tell me about tire balancing

[m800mm]

I am going to put a new Mefo SE on my 990 the stock tire
was a scorpion the rim has a wheel weight on it, what do I need to
do?

Thanks

[traveltoad]

Put air in it and ride it.

[TwoRats]

Originally Posted by traveltoad

Put air in it and ride it.

What he said. Even when I roadraced I couldn't be bothered, and only ran into one tire that gave me noticeable troubles. With knobbies and rims that are tweaked on my 950A, I doubt I'll ever notice a slightly imbalanced wheel. I run a Mefo rear and Karoo 2 front.

[traveltoad]

Originally Posted by TwoRats

What he said. Even when I roadraced I couldn't be bothered, and only ran into one tire that gave me noticeable troubles. With knobbies and rims that are tweaked on my 950A, I doubt I'll ever notice a slightly imbalanced wheel. I run a Mefo rear and Karoo 2 front.

Exactly.

Even with a rim lock it doesn't vibrate much under 80mph.

[buzybraza]

Originally Posted by TwoRats

What he said. Even when I roadraced I couldn't be bothered, and only ran into one tire that gave me noticeable troubles. With knobbies and rims that are tweaked on my 950A, I doubt I'll ever notice a slightly imbalanced wheel. I run a Mefo rear and Karoo 2 front.

My experience is just the opposite, on my 525, 950 and other bikes I have owned, with knobby, dual sport and street tires, with cheapos or top dollar stuff...... I have always felt a vibration above 30 or 40mph and visually can see the forks getting jerked back and forth. All my stuff gets machine balanced at the shop. When you look at the amount of lead added to the rim to balance everything out it's kinda like holy f%$@!

Not balancing gets really bad if you run rim locks.

If I did not have the shop I would do it myself in the garage. The only situations I would not balance is if it was impossible, like trail side repair, changing tires at the track, etc...

[avocadofarmer]

Make one.

Spin the wheel freely and note what part of the wheel is at the bottom. Put weights opposite of that and give it a whirl again.

Or just ride it.

[wescnmbkr1]

New tire will have a "colored dot" on the side wall near the bead area, this "dot" is the light area of the tire and should be used to locate the valve stem; in other words line up the "dot" with the valve stem. Air the tire, spin the tire to find the heaviest side of the tire which will be at the bottom, spin it again to be sure it repeats the same location. If the wheel weights always stop at the bottom remove them. Do the spin process to find the heavy side again. Slowly add weight to the top of the wheel location until you are able to stop the wheel in any location without the wheel continuing to want to turn. When you can place the wheel in any location without it wanting to turn, you have a balanced wheel. This is "static balance."
wescnmbkr1

[rnoliver]

As a way to make a quick balancer, I just stuck a 3/4 inch rod in my bench vice, making sure the end sticking out was level. Put the axle and wheel right on the rod. Worked fine.

[K2m]

I got one of these

http://www.marcparnes.com/Universal_...l_Balancer.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF5QpXmT5o8

Hope this helps

[BillyD]

I balance every wheel that I expect to ride on pavement or at moderate speeds off-pavement.

This includes the 990, 640 and 525 regardless of tire choice. By definition, this does include non-DOT mud tires (i.e., Michelin M12/S12s) that I put on the 525 from time to time. I typically run 606s, TKCs on all three bikes and, on the 990, Continental Trail Attacks. I have rim locks on both the 525 and 640. I recently tried Kendra Big Blocks on the 990 without rim locks and the rear required a massive number of weights.

Balancing makes a huge difference even at moderate speeds (i.e., 45-65 mph), especially at steady speeds. There are few things more annoying to me that having a wheel bouncing down the road.

When racing, one is typically constantly accelerating or braking, seldom cruising at steady-state. So balancing while racing, even though top speeds can be considerably higher, probably has little benefit. I believe many road racers don't bother balancing.

[TwoRats]

So, m800mm, a clear concensus. Anything else we can help you with?

[Cyclops Motorsports]

Good subject and perfect timing.
I have never bothered with balance on any dirt bike, I see no reason, as it will soon get another dent., I also run my wheels until there damn near square or cracked.
I'm fairly new to the adv bikes. with my old Gs I always balanced, however with the 950 I figured with knobbies I would not balance.. Well last weekend when riding in the rain I was passing a car. at about 85 the front started to jump wildly it was not pleasent..this is a Se wheel with a rim lock..never had an issue with the stock ADV wheel and no balance?? I'm going to pull the front wheel off and do a back room balance, but Ill leave the rear as is..I hope it gets rid of the high speed bounce..

[traveltoad]

Originally Posted by Cyclops Motorsports

..this is a Se wheel with a rim lock

Yep.... with the rim lock, it starts to bounce a bit around 80mph. That is why I am going to add a second rim lock on the other side (both front and rear wheels) so they balance out. Problem solved!

But if you are going to try to balance a wheel with a rim lock.... buy the really really big wheel weights.

[666]

I use motion pro rim locks on my 450 and cant feel anything up to 75-80. With stock rim locks it was very bad above 50 mph.

Never balanced tires on 950 (no rim locks) - no problems up to 110.

[Cyclops Motorsports]

Originally Posted by traveltoad

Yep.... with the rim lock, it starts to bounce a bit around 80mph. That is why I am going to add a second rim lock on the other side (both front and rear wheels) so they balance out. Problem solved!

But if you are going to try to balance a wheel with a rim lock.... buy the really really big wheel weights.

Thats a good idea.. never crossed my mind,. much better than a pile of lead.