Is balancing bike tyres a myth?

[fatboy]

seems so. I had new Maxxiss tyres fitted in autumn,at a car place, they were not balanced, the fitter saying they did not need it,
Bike did around 10 miles before electical problems left it standing for 3 months, then got it transported to Griff, rode home 120 miles on still unbalanced tyres,all Griff did was check pressures, no probs at all on 100 miles of M5/ A road.
Spoke to the tyre guy at work who does the fleet tyres and he said.....
Car tyres need balancing as the wheels are 2 bits of steel stamped out in a press,shit from new, the wheels not the tyres need balancing, where as bike wheels are cast, then turned and balanced in the process, HGV wheels, being that much bigger than car wheels, therefore generating much more momentun,are checked for truth before leaving factory

[mangocrazy]

I believe that most of the imbalance (if there is any) comes from the wheel, rather than the tyre. A well made wheel will need little (or any) balancing. As an example, I bought a Delkevic front wheel for my VFR. The thing is heavy (as bike wheels go) and very poorly balanced as supplied minus tyre. In contrast, a set of Oz rims I acquired were lovely and light and were in perfect balance when I checked them.

A good set of wheels and modern tyres can generally manage without balance weights, IMHO.

[HowardQ]

The official view is that if you align the yellow spot on the side of the tyre with the valve, everything should normally be fine with decent wheels, (such as most bikes).
Bike fitters always tend to do this.
Car tyrefitters usually don't bother as they know they will be fitting weights all over the place anyway.

[D-Rider]

Hmmm Sorry, but some of the comments here are not correct.

Car wheels these days must be pretty spot on.
Someone I've known for some time used to work for a major tyre manufacturer (German owned, Italian sounding, rhymes with that Welsh town Llanelli)

In competing for car OEM fitment they had to agree to effectively give away their tyres - and the tyres they delivered to the vehicle manufacturers had to be completely in balance so that they could be fitted to the rims without the need to balance them before they left the car plant.

The tyres delivered to the tyre fitter companies were the same brand and model but were not so inherently balanced and required balancing after they were fitted.

Therefore I really don't understand the supposed distinction between the inherent balance characteristics of bike and car rims.

Nevertheless, it may well be that with continually improving manufacturing methods that tyres sold through the aftermarket may now be beginning to approach the balance consistency of those provided to the OEMs.

[mangocrazy]

In competing for car OEM fitment they had to agree to effectively give away their tyres - and the tyres they delivered to the vehicle manufacturers had to be completely in balance so that they could be fitted to the rims without the need to balance them before they left the car plant.

So what was the benefit to the tyre companies, if they were making zero profit? Very few people these days stick with the same make of tyre as fitted as OE, so why do it? You may get turnover, but unless there's some profit in the deal, everyone's effectively working for free.

And on the subject of balancing bike wheels, I would only ever really worry about the front. The rear tyre has a great big lump of flexible metal spinning around it, which effectively cancels out any tyre/wheel imbalance.

[D-Rider]

In competing for car OEM fitment they had to agree to effectively give away their tyres - and the tyres they delivered to the vehicle manufacturers had to be completely in balance so that they could be fitted to the rims without the need to balance them before they left the car plant.

So what was the benefit to the tyre companies, if they were making zero profit? Very few people these days stick with the same make of tyre as fitted as OE, so why do it? You may get turnover, but unless there's some profit in the deal, everyone's effectively working for free.

They weren't making zero profit.
Basically a large number of people replace their tyres with the same as came fitted when it left the factory - healthy margins in those so it's worth making sure the OEM is happy to fit your tyres as standard.
Not sure that this pattern extends to budget brands of cars but was the case for the luxury sector.

[flatlander]

more importantly what the fek rhymes with "Llanelli"

LL is sounded by placing the tongue at the front and top of the mouth and then blowing through the teeth, as in pronouncing, Llanelli, Llandudno, Llanon, etc.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/whatsinaname ... o=llanelli

[wayno]

Benelli

I think d-rider meant, something that rhymes with Birelli

[wayno]

Now if you want to play rhyming games, what rhymes with...

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

[D-Rider]

more importantly what the fek rhymes with "Llanelli"

LL is sounded by placing the tongue at the front and top of the mouth and then blowing through the teeth, as in pronouncing, Llanelli, Llandudno, Llanon, etc.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/whatsinaname ... o=llanelli

Correct and accordingly I (and some others I know) take great delight in referring to those bikes as "Benethlis" and the tyres as "Pirethlis"

A friend of mine suggested an epic journey by Benelli on Pirelli to Llanelli - pronouncing the "th" sounds in each - of course

[Paulh]

seems so. I had new Maxxiss tyres fitted in autumn,at a car place, they were not balanced, the fitter saying they did not need it,

Sounds like he just could't be bothered - I've never known a tyre fitter not balance the wheels on any of my bikes as an automatic part of fitting the tyre.

Whether anyone would notice whether a wheel is balanced or not is another question.

[joecrx]

my mate on a honda dullvill never gets his tyres balanced, says its a myth and they are fine , , no wobble , and hes does 50k a year ,

[fatboy]

Whether anyone would notice whether a wheel is balanced or not is another question.[/quote]

This is my point, I was initially concerned but cannot notice the lack of balancing on either wheel, so are you being conned out of another £14 or so per wheel?

[davebms]

Whether anyone would notice whether a wheel is balanced or not is another question.

This is my point, I was initially concerned but cannot notice the lack of balancing on either wheel, so are you being conned out of another £14 or so per wheel?[/quote]

i think we have had this on here before most car fitting places cannot balance bike wheels i do my own and its defo smother with them
balanced (all be it that very little weights are required)

dave

[struv]

might not be relevant but iv a pajero truck now when I bought it it had kingpin remould mud tyres on it and they made a hell of a racket driving down the road like the diff was hanging out .so I bought a set of similar new tyres a respectable brand with very good reviews non remoulds and had them fitted. before with the old tyres no sense of vibration anytime but quite a lot of lead on each wheel .the new tyres were all balanced after fitting and three were perfect no need for any lead and the fourth needed quite a bit and the fitter said it was probably the rim that was out.so in my mind id say car tyres and bike tyres probably have similar qc set up so id say you get what you pay for cheep tyres may well need balancing but ill bet the more expensive branded tyres are a lot better.oh and I agree that checking the balance of the front is a must but I don't think the rear is as important