MOPED ARMY

I think I'm going to give it a go tomorrow. I have a grip of lead strips at work, like you'd put on a golf club (if you're a nerd) l

Smart man, Surprised this topic hasn’t came up more often, over 50 mph is definitely needed, Had wheels done on a bike at a motorcycle shop that’s a long been gone, it made a big difference, I got a few fast bikes right now that could use wheel balancing

How does a carb work in a vacuum?

Wouldn’t your tires go flat?

Would you need a snorkel?

I’m confused (edited)

I did suspension, brakes, tires, alignments, balancing, tire matching, etc on race cars and bikes. Sorry if I have an opinion based on my experience.

If you get a "seat of the pants" effect from balancing your wheels and it makes you feel better, that's awesome.

Uh, you want those on the outer portion of the rim at least. Not there on the "spokes"

I have my Maxi wheels both balanced by a local motorcycle/scooter shop. Yes it makes a world of difference especially since my current setup is running between 50-55mph. It's definately much safer at speeds above 45 there is no wobble or such. I had this service performed when I had the inner tubes/tires replaced and also had the wheel bearings cleaned/greased/repacked

My Bud bought a set of Wheel's from 1977 and they did everything he ever needed but they were out of balance. I got a lot of stuff to but to tell the truth the real need for balanced wheels isnt that importn't I have a few things bu its so rare to actually have a problem (edited)

I have dyna-beads in some of my faster bikes, you can notice them; but they also have a tendency to create flat spots in the center patch of the tire faster. I’ll be using lead on the rim next time.

It’s not hard to do, I think it’s worth effort.

They make weights that clip on spokes, or use the stick on weights that are used for alloy car rims. You can buy them, or find a cool tire shop and ask the tire guy if he'll flow you a strip. They break off in sections for whatever size you need.

I've also seen motorcycle wheel balancers at harbor freight.

Always stick weights to the rim. And spoke weights nearest to the rim. Don't want them to fly off.

Once you get your wheel static balanced so it never stops in the same place while free spinning, you might have to Krazy glue the weight on, because the stick on weights don't usually conform to a skinny moped wheel and dirt and oil will get to the double sided tape and they'll fly off.

Also, if your tire slips on the rim, or you skid a flat spot in your tire, hit a curb and damage your rim, and just normal tire wear will throw the balance off.

If you want to get really serious, and you have mag wheels, spin the wheel without the tire and find the heavy spot. You'll need really good bearings and no drag on the brakes.

Hopefully you have a good rim, and it doesn't have a big heavy lump in it. If it does have a big heavy spot, put the tire on and forget what I'm about to type next.

After you've found the slight heavy spot, file or grind away the inner section of the rim (where the tube would sit) until the rim is balanced. Obviously make sure there's enough metal left so the wheel isn't compromised.

On a well made rim, you shouldn't need to grind a lot, like less than an ounce. Do a little at a time, check it, grind some more.

Now you have your perfectly balanced race-ready wheel.

Mount the tire and tube,( unless it's tubeless.)

Now, since you don't have access to a machine that will spin your wheel under load (like a Dyno or a tire shaver) ride the bike for a day or so to fully seat the tire, dry up excess lube, etc.

Then balance the tire to the rim.

Usually it'll be heaviest at the valve stem. Because the valve stem adds weight, and the tube is reinforced there. If you have high quality tire, there might be a little circle, triangle,or a yellow dot painted on the sidewall. That's where the factory marks the lightest spot on the tire and you line it up with your valve stem.

Sometimes the factory is wrong.

But anyway... if you have a pronounced heavy spot thats not at the valve, mark that spot, spin the tire so that spot is opposite the valve stem, and see if it's any better.

You can keep messing with the tire position on the rim till you find the best spot, then balance it with (hopefully) a minimum amount of weight.

Congratulations, you just spent days balancing your moped wheel.

Now go out and hit a curb or do a big skid and ruin all your hard work.

Amazon has some low cost motorcycle wheel balancers. I've done this a few times and I found to balance the wheel then mount the tire and check the balance again, You might have to spin the tire on the wheel a time or two to get it right.

Just did tire/wheel work on the bakers bike. New tire on the rear and same old on the front.

I cleaned them, re-trued, and then static balanced.

Both front and back were about 1 oz heavy on the valve stem side so I added what it took to make them static balance.

The bearings were spinning super free, wheel settled wherever with no noticeable heavy spot.

Got it all together and going down the highway this morning it was very noticeable that the front wheel was wobbling. Like 4x worse than before.

Since the front tire had close to 3000 miles on it, I’m wondering if it wore unevenly to compensate and I just messed that up with the weights?

I keep doing things that are supposed to help and keep getting opposite results. Whoever said ignorance is bliss is an idiot.

I know that adding 1 oz made this front wheel unrideable. And that was making it static balance. So, yeah, it will be felt for sure if it’s off by that much and you’re going above 30.

I think I’ll throw a fresh tire on there this evening and see if it’s just that the old one wore uneven. Re-truing the wheel, and adding weight at the same time with an old tire is probably known to be a bad idea for people that have experience but…

Can confirm. We static balanced them, just welded a spare axle to a piece of angle and clamped it to a bench and made sure it was level. then just added stick on wheel weights to the rim as needed. It definitely made a difference and didn't take much time.