Question about wheel balancing
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Club Member
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 955
Likes: 2
From: Missouri
Question about wheel balancing
Would mounting used tires to new wheels cause the balance to be off by as much as 3.0 on the balancing machine? I just bought a set of 9 spoke chrome wheels and had them mounted at a local shop. I was back in the shop with him as he balanced them. Machine read 3.0 on both rear and front wheels with the tires mounted which he thought was a lot. He thought it was probably the fact I was mounting tires with around 5.000 miles on them to the new wheels. He had to add several stick on weights to get it to read 0. Think this sounds right? I just hope his machine is calibrated right. He's a good mech. and always done a good job for me. I will say that when the tires were mounted new last summer at my HD dealership to the laced wheels I replaced, I noticed then that they had to add more weights to the laced wheels than I had with my original tires.
Last edited by sparky_mo; Mar 13, 2009 at 07:11 AM.
Thread Starter
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Club Member
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 955
Likes: 2
From: Missouri
He did move the tire around. Read the same.
Road Warrior
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 1,282
Likes: 2
From: Yukon, OK
If it was me i would go back and have the mech take the tire off one and the weights and just check the rim and see how far out the are. Then add the tires and do it all over again. But yes the trick of moving the tire around does work, my last tire change i ended up moving the rear tire almost 180 to get the weight down.
Just my .02
Just my .02
Stellar HDF Member
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 2,034
Likes: 45
From: Michigan
Ill bet my new chrome 9 spokes have 3 oz on em and so did my stock wheels with the new metzlers on em.. Ill check in a bit when i hit the garage.. My indy didnt say anything and it rides fine so hell with it 
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Road Master
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 1,049
Likes: 1
From: Brookfield,Il.
Yes by changing tires especially it is possible to be off that much. You can check the wheel for balance, but it really wouldnt make sense because the old wheels and tires balanced out.I would rotate the tires 180 and recheck. In a lot of cases this makes a big difference. I've see this happen alot.
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Thread Starter
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Club Member
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 955
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From: Missouri
I'm thinking I like your approach. Though I didn't ride far it seemed to ride fine too. We've had a cold snap here in Missouri so I haven't had a chance to ride other than bringing it home So, like you, hell with it. If it starts feeling different then I'll have it checked.
Cruiser
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 169
Likes: 0
From: Texas
3 oz of weight on any bike seems a little too much, but it happens. My bike brand new had about a 3" long strip of weight stuck on both the front and rear wheels. How much is that? One thing to think about is if you need that much weight you will likely need a rebalance down the road. If you haven't tried dynabeads you should, especially if you have more than an oz of weight on any wheel. Just my opinion. Even with a little cupping on my front tire it's amazing how smooth my bike rides with dynabeads. I was bumping 6000 miles when I got the dynabeads installed front and rear w/new rear tire. I've used the beads on my previous bike and on big trucks. They work!
http://www.innovativebalancing.com/index.html
http://www.innovativebalancing.com/index.html