Balancing Deep Dish Wheels-Fact vs Fiction?

[Unbrokenchain]

So I have a set of Zipp 404 firecrest clinchers. When spinning in hands there is a definite hoop. When putting small weights opposite valve hoop goes away. But on the road does it really matter? I can't imagine at slower (or even medium) speeds, but maybe fast descents. I don't know. Any thoughts. I have searched but haven't seen this topic discussed in sometime.

[WMW]

I've never noticed anything weird going on with my seriously unbalanced wheels... at speeds up to 60mph. I calculated it once too, and it just wasn't enough to matter... can you notice a +-1lb variation in the weight on your front wheel? It may bounce a fraction of a mm... if I was riding on glass, maybe I could feel that.

[PerezTurner]

Due to accident, I am facing a problem of unbalanced wheels. How this issue can be solved?

Click here

[FIJIGabe]

My Reynolds bounce on the stand, but on the road, i've never noticed it at all. Just keep riding!

[sungod]

unless the wheel is hugely out of balance it will make no difference on the road, at extreme speed with a light rider it may become noticeable, but tbh i'm not sure how much it takes to be perceptible

as above, wheels can make a bike bounce on the stand, but on the road it is unsprung weight, it's just a small variation in force wrt the total mass of rider+bike

me+bike is c. 83kg, i calculated with 40:60 weight distribution and a 10g imbalance at the rim on the front wheel i'd need to be going 90kph to reduce front wheel downforce by 5%, which i probably wouldn't notice anyway

[MajorMantra]

Deep section ≠ deep dish. C'mon, people.

[yz387]

My 20 mm carbon tubular wheels tip the scales at just over 1000g so the weight of the valve is enough to put them out of balance. If I spin them up to speed on the stand, it is very noticeable. On the road however, I have never noticed the unbalance. There are no mountain descents where I live though, so I am generally below 40 mph. Don't know what they would feel like at 50+ mph.

[eric]

Deep section wheels tend to be more out of balance due to the longer valve stem or extension.

I have some that shake the hell out of the bike when I spin the rear up with the bike on the stand. But while riding I have not noticed anything at all at speeds up to 55 mph.

[fdegrove]

Hi,

I've never noticed anything weird going on with my seriously unbalanced wheels... at speeds up to 60mph. I calculated it once too, and it just wasn't enough to matter... can you notice a +-1lb variation in the weight on your front wheel? It may bounce a fraction of a mm... if I was riding on glass, maybe I could feel that.

You may not notice it because the effect is absorbed by tyre flex and your body's mass, the springs in the equation. Neither of which is desirable as both will degrade performance eventually.

Whether or not one actually "notices" a difference is totally irrelevant but I can assure you that the difference between a dynamically balanced wheel and one that's not can be felt quite easily.

Ciao,