the wheel back up into the wheel well then put back on right before replacing the wheel on the studs. They do make a big difference in smoothness & handling, when you first get them on be aware of how fast you are going until you get used to them so you don't get any 'performance awards'.

 

[Jeff R]

The thickness is a little thicker than business card i think. You won't see any difference mounting them. I got them on the semi's and bike's they are a very well made product. Big difference on everthing we've mounted them on.

 

[31261]

Try em, you will like them.

They are much better than the beads. But no one knows this till they try them.

 

[Big Galoot]

Good tips. These are on my short list.

 

[rhughes]

Try em, you will like them.

They are much better than the beads. But no one knows this till they try them.

:agree::agree: they are nothing like dyna beads, the balancers work great at any speed. i was skeptic but after i seen Kit's comments a while back i was convinced, never regreted spending the money, next to the ct, best thing i have done to my wing

 

[Marvino]

centramatic balancer question

Centramatics used to be made from 20 guage steel - which is .953mm thick. I don't know if the newer models or stainless steel are thinner. But putting on the Centramatics behind the rotors - makes each front rotor disc "push" outward by the thickness of the Centramatic - or .953mm on each side.

Before I put on my Centramatics, I had the .7mm gap between the outside left rotor and the outside edge of the brake caliper bracket - and no more. When I originally installed, the left side rotor was tight against the outside edge of the caliper bracket - thus the front wheel could not turn without damage to the brake rotor (it would grind against the fixed caliper bracket). The right side had more space to begin with and was fine.

I orginially tried to spread the forks by using a wood 2 x 4 to tap between the forks and spread them - then tightened down the fork brace to keep the spread. Reinstalled the tire and went on a 2500 road trip. Bad idea. The bike kept drifting to the right and had a significant lean. When I returned home, I also noticed significant wear on the left side of the front tire (because of the lean and drift).

Read several posts about the Centramatics, and Buckhorn seemed to have the best answer. He said to use a Dremel and "grind" down the outside edge of the left caliper bracket. So I removed approx. 1mm of material from the caliper bracket, reinstalled the Centramatics, used the Honda feeler guage to make sure that I have the required .7mm gap - which I did, and everything is now fine.

I think Fred Harmon has indicated that the new Honda service manual no longer suggests / requires the .7mm gap. I have a 2007, and the Honda manual states that the .7mm gap is required. Honda also provided a .7mm feeler gauge as part of the GL1800 tool kit to measure that gap. So I can't speak if 2008 - later models have a "wider" caliper bracket gap where the rotor disc "floats" thru.

So if you're installing, and notice very little gap, keep in mind Buckhorn's suggestion.