Tire Balancing ( ST1100 \ ST1300 )

[KoTAOW]

Original web page can be viewed here:  http://www.johnandbecci.info/Hints/Balancing.htm

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Tire Balancing

Okay, you now have a mounted tire and you are ready to balance your wheels. There are two ways to balance a wheel; bubble balance and spin balance. A bubble balancer is simple device that has a spindle that goes through the axle opening and has a bubble on the end. I have seen bubble balances that hang from the ceiling and ones that have a stand. I have never used one of these, but assume that would be an adequate way of balancing a tire. A spin balance consists of a stand and axle set that allows you to set the wheel in the stand and spin it. The stand I use is made by Telefix and is sold through Spec II, 818-504-6364. Spec II also sells strips of self-adhesive weights necessary to balance wheels. The stand itself comes with a good variety of axle diameters. Before you begin to balance your wheel, it is important to do a little prep work. First, make sure your tire is inflated to the proper pressure and the valve cap is on the valve stem. Next remove all of the existing weights from the wheel. If the weights are the self adhesive ones, you should remove as much of the foam-adhesive as possible. If the weights are clamped to the spokes, gently spread them apart and slip them off the spokes. Next you will need to clean the tire and wheel thoroughly. Remove the paper tire labels and the adhesive residue from the rim of the wheel, using acetone or denatured alcohol. Make sure that there are no clumps of mud or any other large deposits of dirt and gunk on the wheel and tire. Find the appropriate axle for your wheel and run it through the wheel and place the wheel on the stand. Give the wheel a healthy spin and eyeball the wheel for any wobble. If the wheel appears to be true, stop it from spinning and then give it a gentle spin which will make it rotate several times. The wheel will eventually stop with its heaviest area at the bottom, usually the valve stem. Snip a segment from the weight strip and secure it to the rim with a small piece of duct tape. Now rotate the wheel about half a turn and see if it swings back to the heaviest spot. Rotate the axel back and forth until the wheel settles with its heavy spot down. Add weight until you can rotate the wheel and it does not rotate any more on its own. This will require cutting some of the weights into smaller segments. Once you have the wheel to the point where it does not rotate on its own, you are ready to fix the weights to the rim. Remove the backing and stick the weights to the clean rim, applying the weights to both side of the rim to keep the weight in the general area. Place a strip of duct tape over the weights to ensure that they do not fly off. You are done! Re-mount the wheel.

Submitted by:
John Parker
STOC # 124

[KoTAOW]

Original article can be viewed here:
http://home.insightbb.com/~mmartin36/Balance.htm

Submitted by Mike Martin.

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How I Balance Motorcycle Wheels

You are all aware of the importance of properly balanced tires. I like to perform all the maintenance work on my bike, and balancing the tires is one of the items I can do.

It's elementary that the heaviest part of the tire/wheel assembly will rotate to the bottom, barring friction. But there is a bit of friction caused by the wheel bearing seals. The first few times I balanced my own tires I had no special equipment for the job. I devised a way to minimize the bearing friction effects using what I had available. I slipped the front axle through the bearings, then put a Phillips screwdriver through the hole in the end of the axle. I lifted this alongside my workbench, and supported the threaded end of the horizontal axle shaft on the bench. Holding the other end of the shaft, I quickly twisted the shaft back and forth a few degrees using the screwdriver as a lever. This allowed the wheel to rotate until the heavy spot was at the bottom. I marked the light spot with a bit of chalk.

Now this procedure was pretty cumbersome, though it was repeatable, thus effective. Then I read a post by Whit Brown about supporting the axle shaft on another set of wheel bearings propped up by jack stands. That's all I needed to graduate to my present set-up.



I purchased a pair of front wheel bearings to fit my bike. I carefully removed the seals and washed out all the grease. I put some light oil on them so they wouldn't rust in my garage. (I later replaced the bearings in my bike as preventive maintenance. Now I use the old bearings for my balancing.)

This set-up works very well, and is much easier and more sensitive than my first procedure. I use the Honda clip-on wheel weights. One weight almost never is the exact amount needed for perfect balance. My procedure is to use two equal weights, positioned equidistant from the light spot on the wheel as shown in the drawing below. I adjust the spacing between the two weights, closer together when the imbalance is more, and farther apart when the wheel imbalance is less. Using this method, it is possible to get the balance close enough that the wheel will stop rotation in random positions, meaning there is no heavy spot anymore. The wheel spokes sometime make this impossible, but the resulting imbalance is not perceptible when riding.



© 2004 M. E. Martin, all rights reserved.