Balancing wheels

Happy Monday guys,

Don't know why pic is sideways, original file is not!!!
So I recently watched one of my buddies purchase new tires for his Z1 900, he then went to a local motorcycle shop to have the new tires mounted and balanced. All said and done, it cost about $50.00 bucks for mounting and balancing.

I've taken on the task of mounting my new tires myself and it is not too bad of a task, as long as you have the correct tools to do the job. The one thing I have not done to this point is, balance my wheels myself. I recently decided to replace my old tires on my 1994 KZ 1000P, mounting went fine, now it is time to balance the wheels. I was shopping around for a balance stand online which would cost between $35.00 to around $100.00 for a descent stand. The more I looked at the balance stands online, I began to wonder if my motorcycle stand might work. Well, I pulled out my stand, dusted it off, took a spare tire/wheel combo that I have kicking around and set it on the bike stand.

I tested out the setup and it works great... and the best part is that I ended up not spending money for a balance stand, or for having tires mounted and balanced. I bought wheel weights on Ebay.

Thought I'd share with you all.

Nice job!

I use two automotive jack stands. As long as your wheel bearings are in good shape you can do a serviceable balance job at home quite easily. It's relatively easy to change your own tires too.

Nessism,

Sounds like you have the right idea as well so "Nice Job" back at-cha! You are correct, as long as your wheel bearings are in good shape, balancing is a snap. Tire mounting is straight forward as well.

Let's keep these classic KZ's burnin up the roads!

I use two concrete blocks, placed on their small ends. I place a piece of wood, such as a 1" x 2", on top of, and along the inner edge of each block. Next, I slide the axle through the wheel with the tire mounted, and gently rest the axle on the wooden pieces. Now I gently roll the axle back and forth along the wooden pieces. This allows the bearings to turn freely. Obviously, the wheel assembly will settle to where the heavy spot is at the bottom. I mark that spot with chalk. I repeat this a few times to get a consistent spot marked. Then I tape a wheel weight on the opposite side of the wheel. Experience helps to know what weight to use, but start out small. I do the axle rotation again and mark the new spot. Add more weight and position it as needed.

Repeat this process until the wheel stays at the same position after rotating the axle. Bond the weights to the wheel with adhesive. Low cost and if you have patience, it is highly accurate.

Good idea. Wished I had thought of that 2 weeks ago. Oh, and you can get self-sticking wheel weights at HF.

These are all good ideas and work most likely, but just for info, anyone looking for a good balancer setup, consider the marc parnes balancer. Uses bearings that are ultra easy turning and a true axle to whithin a few 1000ths. Some balancers like the harbor freight ect are similar but axle is not straight so balance will be all goofed up most likely. To be honest I rode 400,000 miles and never balanced a tire and never had any problem, but I feel better balancing in my old age.
www.marcparnes.com/Universal_Motorcycle_Wheel_Balancer.htm

And there is the ever-controversial balance beads....

www.ex-500.com/15-suspension-tires-chass...users-pros-cons.html

Yah, RonKZ650....I did the same as you mentioned. I never worried about balancing my tire/wheels on my motorcycles and I think that I've put in my 400,000 miles as well.

The only reason I'm balancing my tires/wheels this time around is that my 1994 KZ1000P begins to show "out of balance" @ anything above 90 miles an hr. Anything below 90 feels smooth as glass. I'm looking forward to getting a smooth ride at higher speeds, NOT that I run my bike @ high speeds all day, just nice to know that if you push it hard for a short burst, it's not going to shake rattle and roll. Thank you ALL for the great tips on balancing!!!!

Tires last longer and tank slappers can kill you.
Steve

I've got a balancing stand, but it will probably only be used for truing spoked rims in the future. I tried the balance beads on my Z1R restoration and they work as claimed. I've only had the bike up to about 75, but it's smooth and vibration free, with no ugly weights on the rim. I don't really have a before/after comparison, as I added the beads when I mounted the tires. At some point I'll be adding beads/removing weights from my other bikes to verify the true effectiveness.

Motorcycle tires typically are not a great amount out-of-balance, so to NOT balance your tires will not usually create any huge problem. However I personally just like that "velvet smooth" feeling of well balanced tires. Also, I like the idea of the handlebars staying quiet and motionless if you were to take your hands off them for a moment. And if you were ever forced to ride fast, then the amount of control is substantially improved.

I have ridden my other bike, a Yamaha FZ1, at some incredible speeds, and there is never any out-of-balance or wobble. Just smooth, well controlled handling even at high speeds. Oh, I forgot to mention, this was done on a closed course, by a professional rider. Yeah, a friend paid me $1 to do this.

Typically, the balance is within a few grams of optimum weight. In other words I have even cut one of the 7 gram weights into smaller pieces to get a near perfect balance. Just my preference or obsession. I don't know if that has any impact on my getting 20,000 miles out of a set of tires, but it certainly does not make the longevity any worse to balance the tires.

Just for kicks try checking your wheels, sans tires, for balance. I've found some to be quite a bit out of whack. Between that and the tires themselves I've had some assemblies where they wanted more than 80 grams to balance, which to me was unacceptable. When I run into a situation like this I release the tire from the wheel and rotate it 90 degrees and try again. I hate to run more than 50 grams of weight, and preferably, less than 30.