Wheel balancing

[John Roberts]

My local tyre man doesn't have the proper equipment to balance my airhead wheels, what he did the last time was to use some old stuff he still had i.e. a steel wire from the roof and some bodged adaptors to hang the wheel plus tyre horizontally and in all fairness he did do a very good job eventually.

Following on from my recent thread http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2771659#post2771659 I'll be getting my tyres elsewhere in future and fitting them myself so I'll have to make something up like my tyre man has and balance my own tyres/wheels. I'm thinking of making something that will use the axle spindle in the hub with an adaptor of some sort which I can make in the lathe screwed onto its nose to attach the steel cable dangling from the roof of the garage. I'm not interested in making the more usual rig using four ball races in a frame because it would take up too much room in my garage- I'm not throwing out any more sh*t (sorry- I meant treasures ) from my garage to make room.

Does anybody have any tips regarding home balancing? What glue do you use to stick balancing weights on the rim? I don't suppose it will have to be particularly strong to stop them flying off, but I don't want it to make a mess of the paint when I take the weight off when I rebalance for a new tyre some time. My bike, an '82 R100RS has cast wheels.


PS Just came across this:http://www.largiader.com/balancer/ (Google is our friend )

 

[Redboots]

Does anybody have any tips regarding home balancing?

What about:

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John

 

[VAL. H.]

What about:

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John

+1 for these I've used them and they definately seem to work.

I haven't used them in tubless tyres though. The only reason for this being that I can plug a punctured tubless tyre very easily. But with Ballencing beads inside they will stick to the repair creating a massive inballence


Val.

 

[MikeP]

I do my own tyre changes and balancing, I use an Abba wheel balancer. The weights you can buy from many suppliers, they are self-adhesive.

 

[Redboots]

You can also buy spoke weights. They just clamp round the spoke.
Some of the double-sided tape weights can be a pain to get off completely.

John

 

[Voyager]

+1 for these I've used them and they definately seem to work.

I haven't used them in tubless tyres though. The only reason for this being that I can plug a punctured tubless tyre very easily. But with Ballencing beads inside they will stick to the repair creating a massive inballence


Val.

No use if you run with 'Punctureseal' installed, either

Bob.

 

[borderer]

Built in wheel balancer(front only)= remove brake caliper lift wheel off ground check that it spins free if not either use a thinner temporary spindle or replace your bearings
spin wheel mark lowest point check a couple of times stick on a weight and you can get close enough this way

 

[colint]

Built in wheel balancer(front only)= remove brake caliper lift wheel off ground check that it spins free if not either use a thinner temporary spindle or replace your bearings
spin wheel mark lowest point check a couple of times stick on a weight and you can get close enough this way

+1 I do this on the F800GS as well, have done 46,000 without the rear wheel balanced and not noticed any difference, to have the rear wheel balance is not that important in my opinion so I don't bother (subject to the usual disclaimers if you follow this advice)

 

[(RIP) pastyman]

I agree with the above, especially with knoberly's. Even with the RT, put new tyres on, not balanced, will see how it goes, if I have a prob then I will balance them. So far so good.

 

[fayeslane]

Unbalanced wheels may reduce tyre life significantly.

 

[Jeremy Wilton]

Not being silly.... but when it comes to balancing a front tyre..why not just spin it on the centre stand .... find the heavy spot and add a weight at tother side...or am I missing something???

 

[Kenny]

I agree with the above, especially with knoberly's. Even with the RT, put new tyres on, not balanced, will see how it goes, if I have a prob then I will balance them. So far so good.

Agreed, never needed to balance a knobbly on a rear airhead

If I had to, I'd gently part tap in a wheel bearing and balance it on that

 

[Rob Farmer]

I have a horizontal balancer I picked up cheap on Ebay. It was new old stock, obviously somebody made them and couldn't find a market for them, it Works a treat and has the advantage of folding flat against the wall when it's not being used. It sounds like a sophisticated version of your mates set up.

 

[B Murr]

I have a horizontal balancer I picked up cheap on Ebay. It was new old stock, obviously somebody made them and couldn't find a market for them, it Works a treat and has the advantage of folding flat against the wall when it's not being used. It sounds like a sophisticated version of your mates set up.

What does it look like?

 

[r100/7]

i take my wheels to a local bike garage and they have balanced my wheels and it helps cut downon some of the bad vibrations what was making my hands go bad.

 

[Rob Farmer]

What does it look like?

It has a bracket that screw to the wall for the main support arm to fit in. A cupped adapter that slots in the end of the arm for the cord to fit through. The cord passes through the centre of a spirit level mounted on top of the threaded adapter. There's a hand wheel that sandwiches the wheel between two cones that are intended to centralise in wheel bearings. I've had to make a larger cone for airhead back wheels - I have a lathe so this was easy to do.

The problem with using the conventional upright balancers on twin shock airheads is they don't grip the taper roller bearings properly.

It one seems to work a treat, even a tiny amount weight difference in the rim or tyre causes a fairly large deflection so you just add weights to bring it all into line on the spirit level. Nobody else bid on it so I got it for around £15. obviously when it's not being used you just turn it in the bracket and it's flat against the wall.

Looks like this -

 

[Rob Farmer]

What about:


John

That just looks like Zirblast (http://www.circonio.net/blast.pdf) ceramic blast media. You can buy 1kg for around 10 Euros http://www.esska-tech.co.uk/esska_eng_s/abrasive_sandblast_material_ceramic_ball.html

The downside is you have to buy a 25kg drum...whose up for a group purchase?