balancing another

[yak]

mounting is one thing balancing is a bitch fooled with it for about as long as i,m gonna any ideas metzler m1

[Billy Ricks]

If you used too much soapy water you may have droplets floating around inside the tire messing with your efforts.

[yak]

thought about the water but the wheel stops in the same spot every time just use a washclothe with soapy water wipe so i dont think its water i think i need a better selection of weight to fine tune the balance

[duaneage]

Make sure that your bearings are smooth or it won't work. Also make sure the mount you use to hold the tire is level. I hold an axle in a vise and make sure it is level when the tire is on it. Should be an easy process.

[outofcontrol]

you must have good bearings.
if your wheel is stopping in the same spot every time, you have good bearings (at least for balancing).

I skipped a step: take off the old weights first!!

I take old weights and duct tape them opposite the heavy spot until I get the right weight. You'll know right away if you have it correct if you rotate the wheel so that the weights are at 3 or 6 o'clock. the wheel should stay in place. for that matter, where ever you stop the wheel, it should stay in place.

Advanced tip:
The wheel without the tire is most likely not balanced to start with. most people assume the light spot of the wheel is where the valve stem hole is because the lack of material in that area. with your same balancing stand, while you have the tire off, check the bare rim and see where the "light spot" is on the rim and mark it on the inside of the rim where you'll only see it with the tire off. Most modern tires come with some sort of mark on the tire to show you the "heavy spot" of the tire. Dunlops have a yellow dot, Pirellis have two red "snake bike" marks. (2+2) start out with the idea that you want to add as little weight as possible by lining up these two marks. if you're lucky, you wont have to add any weight at all.

WHOAA --just look at this link:

http://www.clarity.net/~adam/tire-changing-doc.html

pretty good description here with pictures.

BTW- some MotoGP teams still use this method to balance tires. You'd think they have super expensive computer driven machines to do this task, but for some reason they still do it this way. "if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me."

-KM

[duaneage]

If you can find the yellow dot on the old tire put a sticker on the rim and start with the new tire the same way. Chances are you'll balnce it faster that way.

I found that on my rims the hole was lightest but this is not always true. You could also add another nut to the valve to help balance, especially if you needed weight right where the valve is and there was no room for a weight.

Make damn sure you have them going in the right direction

Make damn sure you have them going in the right direction

Make damn sure you have them going in the right direction

There, that should be enough. take note of my signature and you'll know why I did that.

[outofcontrol]

Oh yea, that reminds me:
There's a little arrow on the side of the tire. Sometimes it says "rotation" with it. Make sure you obey this little instruction.

I mounted a tire on backwards once, and i felt no effect. but that was a race tire, on a race bike, where the tires have a life span measured in hours not months.

I think it has something to do with the direction of the reinforcing cords in the tire, and they work better in one direction.

so, I don't really know why, but I've heard it's important.

-KM