Do I need to re-balance?
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Road Master
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 854
Likes: 45
From: Ohio
Do I need to re-balance?
I recently bolted a rotor spacer onto my front wheel, and am now having some front brake issues. Could the wheel not be rotating evenly due to the extra weight of the spacer on the wheel? When I spin the wheel, off the ground, it appears to have a bit of side to side motion/wobble. I'm thinking maybe it needs re-balanced?
Banned
Joined: Jan 2017
Posts: 894
Likes: 25
From: Jacksonville FL
I recently bolted a rotor spacer onto my front wheel, and am now having some front brake issues. Could the wheel not be rotating evenly due to the extra weight of the spacer on the wheel? When I spin the wheel, off the ground, it appears to have a bit of side to side motion/wobble. I'm thinking maybe it needs re-balanced?
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Road Master
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 854
Likes: 45
From: Ohio
OK, but the bike was fine until I installed the rotor spacer? Tough to believe the wheel is now bent, and the bearings bad?
Here's a scenario: My son's car slid on the ice and ended up sitting at a pretty good angle in a ditch with water, with temperatures around 15-20 degrees. It sat there for over an hour before we got it out. As we drove away, there was a serious pulsating/vibration going on. Front wheel that was in the water totally packed with mud/ice. As we drove on, it slowly improved. Stopping and hosed off all mud/ice from wheel and its good as new. Was told that the extra weight on that wheel, due to the mud/ice caused the big imbalance on the wheel and thus, the vibration.
Here's a scenario: My son's car slid on the ice and ended up sitting at a pretty good angle in a ditch with water, with temperatures around 15-20 degrees. It sat there for over an hour before we got it out. As we drove away, there was a serious pulsating/vibration going on. Front wheel that was in the water totally packed with mud/ice. As we drove on, it slowly improved. Stopping and hosed off all mud/ice from wheel and its good as new. Was told that the extra weight on that wheel, due to the mud/ice caused the big imbalance on the wheel and thus, the vibration.
Road Captain
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 610
Likes: 62
From: White Bear Lake, MN
I recently bolted a rotor spacer onto my front wheel, and am now having some front brake issues. Could the wheel not be rotating evenly due to the extra weight of the spacer on the wheel? When I spin the wheel, off the ground, it appears to have a bit of side to side motion/wobble. I'm thinking maybe it needs re-balanced?
Making any change to the front wheel immediately prior to an issue like this showing up is worth a look.
Not sure how the wheel itself would bend, but perhaps the rotor itself? I've seen bent rotors from crashes before, and what you've bolted on might be neither square to the axle, or round and centered/balanced to the wheel itself.
Shane
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Road Master
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 854
Likes: 45
From: Ohio
So maybe just to be sure..............I should take the complete assembly with rotor spacer and all and make sure it's still running true and balanced with the addition of the spacer.
Banned
Joined: Jan 2017
Posts: 894
Likes: 25
From: Jacksonville FL
OK, this is pretty simple:
inner races of 2 wheel bearings seat pretty tight on axle (no free play). Same goes to outer races to wheel.
It comes to 3 possible problems:
1.axle is spinning if its nut and holders nuts are lose (not likely)
2.one of bearings (or both) are bad.
3. Wheel is bent.
There is one more possible problem (not likely), I bought some bike with the problem:
owner installed wheel bearings with smaller OD and i bought the bike dirt cheap!
inner races of 2 wheel bearings seat pretty tight on axle (no free play). Same goes to outer races to wheel.
It comes to 3 possible problems:
1.axle is spinning if its nut and holders nuts are lose (not likely)
2.one of bearings (or both) are bad.
3. Wheel is bent.
There is one more possible problem (not likely), I bought some bike with the problem:
owner installed wheel bearings with smaller OD and i bought the bike dirt cheap!
Road Captain
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 610
Likes: 62
From: White Bear Lake, MN
That's what I would do in this case.
It should at least answer your question as to balance/true.
If the problem is inside the hub, at least you'll have the wheel off the bike to do whatever you need to at the time.
Shane
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Cruiser
Joined: Nov 2013
Posts: 120
Likes: 2
From: Jeffersonville, IN
is the rotor running out also or just the wheel? Why was the spacer added? Is it a factory spacer of home made? How is it affecting the brakes?
It would have been easy to overlook and not notice a wobbling wheel before you added the spacer.. don't ask me how I know. How much wobble is there?. There is a big difference between wobble and balance and tknowing these things would help. I have used rotor spacer plenty of times with no problems.
It would have been easy to overlook and not notice a wobbling wheel before you added the spacer.. don't ask me how I know. How much wobble is there?. There is a big difference between wobble and balance and tknowing these things would help. I have used rotor spacer plenty of times with no problems.
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