BMW R1200RT/R1250RT Forum

I live pretty far from a BMW Dealer/Repair Shop. I was wondering if I could get the rear tire balanced somewhere other than a BMW shop? How do they balance the rear tires anyway? Do they use a car wheel balancer?

Any decent bike shop can balance a bike wheel.You can do it yourself easily enough.Search the web on how to.I use 2 axle stands,a good piece of steel tube and a central block either side of  wheel(Not yet done my RT wheel)Weights are cheap of eBay and away you go.Having said that,I only balance my front wheels on me bikes,can't see the point in doing the rear.

BMW Dealer have an "Adaptor" which attaches to the wheel and then balance is done on a normal Bike Wheel Balancer, at least that's what they told me. In the past I have had Tyres fitted at a local independent Bike shop. When I picked up the wheels I noticed the lack of any weights on the Rear Wheel. I queried this and was told, "Nah ya don't balance shaft drive rear's mate". Load of tosh. I took the wheel with the newly fitted tyre to a BMW dealer where they balanced it for me free of charge. Incidentally, it did require quite a lot of lead !!. I now use Automoto at Bellerby or National Bike Tyres at Aycliffe, both of whom have no problem balancing BMW rear wheels. I wonder if burridge01 requests Tyre Fitters not to balance the rear wheels on his car ?. An out of balance wheel (Front or Rear) is not good for Suspension, Wheel Bearings and Tyre wear.

RS Workshop Equipment do motorcycle wheel balancers, MOTORCYCLE WHEEL BALANCERS (rsworkshopequipment.com)

NBT at Newton Aycliffe use equipment similar to this with cones & spacers to fit the RT rear wheel. Car wheel balancers can be adapted to take motorcycle wheels.

With the traditional manual wheel balancing jig, adapters can be used to fit the RT rear wheel too.

Easy to balance a wheel with a static wheel balancer. Search nerd there a quite a few to choose from. If your tyre fitter says the rear does not need balancing then I wouldn't use them. IMHO it's just as important to balance the rear as it is the front. You may well not feel an out of balance rear but boy it cannot do the wheel bearings and final drive any good. Also worth mentioning if you have TMPS fitted the wheels will be significantly out of balance.

When using a static wheel balancer (jig),  where across the width of the rim are the balance weights attached, left, centre or right.

I have noticed at NBT who use a dynamic balancer that balance weights can be stuck on both sides of the centre of the rim and not opposite each other on the circumference of the wheel.

David not sure it matters because the weights will have the same effect providing their positions are all inline across the rim. I put mine on the edge of the rim and if necessary split the weights either side. Think this is the common approach. If you have spokes then you can use weights that attach to the spokes and I believe are reusable but I have never tried this. When balancing I use gaffer tape to temporarily stick the weights and when happy with amount and position then peel off the backing and stick. Also I clean the rim with a little brake cleaner to degrease the paintwork.

Static wheel balance and adapters for BMW bikes from Abba.


https://abbastands.co.uk/product-detail ... cer&pid=14

Depending on the width of the wheel rim, dynamic balancing can be more accurate that static balancing. Balance weights positioned to one side of a wide wheel rim can produce forces to unbalance the wheel. This will be why on wheels dynamically balanced at NBT, weights are on both sides of the centre and not necessarily opposite each other on the circumference of the wheel.

I think in practise it doesn't really matter for most road riders. As the tyre wears I'm sure super accurate balancing goes out. How are MotoGP wheels balanced ?

Levisp wrote:How are MotoGP wheels balanced.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFsuwBnpYjw

Thanks for the video David. So how I do mine except I don't use gaffer tape over the weight. Those static balancers look just like the Abba ones.

Thanks everyone for the inputs. Looks like the Abba web site is the way to go. I think I'll have the shop balance the tire this time but I'll put the Stand and jig on order for the next go around. Thanks again. Great data.

heynez wrote: Thanks everyone for the inputs. Looks like the Abba web site is the way to go. I think I'll have the shop balance the tire this time but I'll put the Stand and jig on order for the next go around. Thanks again. Great data.

Looks like you are in the USA so here is another balancer to consider.


http://www.marcparnes.com/BMW_Motorcycl ... lancer.htm


Sure there are many more.

Levisp wrote:
Looks like you are in the USA so here is another balancer to consider.


http://www.marcparnes.com/BMW_Motorcycle_Wheel_Balancer.htm


Sure there are many more.

That looks like a nice setup. Everyone has some jack stands hanging around. Easy to store too.


Thanks again for your help.