Balancing Tubeless Wheel Setup?

[citizenmtb]

Hey,

I know it's not a popular thing to do, but i notice a significant difference at speed in having well balanced wheels. With a traditional tube setup and some lead weights it's easy to do.

I've just picked up a new wheelset thats lighter and gone for tubeless which i had hoped would offset the need for balancing but they seem to be worse. So, has anyone found a good method for balancing a tubeless setup? Seem's it might be a bit tricky with the fluid rolling around inside.

[richardxjr]

8 days late

[BenGismo]

You should balance them without any sealant in (to offset tyre imperfections, rim imbalance or valve location imbalance)

...then put the sealant in afterwards..... as the sealant will only move around the wheel anyway and cant be compensated for as it doesnt stay still. At speed it spreads fairly evenly around the inside of the tyre anyway and should not imbalance it

Almost always, the valve location is the heaviest part of the rim so you add tiny amounts of weight opposite to start with and try to get it so its completely neutral all the way round.

Just make sure your wheel is really true first though.... as that's normally what id look at if there is a perceivable shake/wobble rather then trying to balance a wheel that isnt true as balancing it wont really help and isnt fixing the real problem. Often tyres are the real issue. Id assume this is a road bike (or even time trial bike) as its really not necessary on a MTB. Its arguably not necessary on a road bike either but marginal gains and all that.

[citizenmtb]

BenGismo said:

You should balance them without any sealant in (to offset tyre imperfections, rim imbalance or valve location imbalance)

...then put the sealant in afterwards..... as the sealant will only move around the wheel anyway and cant be compensated for as it doesnt stay still. At speed it spreads fairly evenly around the inside of the tyre anyway and should not imbalance it

Almost always, the valve location is the heaviest part of the rim so you add tiny amounts of weight opposite to start with and try to get it so its completely neutral all the way round.

Just make sure your wheel is really true first though.... as that's normally what id look at if there is a perceivable shake/wobble rather then trying to balance a wheel that isnt true as balancing it wont really help and isnt fixing the real problem. Often tyres are the real issue. Id assume this is a road bike (or even time trial bike) as its really not necessary on a MTB. Its arguably not necessary on a road bike either but marginal gains and all that.

Makes sense to do it that way. I've just made it difficult for myself by adding the fluid first

It's a band spanking new wheelset out the box, look to be nice and true to my eye.

I find the lighter the rims the more noticeable it becomes. I think it's because i'm fairly light rider at 67kg that i can really feel the bike trying to hop off the road.

But like you say, marginal gains and all that

[Herman Toothrot]

Tyres are seated correctly? Amazing the number of mountain bikes I see where a section of the bead isn’t seated properly so the tyre has a big old wobble.