Balancing tires

[puccini]

Is there some secret way to balance airhead tires.
Or someplace to get a cheap rig to do it.

I hate to go to a dealer to ask them to just balance my new tires.
Not to mention the cost.

Gerry

[Stuff2C]

Check out the airhead website @ www.airheads.org
or
http://www.xs11.com/faq/tirefaq.shtml

[PUDGYPAINTGUY]

Is there some secret way to balance airhead tires.
Or someplace to get a cheap rig to do it.

I hate to go to a dealer to ask them to just balance my new tires.
Not to mention the cost.

Gerry

Gerry I bought one of those Marc Parnes wheel balancers and it works great. Easy to use I just put it onto a couple of jack stands on a level surface and it is very simple.

http://www.marcparnes.com/

[puccini]

ayep, very nice but at $125. for the balancer and $25 for the adaptors and shipping it way out of my price range.

I'm a low rent rider.


Gerry

[riderR1150GSAdv]

IMHO when you invest in tools ,you should look at it as a long term investment. The Mark Parnes balancer is compact and very accurate, even better than what most dealers will do to your tires. After a few uses you'll break even with what you spend at the dealership. And for a few beers and a pizza you can redo your buddies wheels too. :D

[Mika]

I am a low rent rider also. Investing in tools and the knowledge to use them has kept me a rider because of the money it has saved me.

[Stuff2C]

ayep, very nice but at $125. for the balancer and $25 for the adaptors and shipping it way out of my price range.

I'm a low rent rider.


Gerry


Milk crates and your axle, now that's cheap...and it works too! :wave
Here's a picture of my home brewed balancing tool. I take no credit for the design it was a Guzzi guy's...works great though.

[Stuff2C]

another view

[Stuff2C]

one more in case you want to make one

[pmdave]

When I was young and cheap, I balanced wheels with two straight edges attached to two sawhorses. The straight edges were made level by shimming the legs of the sawhorses. Insert your axle through the bearings and allow the axle to roll on the straight edges. (two pieces of smooth angle iron or even aluminum will work--if they aren't scratched or dimpled) But they have to be level.

Years ago someone sold a "dangle" balancer. A 360 bubble level sat on a tool that suspended the wheel via a wire. You sat weights around the tire to make the bubble center, then attached the weights at the appropriate positions on the rim. This setup was very cheap and provided reasonably reliable balancing. You could use a stepladder for the support, or suspend from a hook in the ceiling.

If you can find a bubble level (perhaps a trailer level) you could make a cone or whatever to support the wheel through the axle hole. The level needs to be close to the center of the hub.

These days I have a steel balancing stand (fabricated to my dimensions by a local welding shop) with double ball bearings bolted at the tops. The axle rolls on the bearings. I also use this stand for wheel truing.

OTOH, I have a local "dirt bike" shop that will spin balance my wheels for $5 or so ea.

"You don't have to be rich, just smart."

pmdave

[Stuff2C]

"You don't have to be rich, just smart."pmdave

Or cheap :wave

[20774]

I have something similar to what Stuff2C posed, although a bit more crude. I've always had good luck with balancing. Not sure if it's good for speeds approach the Ton, but it works for me. Some people have indicated that this method will not work because the bearings are not being compressed as if the tire was installed on the bike, therefore there's slop in the bearing stack and the tire won't rotate true. They also say you're supposed to do the balancing with no grease in the bearings, only some light oil. That's so the wheel will spin via the bearings around the axle. Once balanced, you then take the bearings back out and grease them. I really don't see the point, if the wheel rotates around the axle or if the wheel AND axle rotate as a unit on the external rollers, you'll get the same thing. YMMV...

Kurt in S.A.

[PUDGYPAINTGUY]

I have something similar to what Stuff2C posed, although a bit more crude. I've always had good luck with balancing. Not sure if it's good for speeds approach the Ton, but it works for me. Some people have indicated that this method will not work because the bearings are not being compressed as if the tire was installed on the bike, therefore there's slop in the bearing stack and the tire won't rotate true. They also say you're supposed to do the balancing with no grease in the bearings, only some light oil. That's so the wheel will spin via the bearings around the axle. Once balanced, you then take the bearings back out and grease them. I really don't see the point, if the wheel rotates around the axle or if the wheel AND axle rotate as a unit on the external rollers, you'll get the same thing. YMMV...

Kurt in S.A.


That is the beauty of the Parnes balancer and others, the bearings on the tool handle the load, and the race action on those is ultra sensitive too. The expense was high initially, and as another post suggested I have balanced for others now and each one brings the cost down. I bought the set for the GS and the universal and both have sufficed for now. It will be a while before I break even and at three-four changes a year for myself I need friends to use it too...lol.

Had I been smarter and cheaper I like Stuff2C's idea, but alas it is too late. Reminds me of making my own beer, I can buy it cheaper elsewhere and usually with a better taste too (a truthful moment..lol) although I have a blast making stuff myself or doing it myself.

[lkchris]

All this falderol to help a guy be a "lone wolf."

Get sociable and join your local BMW club!

It won't cost much and someone in the club--if not the club itself--already owns a balancer.

[The_Veg]

I have a clubmate who runs a small motorcycle-repair shop. I bring the wheels and he changes the tires and spin-balances for $20/wheel. I get good balancing and it's quick and professional work (read: I don't have to wrestle with it and ding up my wheels), so it seems worth it to me.

My friend with the rat-bike /6 thinks I'm a fool to pay someone to do it. But he also doesn't mind dinging up his wheels with hand tools and he rarely feels that balancing is warranted.

Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks.