Motorcycle Wheel Balancers

A motorcycle wheel balancer is a machine used to spin a motorcycle wheel to assess the weight of the wheel of the motorcycle with the tyre installed to check for uneven weight distribution across the wheel's circumference.

The tyre fitter or user would use the machine to identify the lightest point on the tyre's rotation and apply small metal weights to the tyre's rim to neutralise the weight differences and cause an even weight across the whole wheel circumference.

Yes, you can use a car wheel balancer to balance a motorcycle wheel, though due to the difference in both the size of the wheel rim, as well as the tyre size and shape difference, this will usually need a motorcycle adapter to ensure that the motorcycle tyre fits correctly and centrally on the car tyre changer, therefore converting this into a motorcycle tyre changer.

Also, you must ensure that the wheel balancer that you intend to use for motorcycle wheel balancing has the correct software to balance this size and type of tyre, so check with your garage equipment supplier before making a purchase on this basis.

Yes, both front and rear motorcycle wheels should be balanced. The balance of the front wheel on a motorcycle is much more important than the rear balance, and the production of more modern tyres produces a uniform tyre and therefore the need for balancing is certainly less than it was 10 years ago, however, the rubber on motorcycle tyres can still have irregularities causing weight differences, as well as the vale, especially if you have a Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) fitted to the bike and larger TPMS valves fitted it to the bike wheels.

Race bikes will still have the wheel balanced for optimum performance and speed, and if you want to achieve the smoothest performance and comfort from your motorcycle then you should balance the wheels, especially following a tyre repair or replacement.