Balancing rear wheel

[pivo]

Hi,

yesterday I took my rear wheel to the shop to get a new rear tire. They put on a new tire, but told me that they could not balance the wheel because it is a bit of a 'unusual' wheel, they also wouldn't know a place where they could do that. I have a 1993 NTV 650. Anyone familiar with this problem?

-Pivo

[micawber]

Pivo, did you take your wheel to a bike shop or to a general car tyre specialist? Many UK car places have an electronic wheel balancing machine that takes car wheels but may not have one that will fit bike wheels.
I have been going to my local independent tyre place for years now because although they don't sell a lot of bike tyres they still have a separate machine for doing bike wheels, with the various collars that fit different bike spindle sizes. I don't think that the single sided swing arm set up on NTVs causes any particular problems in a bike wheel balancing machine.
Perhaps if you shop around you will find a nearby place that can balance bike wheels. In any case, unless you do a lot of high speed riding, it is more critical to balance the front wheel than the back, though it is good to know that both are balanced correctly.
I appreciate that local conditions where you live could be very different from mine, Britain is not generally a "bike friendly" place with businesses such as tyre fitters being more biased to cars.
Don't know if the above is helpful, but someone will surely be along shortly with more information.

Micawber.

[pivo]

I took my wheel to a bike shop (Motoport), so they do a lot of bike-wheel balancing. Maybe I was just unlucky that they didn't have the right collars...
The guy told me also "probably you won't notice anything", probably knowing that balancing the front wheel is more important.
Thanks for the reply!

Pivo

[sheekbiker]

Hi pivo, I balanced my own wheels using the bikes own spindles to spin them on, clamped one end of spindle in vice and used a spirit level to make sure it was level.
If you look on utube there are a couple of vids giving step by step instructions.
I don't think you will have any trouble with the back wheel being out on a shaft drive as there are lots of heavy bits rotating in there anyway.
Front can cause vibration problems and unusual tyre wear patterns.
Mick.

[McF]

Hi Pivo
this sounds very strange, especially coming from a motorbike shop. Do you know if they were using a high tech motorised balancing machine?
My local guy (a small one man "back street" garage) uses a very simple frame, puts the wheel on and gives it a little spin, then just makes sure that the wheel will not rotate when placed at angle (eg with the valve at 12 o'clock, 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock. If it does, the area of the wheel that ends up at the bottom is the heaviest so he will add a balance weight opposite. The skill is knowing how much balance weight to add.

The front wheel is much more sensitive (and responsive) to out of balance problems.
Agree with Sheek but we must remember that any out of balance is amplified the further away from the centre it is. So a small imbalance on the tyre will have a greater effect than a relatively larger imbalance on eg the bevel gear.

Presume you already have ridden aNTy since the new tyre. As always take it easy on new rubber for the first 100Km or so. If all feels well then you shold be OK. If you do feel new vibrations it may be worth having a look at the balance yourself. Sheek's idea is a good one then just try rotating the wheel as above and see if it always wants to swing down to settle with one point at the bottom.

[Buzzin (^_^)]

sorry for the late answer: All proper bike shops in the Netherlands should be able to balance your wheel.
Only thing I always take are the spacers (if any...can't remember if that was front or rear)

Depending on what Motoport you went to it is possible they just don't want to help you....I know my local one is difficult at time (they didn't want to balance my carbs either). So I go to different bike shops where possible...
Just make sure you ask what they will charge before you start...the one in Nieuw-Vennep charges nearly nothing one time, and a fortune the next time for the same thing, so ask before you say yes.

But I would always get my wheel balanced....it's a small thing to do, and it can make a difference (no matter how small)
My advice: go to a bikeshop that will do the fitting of a tyre, 'ventiel' and balance the wheel all in one next time

[pivo]

Thanks for the replies, next time I will ask if they can balance my wheel before I go somewhere (it just didn't come up that maybe they couldn't...)

Usually they are very helpful at this shop, they have good connections with the local student's motorcycle club.

I think I will just drive around and see how it goes, and try the youtube do-it-yourself method. If it doesn't feel right I will get it balanced somewhere. It doesn't seem to be a major issue to get it balanced, I just went to the wrong place...