Wheel Balancing

[KellyVB 75R90S]

I'm putting on a new front tire and thinking about getting a wheel balancer and doing it myself. Anyone here do there own balancing? I've never tried it, I usually take it to a shop.

[barryh]

You can do a tolerable wheel balance using the wheels own bearings. Clean all the grease out of the bearings and lightly oil them then set the wheel up on it's spindle with some tubular spacers to allow the bearings to be given the very lightest of pre-load with the axle nut. Leave out the bearing seals. Clamp one end of the spindle in a vice and spin the wheel. You can do a reasonable job this way and use of a vibrator such as a orbital sander will improve sensitivity. A proper wheel balancer would be better of course but I've never got around to buying one.

[Kurt in S.A.]

Bench Mark Works sells a bubble balancer for $38. The wheel is hung through the wire/balancer and it is parallel to the floor. Then you place weights around the edge until you get the bubble in the center.

Kurt in S.A.

[Seth]

I've been using a Marc Parnes balancer for years and have been very happy with it.
http://www.marcparnes.com/
Similar to using the axle and wheel bearings, but much more sensitive.
The bikes bearing and seals create more drag.
Marc has various adapters, for single sided swingarm bikes, for older BMWs (14, 17, 20mm axles), universals.
I set his bearings on a couple of tall jack stands. You get used to determining how much weight is needed based upon how quickly the wheel settles on it's heavy side. You can get within 1/8 oz.
I've used it on my R100 Mystic (Paralever), 77RS, '73 Triumph, 2003 Suzuki SV1000, 2007 Ducati S4Rs (single sided swingarm), R1200RT and R1150RS and GS models.

One thing to consider, just like using the bike’s axle, you have to attach the weights to the wheel (whether a spoke or a stick-on) to verify your guess as to the amount of weight. Sometimes you have to add more or remove some. This different from a balancer that holds the wheel horizontally which allows you to just lay the weights in the appropriate location.

On the other hand, the Marc Parnes balancer is small and easily stored and transported.

I have no association with Marc other than being a user of his balancer.

[richard t]

I'm putting on a new front tire and thinking about getting a wheel balancer and doing it myself. Anyone here do there own balancing? I've never tried it, I usually take it to a shop.

[richard t]

I use one from HF I've had for years to check wheel balance works fine I did have shaft trued by machine shop (cuz)
Kelly it is nice to hear from you

[KellyVB 75R90S]

You as well Richard. Happy New Year to all you folks.
I'am looking at the Tusk balancer and truing stand on Amazon. Its 73 bucks. The Harbor Freight one is just a balancer as far as I can tell. I want to be able to check how true the rim actually is.

[Rob Frankham]

If you want to know how out of true a wheel is, you need the ability to mount a dial gauge. The pointer on the 'Tusk' stand (and other similar stands) will tell you it's out of true but not by how much.

Rob

[melville]

If you want to know how out of true a wheel is, you need the ability to mount a dial gauge. The pointer on the 'Tusk' stand (and other similar stands) will tell you it's out of true but not by how much.

Rob

I've built upwards of 1000 bicycle wheels, and Chuey has built a lot more, and never used a dial indicator. The usual bicycle truing stand uses just a "pointer."

That said, when I built the wheels for Ernst, I was able to use my pro-level bicycle wheel truing stand and the pointer was useful but I was also able to use a dial indicator for final verification.

[Rob Frankham]

If you want to know how out of true a wheel is, you need the ability to mount a dial gauge. The pointer on the 'Tusk' stand (and other similar stands) will tell you it's out of true but not by how much.

Rob

I've built upwards of 1000 bicycle wheels, and Chuey has built a lot more, and never used a dial indicator. The usual bicycle truing stand uses just a "pointer."

That said, when I built the wheels for Ernst, I was able to use my pro-level bicycle wheel truing stand and the pointer was useful but I was also able to use a dial indicator for final verification.

I accept what you say but I stand by my comment. A simple poimter won't tell you how far out, just that it is out. For someone who is experienced at truing wheels, that's probably enough but for someone who doesn't have that experience...

Rob