I just purchased a set of Zipp 404’s and mounted the tires last night. I spun the rear wheel in my hand and it felt out of balance. Wondering if anybody balances their wheels like a car’s wheels by adding small weights to the rim to get it to balance or is this not necessary. It seems that with such a long valve on the tire the wheels would be out of balance without counter weights to balance it out.
Thanks
When I stopped by my LBS last night, the wrench was applying glue to my new Stratus DV wheels on a truing stand. I noticed that the wheels are heavy on the side opposite the valve stem. Reynolds obviously weighted that side to offset the additional weight of the stem. Probably not exactly balanced, but a lot closer than if there were no weights.
why is it so obvious that reynolds weighted the side opposite the valve stem? All wheels are a little bit heavier opposite the valve drilling.
It’s my understanding that there are no issues with bicycle wheel balance. You can’t compare bike wheels with car wheels; the RPMs and weight differentials are too great. Don’t worry about it at all. I’d worry about the wrench who was trying to balance those other wheels!
I got the impression from the way the wheel moved on the truing rig that there was more weight differential than just a 1/4" hole in the carbon. The wrench wasn’t trying to balance them, he was just using the truing stand as a convenient way to hold the wheel while he carefully applied glue to the the rim.
Years ago I was surprised to see that the mechanics at the Daytona and Sebring 24 hour races just used a simple, static, bubble level to balance the wheels for cars that ran at 200mph+ for hours and hours. No fancy dynamic balancers. So, I agree that any imbalance in a 700cm wheel with 19 or 20 cm tires isn’t going to be noticeable.
You’d be surprised how much that little hole effects balance on a truing stand.
I’m pretty fuseamilar with the manufacturing process for the old lew rims, and reynolds, while slightly modifying the rim, should a virtually identical process. I would be amazed if reynolds weighted the wheels to balance them.
You might want to put your spoke magnet opposite the valve though, that won’t hurt anything.
Enjoy the wheels they are one of the strongest carbon rims out there.