Wheel balancing

[Edition 507]

Anybody out there been nuts enough to want to balance their wheels like you do with car wheels? My wheels vibrate quite annoyingly at higher speeds and wonder if other people have solved the same problem. And no, the wheel is not buckled, bent, warped or damaged, it is the valve and valve extention causing the imbalance. Temporary fix, but not enough weight, is to put an old Cateye magnet at the other end of the wheel.

Any ideas?

[Canaris]

Check the frame alignment as well.

[Hendrik Petoors]

No, your wheels normally do not have enough inertia to warrant that kind of fine balancing. Check things like the integrity of your headset, frame alignment and the wheel bearing cone settings.

[TitusTi]

The guys at fulcrum use 2 heavier spoke at the opposite end from the valve to balance them. Some tubeless tyres (mtb) used to do this as well, opposite the hot patch, not sure if they still do. TitusTi2007-06-20 09:53:13

[Joss]

You can not balance a bike wheel, you can only true it.

[Hendrik Petoors]

Carbon Boy PM me so I can send you some instructions to true your wheel.

[Johan Bornman]

It is extremely rare that a bicycle wheel is out of balance enough for the rider to feel it. Our speeds are so low and the imbalance is generally so low, that it makes no difference.

You describe the feedback you get as a vibration and you say you can cure it by putting the magnet on a different spoke.  If that works for you, it works. But just to confirm things, where do you feel this vibration. The reason I'm sceptical about a vibration is that a vibration it generally has a high frequency - a few hundred Hz, and a wheel only rotate at a frequency of 8Hz at 30kph - something we humans experience as a pulsing sensation.

 

Hang your bike with the wheels running free and slowly spin the wheel and see where it comes to a standstill, how definite it comes to a standstillwith the heaviest spot at the bottom and if you can spin it at 30kph and see the bike pulse. Also take the wheel out and spin in whilst holding onto the QR, tell us what you feel.

 

The only time I ever experienced a pulsing from a badly unbalanced wheel is when I concocted some home-made Stan's and the stuff congealead in a golf-ball sized lump at one location. I could definitely feel it. I weighed the ball and it was 80grams. Most wheels don't have anything that can put it that much out of balance.

 

Let us know, it'll be interesting to get to the bottom of this.

 

JB

[TNT1]

These guys are talking k@k... take your bike to HiQ... they can balsnce the wheels and check the alingment...

[fandacious]

These guys are talking k@k... take your bike to HiQ... they can balsnce the wheels and check the alingment...

 

Well thank goodness for that fantastic advice...

 

Just checked my wheels and both my back and front "wobble" not left or right. They're as true as the moon landing, but backwards and forwards. When i'm on the bike i dont notice it, but its quite noticeable when theres no weight on the bike...

[TNT1]

HiQ dude... Ask for Gary Rabie...