To Balance or Not to Balance

[cb1rocket]

I'm taking my bike's rear wheel off at some point for a tyre change.

The tyre changer says its pointless to balance the rear wheel on a bike! 20 years experience he says.......

I think the rear tyre/wheel should be balance, as it prolongs the wheel bearings and reduces rear shake in the swing arm and riding comfort.

What do you guys says?

The front wheel being balance is a must! For reasons we would all know!


Opinions?

[EnergyInducti...]

Balancing would take out the extra torsional forces caused by a wobbly wheel clashing with bearings and such....
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Riding: Yamaha RXS100
Aiming for : RD350 + Test
Dream bike: Suzi RG500 Gamma

[Kickstart]

Hi

It might well be smoother, but I have run tyres which haven't been balanced loads of times without any problems (early Aprilia AF1 single sided swinging arm setup resulted in a wheel which nobody had any equipment to balance).

All the best

Keith
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[SlimRick]

I've just had a new tyre on the back of the ZZR - the guy who fitted it didn't have the balancing equipment so I went without. Can't notice any difference at all from the previously balanced one.

[dodgydog]

I have a mate who goes club racing and he never bothers with balancing, front or rear.
When I was tyre fitting we just had the static balancer, most wheels were pretty good to be honest, sometimes I just put a weight on if the customer was watching!!
I don't have the adaptors for the Speed triple rear wheel anyway, and it never seemed to make a difference.

Dog
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I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realise that what you heard is not exactly what I meant

[G]

Getting tyres changed in the race paddock they always do balancing.
I’ve had cases where it’s noticeable a wheel isn’t balanced. Generally only notice it as the speed starts to go up.
Dirt bike wheels are often seriously out of balance thanks to rim locks. My KTM was over 100g out and with that got into some nasty vibrations at speed. Fine once balanced.
I’m not worried by dirt (used mostly for off road) or slower bikes being left unbalanced, but would do so for anything being ridden faster.

[everyreasonto]

I went to get my tyre changed today, and the guy said the same thing 'don't need the back balancing'

I got it balanced anyway because it only cost £7. (£4 tyre change, £3 balancing)

[BanditsHigh]

23 years years of riding ... change my own tyres ... never balanced a wheel ... never had a problem

[cb1rocket]

thanks for replies, i'll go without then

[SlimRick]

[chris-red]

[G]

£5 fitted and balanced in Reading for me.

[cb1rocket]

[G]

I do know the bloke and have got him a reasonable amount of business in the past, however I think that is the standard rate - never heard of anyone being charged more.
Seen racers who live in London coming over to get tyres from him in Reading!

[Mr Hammers]

When I got BT21s put on the Bandit, he didn't balance them, and when I asked why not, he showed me the yellow dot on the tyre and said that all you do is line the dot up with the valve and that's it. The 21s are apparently 'self-balancing'.

It was only later I noticed he hadn't taken off the existing weights, and thought well, it must be unbalanced now then. But if it is, I really can't tell.
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[chris-red]

The lowest I paid was £12 balanced loose wheel, Well technically the lowest I paid was £0.00 because I knew a guy that ran a tyre shop in Portsmouth, £177 for a pair of BT010's ride in ride out fitting That was cheaper than the tyres were online!
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[DrDonnyBrago]

Dyna beads

No balancer required

Job done

[everyreasonto]

[chris-red]

[Damon]

Dobles, A main honda dealer in coulsdon don't balance rear wheels either. As G said, if you were going to be riding fast road/track then you might as well get it done. For anything slower I wouldn't bother tbh.

[DrDonnyBrago]

[cb1rocket]

Yay! £5 fitted in Brighton

Just had em change

[Fizzmonkey]

Where in Brighton was that?

[djr]