To wheel balance or not to wheel balance?

[Pricey12]

Hey all
After finding a gouge in my rear Diablo Strada last week amd after some debating I decided to shell out on a new Angel ST to match the one already on the front. I had the tyre fitted yesterday and all seems well, however I have noticed that wheel does not seem to have been re-balanced. I didn't see the fitter do it at the time and it didn't occur to me to ask him while I was there. The wheel does have weights on it but they look like older ones from a previous tyre. I can't feel any vibration and have been up to 80ish so it seems ok. Is it worth getting it re-balanced?

[Redmist]

If in doubt check it out, however he may have already checked it and found that the previous weights worked just fine, coincidence is a fine thing!

[Pricey12]

Sounds entirely plausible. Like I said I can't feel any noticeable vibration from the rear, although I guess it may be tricky to spot as twins do vibrate a fair bit anyway :rolleyes:

[suzukigt380paul]

Hey all
After finding a gouge in my rear Diablo Strada last week amd after some debating I decided to shell out on a new Angel ST to match the one already on the front. I had the tyre fitted yesterday and all seems well, however I have noticed that wheel does not seem to have been re-balanced. I didn't see the fitter do it at the time and it didn't occur to me to ask him while I was there. The wheel does have weights on it but they look like older ones from a previous tyre. I can't feel any vibration and have been up to 80ish so it seems ok. Is it worth getting it re-balanced?suzuki wheels in general dont need balancing,the rear least of all,and only really need balancing if the tyre is very unbalanced when the red spot is fitted near the valve,and this shouldnt need doing unless its a really crap tyre,so would only require very little weight to get it spot on

[Pricey12]

suzuki wheels in general dont need balancing,the rear least of all,and only really need balancing if the tyre is very unbalanced when the red spot is fitted near the valve,and this shouldnt need doing unless its a really crap tyre,so would only require very little weight to get it spot on

Excellent. The red spot is near the valve so I guess the old tyre weights aren't making much of a difference either way as the wheel seems smooth when I ride the bike.

[jambo]

suzuki wheels in general dont need balancing,the rear least of all,and only really need balancing if the tyre is very unbalanced when the red spot is fitted near the valve,and this shouldn't need doing unless its a really crap tyre,so would only require very little weight to get it spot on

I've not found this to be the case, having owned a number of Suzukis, they seem to have had as much lead used as anything else I've owned.

It is true though that a balance issue at the front is more noticeable.

You could remove the rear wheel and try spinning it on the axel and marking where it stops. If it always ends up at the same place it could use a balance. This method isn't perfect as you should use something that stops bearing drag being a factor, but it is quite easy :)

Jambo

[Pricey12]

Thanks for the replies guys. Will see how it goes this week and may pop it back to garage at weekend and see what they say.

[Fordward]

modern motorcycle wheel rims in general don't need balancing :)

its when you put a tyre on the rim that the problems start

my vote is to check the balance every time you fit a new tyre, though that's not to say it will always need balancing, particularly if the tyre has a red spot and has already been put in the right place on the rim

[Kenzie]

I had issues with the front Conti-motion on my pointy so much so that they swapped the tyre for a new one and also put weights on. They use the car type stick on rather than the ones the clip on the centre. Won't take a mo to whip it off and balance it.

[dizzyblonde]

Never have the rear balanced, but always do with the front. That's on all my bikes

Apart from the ZzR

[Pricey12]

Never have the rear balanced, but always do with the front. That's on all my bikes

Apart from the ZzR

This seem to be quite a popular consensus when I run a Google search too. Quick question though, am I better off removing the old weights from the rear wheel or leaving them be?

[Fordward]

you can get balance issues on the rear but the rear shock and swingarm tends to damp them out so it doesnt affect the rider leading to the belief you don't need to balance it

still a balanced rear vs an unbalanced rear is only going to be better on your rear suspension, wheel bearings, etc, even if it doesn't bother the rider

[dizzyblonde]

This seem to be quite a popular consensus when I run a Google search too. Quick question though, am I better off removing the old weights from the rear wheel or leaving them be?


The place I get my tyres from has always removed the weights when removing the old tyre.

[jambo]

Any place I've visited has balanced both.

Either get it balanced or leave it alone.

[Ceri JC]

I tend to balance the wheel (without tyre) and then don't generally need to balance tyres. I don't bother to balance them unless it's as a corrective action for something I notice when actually riding during the 'post-new tyre shakedown ride'. You can easily spend an hour messing around perfectly balancing a wheel in your garage, which unbalanced, you would never notice anywhere through the range of speeds the bike is capable of.

Disclaimer: I am used to riding on knobblies (where a single knob being ripped off can unbalance them), so may be less sensitive to this than your typical rider.

[Spanner Man]

Good morning all.


There's seemingly no logic when it comes to wheel balancing. As an experiment, I have spun many wheels on my balancer without tyres fitted, & sometimes they require say 60 grammes of weight to balance, & only 25 grammes after the tyre is fitted.
Early R1's were amongst the worst. Often they needed much more weight on the disc side, than the sprocket side, to obtain the correct dynamic balance.

Only yesterday, I had a lad come in with a handling problem on his YZF125. It started after he had a new rear tyre fitted. I removed his wheel, & spun it on my balancer. It was asking for 165 grammes on one side, & 65 grammes on the other!
Even on a static balance it was asking for 200 grammes in total. Mind you, it was a 'Sava Ditchfinder' tyre. :D aka cheap & nasty.

One should always have both wheels balanced if possible, after fitting new tyres. Just because your bike is fairly modern, it doesn't mean that it'll be ok when it comes to wheel balance. I have seen old, spoked, tubed type wheels that require little or no weight to obtain a perfect balance, & modern wheel/tyre combinations that require a fair bit of weight.


Cheers.