how much wieght is too much to balance tire

Have you checked the balance yourself? Was it a reputable shop that balanced it for you?

I think I saw somewhere that you can check it on your bike if you take off the calipers to get a rough idea of if it is near balanced. Just spin the wheel a couple times and see if there is a heavy spot.

Oh, wheel balancing..


So, does static wheel balancing usually cut it or dynamic balancing is needed? I know people mount their tires all the time but do they then just take wheels to the shop for dynamic balancing or not?

I have never balanced motorcycle wheels, but I have a lot of experience on car wheels.

I believe it is impossible to balance dynamically the front wheel because it is too narrow and there is a minimum distance between the left-side and right-side weights. I will check the manual from my wheel balancer tomorrow and see exactly what the minimum distance is.

The rear wheel can certainly be balanced dynamically, but since it is relatively narrow and heavy, it will require a shitload of weights.

For most track bikes, running quik-stick wheel weights, if you have to use more than 3 of the 7 gram weights, you may have an issue. Maybe once every 15 rear tires we see may need the 4th weight, but not at all common unless on an egg shaped Dunlop.

Lonebrave said:

Have you checked the balance yourself? Was it a reputable shop that balanced it for you?

I think I saw somewhere that you can check it on your bike if you take off the calipers to get a rough idea of if it is near balanced. Just spin the wheel a couple times and see if there is a heavy spot.

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whoever told you that, needs to get as far away from a wrench and working on anything as they can, because i have herd customers tell me that myth all day long, because some other idiot told it to them, its very untrue and has nothing to do with the wheel balance, a spin balance is the best balance you can get on a tire, thats why thier are $20,000 machines that balance tires, but anything more then 2 oz's of weight, is a bit much, and anything over 3oz i would either take the tire off and spin it on the rim to try and get a lower weight, or get a new rim

OneQwickR6 said:

whoever told you that, needs to get as far away from a wrench and working on anything as they can, because i have herd customers tell me that myth all day long, because some other idiot told it to them, its very untrue and has nothing to do with the wheel balance, a spin balance is the best balance you can get on a tire, thats why thier are $20,000 machines that balance tires, but anything more then 2 oz's of weight, is a bit much, and anything over 3oz i would either take the tire off and spin it on the rim to try and get a lower weight, or get a new rim

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<rant>
Ok, first of all, I guess I should have stated the obvious....there are many other things that may factor into where the wheel will stop (axle friction being one); you should not use this method to balance a wheel, but instead go buy a $20k machine to do it yourself....ok, I guess I'm done since I'm an idiot for thinking that the heavy spot would stop fairly close to the bottom.
</rant>

Really, now I'm curious....for those of us that don't have a $20k machine to spin balance our wheels, what about those stands that use roller bearings? Are those any good? Isn't it the same principle as spinning it on the bike, minus a lot of the friction?

Lonebrave said:

Really, now I'm curious....for those of us that don't have a $20k machine to spin balance our wheels, what about those stands that use roller bearings? Are those any good? Isn't it the same principle as spinning it on the bike, minus a lot of the friction?

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What's the use of the stand? Ok so you got the wheel spinning on it, what next?

The $20K machine has sensors that determine which part of the wheel is becoming "heavy" when you spin it. This is might or might not be the side of the wheel that would be the heaviest during static balancing.

dakh said:

What's the use of the stand? Ok so you got the wheel spinning on it, what next?

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From what I understand you spin the wheel and let it stop. Do it a few times to determine where to put the weights (opposite heavy spot).

But I guess from what has just been posted that that has nothing to do with properly balancing a wheel, does it?

EDIT: It's been a number of years since physics and all that. Can someone point me to a simple explanation of how a static heavy spot might not be the heavy spot under rotation or how a statically balanced wheel may not be balanced while rotating?

We have been using a simple balancing stand for our own wheels with very good success. From street riding to wearing through a couple hundred sets of track tires at high speed around Willow, Laguna, Sears, etc.

While I understand the precision of a spin balancer, I think that if you're careful with a static balancing stand you really are getting the 99% solution.

And to concur, one ounce is about 28g. In my personal experience, we have NEVER had to use more than four 7g weights (28g or 1 oz) to get a spec tire and rim to balance on a static balancer. Using 2oz (56g) would lead me to think something is wrong...although I understand that other people's personal experience will differ from mine and there are several valid views....

thanks, i will be taking the wheels to another shop to see if they can balance them better.

Lonebrave said:

From what I understand you spin the wheel and let it stop. Do it a few times to determine where to put the weights (opposite heavy spot).

But I guess from what has just been posted that that has nothing to do with properly balancing a wheel, does it?

EDIT: It's been a number of years since physics and all that. Can someone point me to a simple explanation of how a static heavy spot might not be the heavy spot under rotation or how a statically balanced wheel may not be balanced while rotating?

Click to expand...

I thought that some forces that are linear when the wheel is static become non-linear (quadratic) when the wheel is spinning, thus making it out of balance even when it looks balanced statically. But I may be wrong and dynamic balance is actually referring to balancing the wheel in the second dimention (i.e. if the wheel would wobble rather than shake when spun).

I do my own tires when not at the track, and have static balanced my wheels without tires mounted on them. out of 3 sets, only 1 rim was actually heavy at the stem.

I put a paint mark on the rims at the heavy spot and match the tire mark up to that. My rims use much less weight to balance this way.

How do you know where the heavy spot on the tire will be though ?

On Metzeler and Pirelli tires, there will be paint dots at the light spot which you will put at the valve stem. I forget on Michelin and Dunlop, but it's probably the same.

I checked the manual of my wheel balancer and the minimum distance is 34mm, so a front wheel can definitely be balanced dynamically. It will still require a shitload of weights.

Also, a wheel balancer doesn't cost 20,000$. Mine costs about 4,000$