Wheel balancing help

daposaspo said:

Time to replace my front tire and need a tip on how to to balance it.

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Well, that's a good one. I always just take my wheel off and take it to a shop to have a new tire put on. They only charge $7.50 to mount and spin balance it. But the labor (without saddlebags) is $29.95 for them to do it all. I haven't mounted a tire myself since the seventies. Back then it wasn't always that easy for me either. Every once in a while I'd end up pinching a tube if I wasn't careful. It's amazing how I made it without a tire balance back then. LOL

The only way to balance it at home is with a truing stand. The better motorcycle spin balancers are much more accurate. Your local bike shop should have one, but make sure it is large enough to balance with rotors and drivepulley in case of the rear. Some of the motorcycle balancers are cheap little contraptions.

The improved ride quality is well worth the 10 bucks.
Guess I don't have to mention aligning the dot on the tire with the valve stem.

Thanks guys. Guess I’ll just take it into the shop for a spin job. In the past like back in my youth in the late sixties I used to put my wheel on a spindle and line it up between two garbage cans and spin it marking the high points with chalk until the wheel stopped in a different position each time. I dreaded the thought of doing that again. It was crude but it worked. Think I’ll follow some useful advice and just pull the wheel and take it to the shop for the change over and balance. I must also say that beating the tire off and putting the new on is something I was not looking forward too either.