How important is it to balance tires

I bought some new tires and I had a friend mount them so I slapped them on my bike and never thought to balance them, so is it really important to balance them?

 

Yes, they should be balanced.

If you look HERE you will see a wheel being balanced using sawhorses. I've also done it with a piece of steel rod suspended between two workbenches.

The light spot on the wheel ends up on top. Secure weight there with masking tape. After weight is worked out fasten permanently.

J&P Cycles seems to have good prices on wheel weights.

 

This is what I use from my Maxim to Hayabusa.
http://www.marcparnes.com/index.html

 

If you've ever been in a car with one unbalance wheel you know how bad they can shake a whole car. Fronts usually are more violent than rears. I cant really imagine trying to hang onto a two wheeled vehicle with either wheel out of balance.
I even shifted my mountain bike tires on the rims to smooth out an out of balance vibration. Much lighter and much slower. No problem at low speeds off road, but at 20mph on the road it was worth the effort to smooth the ride.

 

Interesting balancer But not inexpensive for what it is!
Suggest a Steel shaft and a set (4) of Inline skate replacement bearings (cheap, easy to get) a pair at each end on sawhorses or more permanent stand if desired The shaft going thru the Wheel and it's ends lying onto the outsides of the bearings. A bearing on either side of the shaft, gravity holding it in place. Friction is (even with APEC 3 bearings) at lest half (likely 1/3rd) of what the "expensive" gizmo has. In english: Far superior.
A bit of a pain to cobble to gether for the first time/use.. But certainly Satisfying

 

You don't need the extra bearings. If you rock that rod back and forth a bit to overcome static friction in the wheel bearing it works just fine.

 

I've never been successful balancing my own tires. I always get the wrong spot or the wrong weight.

As important as is is I get them "Spun Balanced" for 10-Bucks at the Dealership.

The machine spins them at high speed and pinpoints the spot and calculates how much of a wheel weight needs to be added for balancing it out.

 

Having worked in a tire shop and seen the differences between static and spin balancing, spin (dynamic) is the only way to go. Tire vibration in a bike at the wrong moment could be fatal. This is one job best left to a machine.

I know that there will be those people that swear by static balancing and have never had a problem. Believe me, you are the luckiest people on the planet. Please do not push your luck any further. The $10 to let someone else do this is worth it!

 

I use Dyna Beads to balance my tires.

http://www.innovativebalancing.com/


All I can say is that my bike rides like it on glass since I put the kits inside my tires.

 

Not the Dyna Bead scam again! I thought that had died off by now?
Say, you wouldn't just happen to be selling them would you Wink?

PSteele, I always use static balancing and it works fine. I wouldn't trust
anyone else to change my tires or balance them either!

 

No I'm not selling them. And they do work, by my experience. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. And if you've never used them, then you don't have a valid opinion of them (by my books).

For all I know you're just an old crusty guy who's been wrenching on these things for decades and completely against any change what so ever. If that's the case, then so be it. But for you to be calling it a scam, try them first. Then use your EXPERIENCE to share your opinions.

 

I've used a spin balancer and done a "gravity balance".

I think I actually get better results gravity balancing. Spin balancer is much faster though.

Even when done with a spin balancer motorcycles normally have "static balance"

 

well i hate to burst you professional guys bubbles but i mounted both of my tires by hand bymyself and never balanced then and ive gone at least 100 on the freeway and still have felt no vibration even in 30 mile an hour winds doing 80 on the open highway.

 

Having just attended a major National motorcycle meeting where the top bikes were topping 280-290kmh, pretty much all of them fitted there tyres at the track and only did a static balance

 

Ah, a topic that stirs up controversy! Gotta love it.

A bike pro I am not, yet I spent years mounting and balancing tires on everything from Minis to Peterbuilts. So after experiencing the results of each type of balance system, spin had zero return for rebalancing and static had nearly 100% due to immediate vibration. There was a series of Pontiacs that would run at any speed just fine with static but railroad crossings at 25-30 mph would set off violent front end shaking. It was so bad that you would think the front end was going to shake itself right off the car. Spin was the only solution.

So, it would seem natural to me that a balance problem with two critical wheels could be a real issue. A pal of mine in the late 70's mounted a tire unbalanced on the back of his Norton and nearly got buzzed off the bike on the highway. Never seen anyone so white with fear. Spin is the only way I'll go because of these experiences.

 

Coming up next week - tire selection
April is - oil month

 

I think i am going the spin route, thank you for all responses, hopefully that will clear up some shake issues in the rear tire.

 

then let me guess may is bars
june is headlights and july is octane choice for fuel.