Does anyone actually do this?
I remember reading some article, I don’t recall where, that seemed to show this was entirely unnecessary. I know that I’ve never “balanced” my wheels. I have some that when spinning the wheels on a stand they seem to bounce a bit and I can’t feel any difference between these and any other wheels I own when actually out on the road.
$36 to save “up to 1 watt at 30mph” seems a bit rich for my blood.
I haven’t done it but I’m interested in making sure my wheels are balanced; not because of saving 1w but because I’ve had some problems with speed wobbles. I won’t be buying this kit though, I’ll just add a magnet or stick on weight.
Pick one:
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Even spoke tension and wheel dish
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Lateral + radial trued wheel
You can’t have both!
I don’t see what this has to do weight balancing.
I’ve been over 50mph many times decending mountains on unbalanced wheels and could never feel it.
i have been balancing my wheels for a few years now.
I must say, it’s a cool product. I’ve always found it annoying when my bike is on a stand and the rear wheel is spinning that it wobbles like shown in the video. But once there’s a rider aboard I am hard pressed to feel like this negatively affects my handling. Of course maybe I don’t know what I’m missing. Either way, nice concept at an affordable price.
I’ve been over 50mph many times decending mountains on unbalanced wheels and could never feel it.
x2
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Does anyone actually do this?
https://silca.cc/...mputer-magnet-system
Don’t think there’s any wattage savings to be had from balancing wheels. From what I’ve heard and experienced over the years, speed wobbles from unbalanced wheels are generally only a problem with super light climbing wheels, as well as potentially the combination of those wheels with certain frame geometries, frame stiffness (or mostly, lack of stiffness) and weight distributions. For most people it will have no effect but for a few people it may have a significant effect in reducing the possibility of speed wobbles.
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i never noticed any wheel hop at high speed long ago prior to deep carbon wheels
no issue until i had to use longer noticeably heavier valve stems when using deep carbon wheels.
that is when i started to balance my wheels.
the wheel balancing is a fast and easy procedure and cost very little and ends wheel hop that occurs at higher speeds .
i have no idea if it saves any wattage.
it just makes the bicycle feel safer and handle alot better on descents
once you try balancing… you will wonder why you never did it sooner…
I make my wheels as true and round as possible. (I don’t worry about tension too much
Then I make sure I seat my tire properly so it’s as round and true as I can get it.
Last but not least, I put my magnet opposite my valve stem, (particularly if it’s a long valve on a deepish rim.
I spin the wheel to check the above and adjust as I think is sensible.
If there is a consistent place where the wheel stops spinning, I may let air out, spin the tire around the rim 180 deg, re-inflate and retest. Actually I really only do this for race wheels for race day.
I’ve been to almost 100kph on a downhill and wheel imbalance has never been an issue for me, thanks maybe to my procedure above. On training rides, I never push the downhills that hard and rarely get over 75-80kph, so there’s far less potential for imbalance to be an issue.
I’m going to give wheel balancing a try, as I have had speed wobble on various bikes with various carbon wheels. Had it with my Storck Scenero with 404/808 Zipps, my R5ca with Enve 3.4s and my P3 with Enve 8.9s. The P3 has been by far the worst, although this came after hitting a few ruts in quick succession on my last IM. Not sure if something was knocked out of true, knocked loose or what? But the speed wobbles were that bad I was riding the brakes on all of the descents after that. I had previously descended on that bike up to 48mph on IM Lanzarote with no issues. I am not bothered about any claimed wattage savings, as my concerns over instability would trump even a 40 watt saving at the moment. I have previously posted about this on this forum and got some solid advice and articles to read, but I am going to get my wheels checked out/serviced, then balance them. I was also thinking about chopping in my P3 and maybe getting a Cannonade Slice, after the realisation that the roads in the UK are pretty shit, the UK IM courses are far from flat and the weather is generally unpredictable. I’m pretty crap on the bike, so would prefer a more enjoyable experience which a more forgiving frame may give me. I’ve had my confidence knocked and its very frustrating.
You could also buy lead tape, which you can put inside your rims and not lose any aero.
@ TriDork
You mean you don’t line up the tyre logos and the valve stem … ???
Shame on you … !!! lol
WD
You could also buy lead tape, which you can put inside your rims and not lose any aero.
that is what i did to my wheels.
I don’t bother. This is with 80mm valve stems which tend to be heavy. No issues with wheel balance. Oh I’m sure they are slightly out of balance. But if it isn’t causing any issues?
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i never noticed any wheel hop at high speed
until i had to use long valve stems when using deep carbon wheels.
that is when i started to balance my wheels.
the wheel balancing is a fast and easy procedure and cost very little and ends wheel hop that occurs at higher speeds .
i have no idea if it saves any wattage.
it just makes the bicycle feel safer and handle alot better on descents
once you try balancing… you will wonder why you never did it sooner…
I guess the lack of wheel balancing explains the massive number of high-speed crashes that occurred in the mountain stages of the Tour, the Vuelta, and the Giro for, say, the first hundred years or so before this technology became available. Oh, wait…
@ TriDork
You mean you don’t line up the tyre logos and the valve stem … ???
Shame on you … !!! lol
WD
hehehe.
Actually, I often start with the logo’s where God intended (opposite the valve), but relocate them if need be. Thankfully the weight of the logo paint generally balances out the valve, so I’m good to go.
Damn, were polar opposites lol, I have to have mine with the valve !
They have even got to be on the same letter :
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/Peter1/MTB/DSC08315_zpsb2671014.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/Peter1/MTB/DSC05930.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/Peter1/MTB/DSC06580.jpg
Although slight compromises have to be made as they are always a little different from one side to the other …
My tri bike is on tubs so I have no choice, at least they agree with me though - logos at the valve … lol
WD