My local mech told me he puts on new tires but doesn't balance them, because
(1) as an upstart, he doesn't now want to buy the REAL equipment a pro should use because it's too expensive, and besides
(2) "Anymore the new tires today are so well manufactured they don't really need it."

I read in the archive an opinion or two that balancing is overrated, but I didn't see (in my nonexhaustive search) any long threads on the specific topic.  So I thought I'd ask.

Thanks,
Mike D.

One way to find out for sure is to take the bike out and drive it, if it vibrates you need to balance your tires.  When I did mine I needed like a 50 gram weight but couldnt find any that would work on my wheels, so I just used the stock 20 gram and it seemed to work good enough, though I do recall some slight vibrations around 85 mph.

I would think any wheel needs to be balanced if it is to be used at highway speeds.

Just b/c the tire is balanced doesn't mean the rim or the rim + tire will be balanced.

I thought the expensive equipment consisted of some weights and a manual balancing machine. Most mc wheels seemed be balanced manually as opposed to the high $ machines used by Discount Tire and others.  

My 2 cents.

If you buy a quality tire and mount it properly you can usually get away without having them balanced from my past experiece with tires.

As for proper mounting the tire tire companies when they make tire they check the balance at the factory or the tire by itself and they put a mak on the tire usually in the form of a pinted dot as to the point where there tire should be mounted in relationship to the valve stem.  I guess the point where the dot is on the tire is the point at which the tire would need some amount of weight to to be in balance and they figure where the valve stem on the rim is located is the heavy point on the rim.

Of the last four sets of tires that I have used over the last couple of years I have mounted three sets and never bothered to balance them because I did not notice any issues up to 90mph amd one set I had mounted by a local shop were I watched them attempt to balance them and the front tire/wheel did not need any weight added and the rear needed one very small weight.  

I guess it depends on the tire and how well it is made.  As for the tires that I have used  three sets were Bridgestone and one set was Conti.

You don't necessarily need a fancy machine to balance.  put the axle through the wheel, and hold the ends of the axle up with something.  The backs of a couple of chairs will do; I used a pair of 12" 4x4s.  Spin the wheel and find where the heavy spot is.  I found this method to be sufficient to find whether there is a serious out-of-balance condition.

On my last tire change, I used tape and pennies (0.1 oz each) as temporary wheel weights, to try to get the wheel balanced.  I found that 2 pennies in one spot gave me a tire that never stopped at the same point (no heavy spot).   This would support the claim that modern tires are "pretty well balanced", since two pennies is about 0.2 ounces, or about 5.7 grams.    The smallest tire weights I've seen are 0.25 ounces (about 7 grams), so I have to believe that 0.2 ounces is nothing to fret over.

many tires now are manufactured so precicely that they are designed to be oriented on the wheel to account for the valve stem.

if it vibrates so bad your ass goes numb or you fly off, then you need to ballance them, otherwise don't worry about it.

Yea axle and static balancing is good, but then again I have ridden on un balanced ones... made no diff... so balancing ... waaaaay over rated.
Cool.
Srinath.

I didn't have my Maxxis Promax tires balanced. There is a slight vibration over 100mph. Since I don't go there too often it's not an issue.

Thanks so muSince I don't go there too often it's not an issue.ch for all the replies.  I thought I felt some vibes at 70mph on I-40 here in bumpy Oklahoma, so I'll try it a couple more times and places and see if it was just the road.  Meantime I'll see what the other guys are charging, and if cheap enough I'll just have them do it to be sure.  Thanks again,
Mike D.