Deep section rims imbalance

Equipment
1

Hi there,

earlier this year I upgraded my tri bike to a set of 90/90 deep wheels. I built DT 350s hubs with a set of rims directly sourced from a reputable Chinese OEM and run them tubeless. I rode them very little outside, but noticed quickly that there’s a wobble at high speeds. It is not a lateral wobble like it has been discussed a few times here, the steering tracks perfectly true. It appears to be an imbalance in the wheels producing a vertical wobble, feels like the rim becomes elliptic at high speeds. It is annoying. I also feel like it is limiting my top speed. Possibly a total fabrication of my imagination, but it just doesn’t feel very fast.

Anyone experience something similar and have a solution? Could it be that the long TL valve stem + 60mm extension is too much weight in one place? Would it make sense to try and fix a counter weight?

2

Watch this @GPLama video:

Tales from the llama...: Bicycle Wheel Balancing: Marginal Gains or a 'Must Do'?

6 Likes
3

Awesome, exactly what I was looking for!

Cheers @GPLama, saved me a lot of grief with my new wheels!

1 Like
4

Awesome. There’s a number of better/creative ways to do the balancing. The lead strips is easiest.

1 Like
5

What do you guys reckon balancing saves performance wise? I realize that’s wicked open ended, but just a WAG. Every deep carbon set of wheels I’ve owned does this but, I don’t really feel it riding…so, do you think it saves energy from the rider in the form of a small amount of Kj’s? Or maybe a little in Crr?

6

Practically nothing IMO.

7

I think Silca makes an adhesive weight system to balance wheelsets.