Wheel Balancing

jimgough
jimgough Posts: 12
edited November 2013 in MTB general
Anybody bother balancing their wheels? Mine were surprisingly badly out of balance to the point you could feel it at speed on tarmac and made sharp corning at speed quite scary. I've used strips of lead to try and balance them which has helped a lot, but its not perfect. Any tips to do the job better?

Comments

  • Chunkers1980
    Chunkers1980 Posts: 8,035
    Bike wheels don't need balancing, they need to be round and true the rest should take care of itself.
  • BillyMansell
    BillyMansell Posts: 817
    If the wheel is out of balance when riding on the road and is dangerous when cornering then there's something significantly wrong with the complete wheel that adding weight to the rim will only mask until it may all go wrong.

    Any imbalance can only be one of three components; rim, tyre or tube. You need to establish which is causing the problem.
  • nicklouse
    nicklouse Posts: 50,675
    not an issue

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    "Do not follow where the path may lead, Go instead where there is no path, and Leave a Trail."
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  • rockmonkeysc
    rockmonkeysc Posts: 14,774
    Simple answer is to use a road bike on the road and keep your mountain bike on dirt.
    Bicycle wheels don't need balancing.
    Transition Patrol - viewtopic.php?f=10017&t=13070235
  • njee20
    njee20 Posts: 9,613
    I had a light (<1100g) pair of road wheels where it was quite noticeable that you got a rougher ride if the speed magnet was aligned with the valve, felt like a badly glued tub. Moving the magnet opposite the valve solved it.

    I've never known anyone actually bother to add weight to balance them. Agree that if its dangerous then something else is wrong.
  • stubs
    stubs Posts: 5,001
    Only time I have ever come across a wheel out of balance turned out to be an attack of stupidity. Somehow the owner had left a tyre lever inside when he put in a new tube.
    Fig rolls: proof that god loves cyclists and that she wants us to do another lap
  • ednino
    ednino Posts: 684
    I often hit 50mph on the road bike

    Didn't balance those wheels so don't think I will need to on the MTB
  • jds_1981
    jds_1981 Posts: 1,858
    Only time I've felt something like that was when the tyre wasn't correctly seated..
    FCN 9 || FCN 5
  • stevieboy308
    stevieboy308 Posts: 67
    never felt anything myself up to 50mph on mountain bike.

    but if you want to do it, make sure the wheels are spinning freely, take the chain off and pads out if necessary. spin the wheel and let it settle, grab the wheel at 12 o'clock and rotate so that point is now at 3 or 9 o'clock, add weight at the 3 or 9 position until it doesn't move when you let go, give it a spin again and it should stop without any rolling back = job done. if it rolls back repeat the process.
    http://www.youtube.com/user/stevieboy308/videos
  • Giraffoto
    Giraffoto Posts: 2,078
    If you absolutely had to do it, I'd imagine that lead split shot would be the ideal solution, clamped around the spokes. But I can't see why you'd absolutely have to do it.
    Specialized Roubaix Elite 2015
    XM-057 rigid 29er
  • njee20
    njee20 Posts: 9,613
    You'd have to add a ridiculous amount of weight to stop it rolling back, the weight is so much lower than a car wheel.

    It's just a bad idea!
  • UncleMonty
    UncleMonty Posts: 385
    I've had wheel wobble problem before, in the bike stand when I spun the rear whee i could see the frame & stand rock slighlty, try swapping the front & rear tyres, or spin the trye round on the rim, one of these sorted my problem but I can't remember which.

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