Wheel balancing

[Surly13]

Was wondering if anyone balances their wheels themselves? I have installed tube type tires on old dirt bikes before but I have never tried balancing a wheel. There are some pretty inexpensive stands online starting at around $60. It seems like it would be a lot cheaper and faster to pick up one of these stands and avoid taking my bike into a shop for new tires. Does anyone have any experience with this or know if an inexpensive stand would work well enough?

[brennahm]

What kind of tires do you have? Rim locks?

If your answer is knobbies and/or yes, then don't bother.

[Surly13]

I run dual sport 50/50 tires. I ride the KLR650 on pavement for extended periods at 60 plus mph sometimes so I want to have the wheels balanced. I ordered a NO-MAR balancing stand that came with several stick on weights and different size cones to work with many axle sizes. It was $99 bucks. Found a bunch of videos on using static balancing stands on you-tube. Looks super easy to do. Will let you know how it goes.

I've got a new pair of Shinko 244 dual sport tires to put on but will probably wait a couple more months. The back tire is completely bald in the center but unfortunately I won't be doing any dirt riding for a while so might as well leave the old tires on for now.

[brennahm]

Good luck. And yes, the static stands are quite easy to use.

[GINORMOUS]

on my streetbike, i changed my tires by hand by myself. After time i realized that balancing them was a waste of time as they were within a ounce or two off, i never felt it never had problems, on the dirtbike same thing if your just running a tube and tire no locks, dont bother. now if your going to be racing on pavement at very high speeds, yeah get them balanced but anything under 150 i never felt on the streetbike. Im sure i wont feel an off balance when im offroad going over bumps...lol