[RhinofromWA]

Do roadies balance their wheels? I know on heavier wheels it is beneficial but a road wheel doesn't have a ton of mass spinning around. balancing would require adding weight to a wheelset not something a road rider would want to do.

I have seen MX bikes running down a road course with the rear wheel 'hopping' as they cruised down the road....in the dirt you wouldn't notice. Similiar for MTB wheels....balancing would do very little, I suspect. The faster you go the bigger the problem, correct?

I did notice my MTB wheelset was not balanced before taking it out after I put my slicks on. I didn't seem to notice it much on the road (10-20mph with some coasting 36ish MPH)....but aren't road bikes and their riders pretty specific about bike set up. On 100 or more miles will a balanced tire make a difference? After you change a tube it would need to be rebalanced..........

Just an odd thought I had today at lunch.

 

[The Toninator]

i'm pretty sure they just 'tune' the spokes to 'true' and 'dish' the wheel.

 

[Arsbars]

High end carbon wheels we do. Road wheels are pretty equally weighted down...atleast from what I've seen

 

[RhinofromWA]

i'm pretty sure they just 'tune' the spokes to 'true' and 'dish' the wheel.

I was jsut wondering if a perfectly true wheel can be unbalanced....probably not by a bunch? After adding a tube and tire the possibility increases for an unbalanced wheel.

The hoping I saw on the dirt bike was from an evenly weighted wheel....more than a unround wheel. Dirt bikes also use rim locks that help through themout of balance.

I guess the are some diminishing returns when you get down to a roab bicycles wheel.....there isn't enough weight to really be a problem. Where a car wheel or motorcycle wheel might.

Thanks everyone.

 

[Carbon Fetish]

I know some people take their bike wheels to motorcycle shops to have them balanced. The best way to "test" this is... spin your wheels in a repair stand and watch how much the bike starts to shake.

 

[RhinofromWA]

I know some people take their bike wheels to motorcycle shops to have them balanced. The best way to "test" this is... spin your wheels in a repair stand and watch how much the bike starts to shake.

So some people are concerned with balanced wheels on their road bikes?

I can go either way....I would guess I would need to be pretty serious to do it, personally. I know you can get lead tape and balance them on your bike.....atleast get them close.

 

[The Toninator]

So some people are concerned with balanced wheels on their road bikes?

I can go either way....I would guess I would need to be pretty serious to do it, personally. I know you can get lead tape and balance them on your bike.....atleast get them close.

where would you put it?

 

[RhinofromWA]

where would you put it?

The rim.

It has an adhesive backing and can be had pretty thin. It cuts with scissors and can be removed with no harm to aluminum (not sure about carbon stuff)

Now I don't know what they use on bieks that do get balanced....but a taped on lead peice that can be removed once a tube tire is changed is pretty non-commital. And it proablywouldn't weigh much to bring themin balance.

Rhino

Mind you I am way out of my league here.....I think you could use lead fishing line weights (The little balls that the line goes in and is crimped on) if you wanted to but the different weights needed might not be available.

 

[The Toninator]

wouldnt your brakes catch on it?

 

[Serial Midget]

I have never had the urge or need to balance a road wheel but I won't run heavily patched tubes because they can become unstable at high speeds. I don't patch tubes at all anymore anyway so... moot point.

 

[RhinofromWA]

wouldnt your brakes catch on it?

I wouldn't think so. It is like ribbon. and you would put them between the spokes. I don't think there would be much of a problem with brakes.

 

[RhinofromWA]

I have never had the urge or need to balance a road wheel but I won't run heavily patched tubes because they can become unstable at high speeds. I don't patch tubes at all anymore anyway so... moot point.

Joey from FRIENDS: Its a Moo point...

Racheal: A Moo point?

J: It is like a cows opinion. The point is Moo. \

Sorry I saw a comercial for that show last night and it had that exchange in it. haha

 

[-B-]

As someone who has worked in shops and for teams never been done to road bikes. Rodies want to loose weight not add it. I have herd of some old time track guys balancing there wheels. I did have a racer bring me a wheel he lightened buy removing every third spoke! Bike shake on a stand can mean a lot of things. Some times it is the wheels, but in is not because they are out of balance but out of round.

 

[RhinofromWA]

As someone who has worked in shops and for teams never been done to road bikes. Rodies want to loose weight not add it. I have herd of some old time track guys balancing there wheels. I did have a racer bring me a wheel he lightened buy removing every third spoke! Bike shake on a stand can mean a lot of things. Some times it is the wheels, but in is not because they are out of balance but out of round.

that was the trade off I was concerned about. Weighting the wheels.

Thanks for chiming in.

But for what it's worth, if the wheel is perfectly round it can still be unbalanced when the tire and tube are factored in. I just wasn't sure if it would be a big enough of a problem for someone to desire them to be balanced. I have little to no experience with road bicycle wheels and riding them. Just observation from other sports and wheel balancing needs.

It just doesn't sound like that big of a deal for road wheels....a good set of wheels are close enough w/o balancing.

 

[SuspectDevice]

Wheel balance is important on very lightweight wheels and very heavy wheels.
An anectdote that i like to share involving the importance of balance for lightweight race wheels is Jan Ullrich's poor descending skill in the mountains at the ~01 Tour. His Lightweights had come out of balance, and at 120 kph on ~1000 gram wheels that is a significant imbalance. This is year that was memorable for Jan's crash on the descent of the Peyresourde.

An anectdote that strikes closer to home is a pair of ex-demo shimano wh-6500's that i used to race 'cross on. While these aren't exactly "heavy" wheels the do utilize a rather heavy 45mm deep-section aluminium rim. I threw them on my road bike for a training race one week, and the imblance in wieght was significant enough that my rear wheel would hop whenever i was above about 35mph on it. This was compounded by the low spoke count to create a significant amount of windup, enough to make the IF i was riding at the time feel dangerously unstable.

 

[-B-]

I race on Mavic 280's with 24 spokes never had a problem, was clocked at 70 mph. I was using tubularsand had 180 psi them,this was in 1989.

The weight of a wheel should be in the center just like the old days but it is now all in the perimeter,it causes problems because the center of gravity has changed for the wheels. If you have laced wheels do not sweat the balance,but do demand round and true wheels.