So I had new tyres fitted and I noticed the mechanic never balanced the rear wheel but did do the front, I thought this was odd and asked why and he said that there wasn't a requirement to balance the rear. I thought this slightly odd but after riding the bike all seems good, is this common or am I right in thinking both wheels should be balanced? Thoughts?
Would have thought both would be best but I have found my local garage can't balance my rear as it wont fit on there machine.( single sided swing arm large diameter axle. Steve
Yep, I never balance any of my rear tyres. All you should do is line the dot up with the valve, and that should be good enough.
the dot is the marker to line up the tyre with the valve on the wheel that should ensure balance but its always good to check..... i suspect a lot cant balance the ducati rear because they dont have an adapter to fit the single sided wheel....
The dot marks the lightest point on the tyre. Align it with the heaviest point on the wheel (where the valve is). It's good practise to do this on both wheels before balancing. Kevin
as Kev said, its to do with the make up of the tyre carcase, and puts the lightest part of the tyre nearest the valve. Yeah the rear may well be balanced from new, but you might well find if you change the tyre the weights don't need changing. I've been through 5 rear tyres on my MTS now and I did check the first couple of them for balance, but they didn't need any extra weights. Lining the dot on the front often sees the weights don't need changing either. By the way, a static wheel balancer costs bugger all (relatively speaking), and the plastic cones for the larger rear spindles don't cost much either. Mine came from M&P I think. A tyre changer on the other hand is a bit more :smile:
Certainly does depend on wether the tyre fitter has the kit for the rear wheel. The dot and valve is a good pointer for 10 and whilst balancing the rear is desired, it is NOT imperative as the effects of a unbalanced rear wheel is not as great as that felt on the front as it is fixed to the swing arm and frame more rigidly that the front. An unbalance in the front wheel will manifest itself as side to side low frequency vibration felt through the bars which will increase as speed increases. Excessive inbalance and vibration will eventually set up hammer forces through the horizontal wheel bearings and vertical head race bearings which will eventually lead to failure if successive tyres are left unbalanced. The vibration from an unbalanced front tyre will be both uncomfortable and irritating.
Makes me laugh some of the things fitters say! The yellow marker is a balance assist marker the tyre still needs to be balanced, ALL tyre manufactures state tyres should be balanced front AND rear! Or you will get uneven tyre ware etc as the wheel is .....well.....out of balance.....lol Old school fitters would say you won't notice of the rear is out where as the front is more so as.... your holding on to it..... lol ALL rear tyres I fit require balancing I think I may have had ONE in a hundred that needed nothing.... Now the real question is: what's better static or dynamic? a. static
Like Steve R, I always have front and rear balanced.........I have had experience of both static and machine balancing.........the latter has always been wrong. My local fitters (who are bikers) always use static balancing........and when I get the wheel home, I shove an axle in and check it. Only once have I have to add a small weight to a rear wheel and that probably wasn't necessary...............besides, balancing is normally done before the discs are fitted.......in which case they should be checked again..........I wonder how many are? AL
I just got a static balancer, trusty ebay again, £34.95 delivered, I cant understand how they can make em for that money I'm looking forward to giving it a go....Sad really :smile:
Dynabeads. Know people who use them, I've never tried them as not cheap.. Pros for dynamic balancing would be maintained balance for the life of the tyre..
