I just got a set of Maxxis Bighorn Radial tires mounted up today and am getting a fairly bad handle bar shimmy at 20 mph plus on smooth dirt and pavement. I looked the tires over real well and inflated all to 36 psi to make sure the beads were seated evenly. All beads are even and I lowered the pressure back to 5 psi. The tires look to be round to within about 1/4" and have a side to side run out of about 1/4" also. I had the tires mounted mounted on two brand new stock rims (E-bay) and my original (in good shape) rear rims. I also have a complete set of brand new OEM dunlps and OEM rims which I put back on and get no shimmy.

Any one else had problems running smooth with the bighorns?

 

hey tonerpuke, I just bought the same tires but had them mounted on C-series 5 ITP rims.I too am feeling a slight wobble at 35 mph. The good news is Maxxis is aware of this per the phone call I had with them.Call Tommy Miller @ 1-770-263-9889 and tell him of your problem. He told me that in June when the new tires come out that will be properly balanced,they will make arrangements with the person you bought them from and send us the new tires for free. Hopefully he will tell you the same thing.Good luck.

 

I also have a set of Maxxis Bighorn Radials mounted on stock rims. They were so far out of balance that the handle bar shimmy was intolerable. I did have them spin balanced with minor improvement. I just talked with Tommy Miller at Maxxis tech support and was told that I would have to send the tires back to the dealer that I purchased from (ATV North). However new replacements will not be available until sometime in June. Maxxis really messed up on this one. They had an excellent reputation with the original bias-ply Bighorns.

 

I just spoke with Tommy Miller at Maxxis tech support (Marietta Ga). He told me basically the same thing. New tires will be available mid June and to contact my dealer I purchased them from. All he wanted from me was my name and phone number. I called the dealer I purchased them from (Vescos in Brigham City Utah) and told him about the balance problem and that I would need him to exchange them out. The problem in this whole mess is that there is no system to insure that we get the new version of the tires. All I have at this point is to wait about a month and check back, then contact everyone all over again. I also had to pay $14 per tire for mounting that the dealer will not be happy about eating.

 

I took mine out last night on the road and have the same problem. This word needs to be spread around so none of our fellow riders get stuck with them. I also talked to tommy miller at Maxxis tech support he also told me that they know some of the tires are bad, (Why would they make us go through all this then) and he said go through my dealer, not sure who's is going to pay for this extra stuff.

 

I had a lot of problem finding the tires locally. I ended up ordering them through a Yamaha dealer about 25 miles away. He didn't normally carry these tires and I asked him to do it for me so he isn't all that motivated to help since I am the one that requested this specific tire. I paid $14 per tire for mounting and then had the fronts re-mounted on different rims thinking I may have a bad front rim. After seeing the stock rims without tires mounted to them, I don't think they are strong enough to handle the extra weight of the bighorns. I am looking into getting some C series rims in black to mount up the new tires when they "are available". At this point, it looks to be a big financial outlay. ($340 for the tires, $56 to mount them, $20 to remount the fronts to different rims + about $325 for new rims. I was also not happy with the Yamaha Dealers ability to mount the tires without rim scratches and damage. The last thing I want to do is to spend another $300+ for new rims and get them damaged right out of the box.

At this point the dunlops didn't look that bad did they?

 

I received an e-mail from Harry Trip today instructing me to contact Tommy Miller regarding what to do. Problem is that right now they can't do anything. Counting me, there are three people in this string that are having problems with severe out of balance and I assume we all have the 25" tires. In speaking with Tommy, he only stated he has received several complaints about this issue and took my name and phone number. The big problem for me sending the tires anywhere is the mounting charges. I am having to Pay $14 per tire each time they are mounted or de-mounted. Sending them back to Maxxis will neccessitate me having them de-mounted before being sent back and then new tires being re-mounted again. I would be in bad shape if I didn't have any other quads or tires I could use in the mean time. I appreciate your help on this and I will probably call Harry Tripp tomorrow to discuss also.

I received a reply from another thread in trying to located a set of C-series rims in black and that you could provide them. Is that true? If so, I would love to return the Bighorns to Maxxis, get a refund through the dealer or Maxxis and buy a complete set of Bighorns (When the new ones are available in June) mounted on black C-series rims for a Prairie 650. Are you the person I should contact?

 

I think the tire guy pulled his coment out, I thought he put a letter in here, maybe he was wrong with what he said, I was asked to ride mine for a while and see if they will round out, they might be deformed from shipping I was told, I will ride untill I get a call from tommy telling me they have new ones in stock I will try and send the tires and rims and let sombody ealse pay for dimounting and remounting.

 

Dealers probably don't want customers to return the tires to the dealers because then they have to pay the shipping bill to return all the tires back to the manufacturer. That my guess.

 

The dealer (won't mention his name since it might get the post removed) did not remove the post where he said not to send them to the dealers. Apparently the mods here banned them for mentioning they are a dealer or something, which is idiotic since they were not trying to sell anything. Anyway, I spoke to them and they said Maxxis is not admitting there is a widespread problem. The reason they said not to send them back to them at the dealer is that they can not make the ok on the warranty so they will have to still be shipped back to Maxxis I guess, and it makes no sense to ship them to the dealer since they can't do anything with them. My problem went away after I rode them awhile, but my shake was never really bad either, so I am not sure if we are feeling the same thing.