Balancing Your Wheels
#76
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To really muddy the waters, consider that pros don't ride the bikes any of us ride which would lead me to believe they don't ride the wheels we ride, either. When you have to add weight to your bike to get it up to the UCI lower weight limit, there's something special about your bike that I can't get at my LBS. When a team like Trek / Seaafredo literally has a trailer full of Bontrager XXX race wheels for it's team, which are made with hand-laid carbon in Waterloo WI even when sold commercially, I'm willing to bet that balancing may be part of the equation before the team mechanic ever sees the wheels. (The wheel part is purely speculation on my part, but I do know that top racers don't ride the same bikes we do.)
#77
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This is at the moment, with not-the-lightest wheels and a porky cassette. Includes bottle cages, front and rear blinkies, computer mount, bell, power meter, and of course, pedals.
Riding weight adds 17oz saddle bag with tire (tubular), pump, levers, pliers, 3 allen wrenches, chain tool, valve extension, valve cores, quicklinks, patch kit, zip ties, tape, knife, paper & pencil, needle & thread, bandages, boot, etc., and usually one water bottle.
Riding weight adds 17oz saddle bag with tire (tubular), pump, levers, pliers, 3 allen wrenches, chain tool, valve extension, valve cores, quicklinks, patch kit, zip ties, tape, knife, paper & pencil, needle & thread, bandages, boot, etc., and usually one water bottle.
Here's the weigh-in with lighter (but still 11/34) cassette, 11 speed chain, and took 18g off the blinky mounting bracket, for reduction of 83g.
I'm gonna fly up those hills!
#79
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My wheels and brakes on my tour custom are more than that. LOL
Same as my frame, fork, stem and rack was when I brought it home.
Same as my frame, fork, stem and rack was when I brought it home.
#80
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Not a bad idea for some circumstances. For mountain bikes, probably pointless... but not all bikes are the same.
I'm not going to fret about adding a few grams to my cargo bike wheel, because that bike — which has fat tires on 20" rims and steers by a control bar — can get a real nasty, violent speed wobble. It's slammed itself from side to side hard enough to lose directional control and rip through the seals, spraying oil all over the place in the process, plus the fork was permanently deformed and had to be replaced. Anything that helps mitigate this problem is worth trying.
Having also previously experienced speed wobble during a fast descent on a road bike, I'll be doing my road wheels too; seems well worth the few minutes of effort.
I'm not going to fret about adding a few grams to my cargo bike wheel, because that bike — which has fat tires on 20" rims and steers by a control bar — can get a real nasty, violent speed wobble. It's slammed itself from side to side hard enough to lose directional control and rip through the seals, spraying oil all over the place in the process, plus the fork was permanently deformed and had to be replaced. Anything that helps mitigate this problem is worth trying.
Having also previously experienced speed wobble during a fast descent on a road bike, I'll be doing my road wheels too; seems well worth the few minutes of effort.
#81
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Here is the Late Jobst Brandt trying to educate an idiot. https://www.yarchive.net/bike/wheel_balancing.html
Dude it's 9 grams.
Last edited by hydrocarbon; 07-15-21 at 04:11 AM.
#82
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#83
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Not a bad idea for some circumstances. For mountain bikes, probably pointless... but not all bikes are the same.
I'm not going to fret about adding a few grams to my cargo bike wheel, because that bike — which has fat tires on 20" rims and steers by a control bar — can get a real nasty, violent speed wobble. It's slammed itself from side to side hard enough to lose directional control and rip through the seals, spraying oil all over the place in the process, plus the fork was permanently deformed and had to be replaced. Anything that helps mitigate this problem is worth trying.
Having also previously experienced speed wobble during a fast descent on a road bike, I'll be doing my road wheels too; seems well worth the few minutes of effort.
I'm not going to fret about adding a few grams to my cargo bike wheel, because that bike — which has fat tires on 20" rims and steers by a control bar — can get a real nasty, violent speed wobble. It's slammed itself from side to side hard enough to lose directional control and rip through the seals, spraying oil all over the place in the process, plus the fork was permanently deformed and had to be replaced. Anything that helps mitigate this problem is worth trying.
Having also previously experienced speed wobble during a fast descent on a road bike, I'll be doing my road wheels too; seems well worth the few minutes of effort.
#84
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"That sounds reasonable except that the 150lb rider would not reach
nearly the speed of the 200lb rider, position and clothing being
equal. What differences did you observe on these runs?"
_
Yeah, I know who Jobst Brandt is. That claim is BS; the guy's far from infallible. Seems like this "I haven't personally experienced this on my own bike, therefore it doesn't exist" tunnel vision is affecting his judgement enough to cause real reaches of logic at times, and makes him come across as a bit of a pedantic dickhead.nearly the speed of the 200lb rider, position and clothing being
equal. What differences did you observe on these runs?"
_
You can ride it just fine on flats with the Bosch Cargo Line system off, and gravity is plenty for it to be absolutely amazing downhill — except for when the times when that front wheel starts shaking, which I'm hoping to sort out by balancing the wheel, upgrading the fork and installing a steering damper — but going up hills is absolutely brutal without the motor assistance. Good strength training, though.
Last edited by hydrocarbon; 07-15-21 at 07:57 AM.
#85
Clark W. Griswold
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Like most cargo bikes like that you can ride it sans motor but do I really want to, not really. The Loads are amazingly fun though, a full suspension cargo bike is super comfortable and great for the kids since they aren't going to be so jarred to death while riding and the parents aren't either. We sell them at the shop and I ride one frequently with child and adult passengers or to go pick up food or beverage for the shop sometimes. I would love to own one but I don't carry nearly enough to make it worth while my Supercharger2 is plenty for my needs.
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#86
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#87
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Like most cargo bikes like that you can ride it sans motor but do I really want to, not really. The Loads are amazingly fun though, a full suspension cargo bike is super comfortable and great for the kids since they aren't going to be so jarred to death while riding and the parents aren't either. We sell them at the shop and I ride one frequently with child and adult passengers or to go pick up food or beverage for the shop sometimes. I would love to own one but I don't carry nearly enough to make it worth while my Supercharger2 is plenty for my needs.
The more I get the 60 tuned in, the less I ride my other bikes; I just love the way the big R&M handles; it tracks like it's on rails. I have a bike comparable to the Supercharger (modified Moustache X-Road FS 7) and I barely use it even for commuting and solo trips without cargo. There's just something addictive about the way the full-suspension cargo rig eats up road and trail. Try it with a decent air shock sometime!
The 75 is surprisingly agile too, but I'll take the 60 every time unless I really need that third seat or that extra 150 mm of cargo bed. Can't wait to get the speed-wobble issue sorted; the local Vespa garage should be able to do the proper dynamic-balancing job that this fat-tire/small-rim combo needs.
#88
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Yeah, mine are permanently set to "Turbo" mode. It's so much more fun with boost.
The more I get the 60 tuned in, the less I ride my other bikes; I just love the way the big R&M handles; it tracks like it's on rails. I have a bike comparable to the Supercharger (modified Moustache X-Road FS 7) and I barely use it even for commuting and solo trips without cargo. There's just something addictive about the way the full-suspension cargo rig eats up road and trail. Try it with a decent air shock sometime!
The 75 is surprisingly agile too, but I'll take the 60 every time unless I really need that third seat or that extra 150 mm of cargo bed. Can't wait to get the speed-wobble issue sorted; the local Vespa garage should be able to do the proper dynamic-balancing job that this fat-tire/small-rim combo needs.
The more I get the 60 tuned in, the less I ride my other bikes; I just love the way the big R&M handles; it tracks like it's on rails. I have a bike comparable to the Supercharger (modified Moustache X-Road FS 7) and I barely use it even for commuting and solo trips without cargo. There's just something addictive about the way the full-suspension cargo rig eats up road and trail. Try it with a decent air shock sometime!
The 75 is surprisingly agile too, but I'll take the 60 every time unless I really need that third seat or that extra 150 mm of cargo bed. Can't wait to get the speed-wobble issue sorted; the local Vespa garage should be able to do the proper dynamic-balancing job that this fat-tire/small-rim combo needs.
Mine isn't full suspension it is a hardtail for FS you want the Delite. However yes semi similar but missing a battery and Rohloff. Still a cool bike though but I would rather have their tandem, always wanted a tandem and a Bosch equipped one could be quite fun especially if you could dual motor it somehow. Two Performance line speeds and 4 625wh batteries would just be insanity.
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#89
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My bike has really wide rims (25mm internal width) so I'm not really too concerned with the lead weights interfering with the tire beads. Putting some rim tape over the weights seems like a reasonable alternative to epoxy.
I understand that an automotive tire is considerably heavier than a bicycle tire. However, when I pick-up my rear wheel and give the tire a good spin, it's very obvious the wheel isn't balanced... likely because my wheels came with these insanely long tubeless valve stems. One thing I'm going to do is buy much shorter valve stems and see what that does. I also have my speed sensor magnet on the opposite side of the valve stem, at least on my rear wheel, so maybe a lighter valve stem and the relatively heavy magnet will come 'close-enough' to balancing the rear wheel.
I understand that an automotive tire is considerably heavier than a bicycle tire. However, when I pick-up my rear wheel and give the tire a good spin, it's very obvious the wheel isn't balanced... likely because my wheels came with these insanely long tubeless valve stems. One thing I'm going to do is buy much shorter valve stems and see what that does. I also have my speed sensor magnet on the opposite side of the valve stem, at least on my rear wheel, so maybe a lighter valve stem and the relatively heavy magnet will come 'close-enough' to balancing the rear wheel.
I worked as. shop mechanic during the age when everybody wanted a wheel magnet bike computer so I installed a lot of them. Naturally, I wanted to install the wheel magnet on the lightest part of the rim. What I discovered was that when I took a front wheel and let it rotate until it came to rest, the valve stem was almost always at the top.
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My greatest fear is all of my kids standing around my coffin and talking about "how sensible" dad was.