| Author | Message | ||
     Cyclonemick |
I'm wondering if anyone out there can tell me about balancing? I have talked to some people who said it really not that important and some who say it is mandatory. I found a local tire shop who will mount my tires for the low price of $10 but dosen't have the capapbilities to balance. Any thought would be appreciated | ||
| Hans |
Cyclonemick: Fix a piece of lead on your balanced wheel and try it out. WARNING WARNING WARNING: I take no responsibilities for any result. The least problem is the small or stronger vibrations which you feel in the handlebars.  Bigger problem occurs when you hit one of the own, low frequency, resonances of the engine or frame. Then your bike can start to jump like a kangaroo when you try to keep the speed steady. In short: Balanced wheels are mandatory. When lucky the rims and tires are each very slightly out of balance and then the wheel is already well balanced by a proper mounting of the tire, without any adjusting weight. The fact that modern wheels and tires often don`t need adjusting weights to be well balanced, may have given the false impression about the unimportancy of well balanced wheels. Hans | ||
| Cyclonemick |
Thanks Hans! I think i will just pay the extra $bucks and take it to a bike shop. I just wondered how a couple of ounces could really make a difference (refering to magnet weights). One guy told me it didn't make a difference unless you are running at high speeds like maybe a race track. But I personally considered tire wear as more of an issue, when you ride as much as i like to tires don't seem to last long. | ||
| Kent |
Cyclonemick, Why not spend some time and build a balancer or spend about $100 buying one and do the balancing yourself. It will pay for itself in no time. If you go ahead and purchase a set of tire irons at the same time, you could install them yourself as well. The real benefit to all of this, aside from the convinience and money savings, is that no shop will take as much time or be as careful as you will. Besides it will make you feel good to have done this yourself. Kent | ||
| Cyclonemick |
Where could you buy a balancer? I wouldn't know where to look? | ||
| Hans |
Wheel balancer: http://www.handyindustries.com/swb.asp | ||
| Henrik |
I bought a Handy balancer. Reasonable price for what it is. Works well. Just be careful and check the cones and axle for wobble when you get the balancer. On the one I received one of the cones were machined out of true. If you spin the axle with cones on the balancing stand, you can see if anything wobbles. They replaced both cones without any major problems - just took them awhile to get the replacements to me. One of the nice things about having a balancer is that you can put the rim alone on the stand and find the actual heaviest spot on the rim. That way, when you line up the dot on the tire, theoretically you will need less weight to balance the wheel. Henrik | ||
| Ara |
Hans and Henrik, is the Handy balancer wide enough for the rear wheel on a tube-frame bike? | ||
| Henrik |
Yes, it is. I just balanced my S2 wheels. Takes a bit of time, but not bad. And you know that it was actually done and done well. Henrik | ||
| Aaron |
I'm with Henrik, it's something I'd much rather do myself, just so I know it's done well. It'd be too easy to say "aw, close enough" if you didn't really care. | ||
| Kent |
Cyclonemick, You should also try Southwest Moto Tires. I purchased a Metzler balancer from them about 2 years ago for $109.95. It looks very similar to the one from Handy. It's not listed on their website but they have them. They also have good prices on tires as well as no shipping charges if you buy 2 or more at a time. The best part is they won't bullshit you, if he says they are shipping out today he means it. Check them out http://www.swmototires.com Kent | ||
| Cyclonemick |
Thanks for all of the help out there! It's nice to find a place where people are as crazy about buell's as I'am. | ||
| Davefl |
Here is some pics of the balancer that I just built.    | ||
| Dcmortalcoil |
Davefl, I have a Rod Neff's Balancer. I have to use my axle to balance. The axle walks laterally on mine. The cone/rod design looks great. Where can I get hold of the cone/rod components? | ||
| Davefl |
Sorry never saw the post with the questions. The cones were machined on a lathe from some bar stock. The rod is a piece of 1/2 in drill rod. I think the rod cost me about 6 dollars and the bar stock was about 10 dollars. The bearings are standard skateboard stuff. Balancer on the cheap,I might have 50 dollars in the whole thing and it works great. | ||
| Swampy |
One I just had built  |
