Wheel Balancing

Modern Vespa GTS etc have their wheels balanced but do older Vespa PX's etc also need wheel balancing?

Test

To see if a Vespa PX would benefit from wheel balancing we first tried to see if a static motorcycle wheel balancer would pick up an imbalaced wheel. The result of the initial test was yes!

The first test was with the complete front hub of a 2004 Vespa PX with disc brake and Sava wet weather tyres.

The video clearly shows an imbalanced wheel.

The motorcycle wheel balancer provided 7 gram weights. It took 2 (14 grams) to balance the wheel.

Next the rear wheel was done (complete hub and tyre) and this took 5 (35 grams) to balance the wheel.

The conclusion so far is that Vespa PX wheels are very imbalanced, however we cannot yet rule out a wheel balancer problem. The next step is to road test the recently balanced wheels.

Update 19/01/13: A road test with speeds up to 100 km/hr gave a noticably smoother ride - the wheel balancer must be OK

Extra Notes

23/04/2015 - Wheel balancing is now a standard procedure that I use. I have also noticed that over time the wheel balance can go out of balance.