Wheel balancing

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Doverhay
Posts: 306
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2018 6:43 pm
Location: TA66NN

Wheel balancing

Post by Doverhay » Thu Jun 13, 2019 12:01 pm

With the new “Comfort Suspension” fitted and now enjoying the bumpy country roads it was now time to replace the very worn Pirelli front tyres. After discussions with other a few Triking owners I decided this time to try the Michelin Pilot tyres (thanks Mark). Although the tyres are designed for the rear of a Motor bike they seem ideal for the front of a Triking,
I had them fitted by tyre fitters at my local Motor bike shop and had them replace one broken spoke at the same time. Fitted the wheels and took it out for a spin, up to 50mph everything was fine and as I’ve never had to balance my wheels before, the feeling I had at the wheel once I got up to 60mph was frustrating.
Never having to balance the wheels before I again spoke to a few owners to see what they were using as there were Spoke weights and self-adhesive rim weights available. The cheapest way out seemed to be the advised way to go, this was with the self-adhesive rim weights.
Removed the disc brake calipers from the car and loosened of the wheel bearings to allow the wheel to spin freely. Spinning the wheels many time they both kept stopping in the place, basically with the valve at the bottom which is what you would expect; however, to balance one of the the wheels I had to add 75 grams of weight, although this seemed to balance the wheel, and a test drive confirmed, I wasn’t happy with having that much weight spinning around in front of me.
I contacted my tyre supplier and asked them if it was possible that there was problem with the tyres, their reply was for me to return them to go back to Michelin for testing, this would be an 8/12 week process. I wasn’t happy with this as if no fault was found I’d be the looser financially.
I sent a picture of the wheel with the weights fitted and asked them to forward it on to Michelin to see if they could suggest that if it wasn’t a tyre problem what else would cause the need for so much weight, their reply was to check the alignment of the rim to the hub.
Now recently I’ve had problems with keeping the spokes tight, It could be possible that just checking and re-tightening the spokes could be putting the wheel out of balance and may be the problem could lie here; however, I’ve not had the problem before so why should it start now???
Anyone else had this sort of problem?
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Weg
Posts: 807
Joined: Tue Sep 25, 2018 7:30 pm
Location: Huntingdonshire

Re: Wheel balancing

Post by Weg » Thu Jun 13, 2019 1:31 pm

Having had a spoke replaced by the experts does ring an alarm bell.
Is the rim running true? You can check that by jacking up, offering a fixed point near the rim and spinning the wheel.
Better still, remove the tyre to check axial and radial truth.
Sounds like it does need truing properly, not just tightening loose spokes.

When balancing the front wheels, it helps to remove the front wheel bearings, wash all grease out and give a light spray with WD40, remove the grease seal, reassemble lightly turning the wheel nut till no play is felt.
You then have minimal resistance to give a better ‘stop in any position’ when adding weights.

Richard and Pat
Posts: 778
Joined: Wed Sep 26, 2018 2:44 pm
Location: Biggleswade

Re: Wheel balancing

Post by Richard and Pat » Thu Jun 13, 2019 2:18 pm

What Tony said re setting up for checking.
Needing so much weight myself on only one wheel after rebuilding YP's wheels I have opted for https://www.dynabeads.co.uk/ and have them in Squeaker too. Not tried in YP yet but going up the M1 to Stonleigh last year in Squeaker the front wheels [unbalanced] were shaking their heads but whilst not done exact same test again they do seem better at speed. Time will tell.
I did consider these spoke weights https://www.feked.com/spoke-wheel-balan ... t-15g.html prior to opting for DynaBeads.

Musselermark
Posts: 29
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 7:21 am
Location: Norfolk

Re: Wheel balancing

Post by Musselermark » Thu Jun 13, 2019 7:42 pm

I have Michelin pilots and have 35gms on one wheel and 10gms on the other front wheel.

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