Bicycle Repair

[PAF]

Hi,

Does anyone know how to properly balance a bicycle tire?

Please help

[Don Wiss]

On Tue, 5 Aug 2003 21:09:22 -0400, PAF asked:

Your bicycle is your home? I suggest you ask in one of these newsgroups:

rec.bicycles.misc, rec.bicycles.tech

Don .

[Desert Traveler]

Put one in the other hand?

[Joseph Meehan]

No need to, but you do want to adjust the spokes to "true" the wheel.

[meirman]

In alt.home.repair on Tue, 5 Aug 2003 22:12:13 -0700 "Desert Traveler" posted:

Isn't there a statue of this atop the courthouse downtown? A blindfolded woman with a bicycle wheel in each hand.

Once in a while the tire is long enough that part if it doesn't go far enough into the rim. Then the bike goes upsydaisy, upsydaisy, upsydaisy. Is that what you meant, PAF? It's hard to get that to stop but I think I've managed to spread the excess length evenly around the wheel. Or buy a new tire, and take the old one with you as a spare.

Meirman

If emailing, please let me know whether or not you are posting the same letter.

Change domain to erols.com, if necessary.

[peter]

A few people do. Not as many as you would expect. Many folks who work at bike shops truing wheels don't have a clue as to how to do it right.

One person who does know is Jobst Brandt. He wrote a book called "The Bicycle Wheel" which tells about as much about bike wheels and how to true them as you would want to know.

It takes a bit of skill and practice as well as quite a bit of knowledge. You would be wise to investigate bike shops in your area to find a skilled wheel builder.

Good luck.

Peter

[Davant95]

That is the true, need a bit of skill and a lot of practice. If you are willing to pay somebody to do it, you can experiment it first and more likely after a week or tighting and losing the spoke you will need the expert to finish it for you. Find the bumpy on top and the wiggle on the side of the rim then adjust the spoke. That's all you need to do but required skill and a lot of practice. Good luck.

Davant95

[Tiler Stone]

Geez, if only I had your problem....how to balance a bicycle tire, hahaha. Oh, well, school will be starting soon so maybe you'll have other things to concern yourself with, huh?

[B a r r y B u r k e J r .]

Do you mean balance or true?

Truing is the act of getting the wheel round, equidistant from the hub at all points, and straight (the opposite of a potato chip) in the vertical plane.

Balance is using weights to make each section of the wheel the exact same weight.

Balancing a bike tire dosen't get you anything, truing is very important.

Check out and go to the bicycle repair section.

Barry

[Jim K]

Bicycle tires are normally not "balanced" in the way a car tire is. You might mean true the wheel. You not only have to get it round but also straight as in from side to side. There are special jigs that you can get to hold a wheel while truing it - the tire is normally off. For side to side, you loosen the spoke on the side that leans out and tighten the side that leans in.

Out of round is similar but you loosen both side spokes on the high side and tighten them on the low side. The first couple of hundred times you do this it can be really frustrating, until you get the hang of it :-)