Wheel Weight Calculation Dr.

Greg 2014

Calculating Wheel Balancing Weight

1 Introduction
For years I’ve mounted and balanced my own tires. Mounting is always kind of a pain, but balancing was iterative,
i.e. “trial-and-error.” Being a mechanical engineer, I thought “this shouldn’t be hard to analyze.” And it wasn’t. So
here it is...

2 The Simple Pendulum

The mechanics of an unbalanced wheel on an axle are just a “simple pendulum,” as shown in Figure 1.

rt
✓
mu

Figure 1: A simple pendulum.

The notation in Figure 1 is:

mu = mass of unbalance
rt = radius of wheel+tire
θ = angular displacement of wheel

Not shown in Figure 1 is the actual wheel+tire, the mass moment of inertia I of which will be included below.

2.1 Analysis
Now, as you learned in your freshman Physics class, by drawing a free-body diagram and performing a moment balance
around the pivot point, the equation of motion (EOM) of this system can be found as

−mu grt sin θ = I θ̈, (1)

where

g = gravitational constant
I = mass moment of inertia of wheel+tire around axle (pivot point of Figure 1)

d2 θ
and—of course—the “double dot” denotes the second time derivative 2 . We’ll compute the moment of inertia I
dt
later.
Equation (1) is nonlinear (due to the sine term), plus it’s ugly. Invoking the “small-angle approximation” (sin θ ≈ θ),
and rewriting the EOM, we get the linearized EOM as
mu grt
θ̈ + θ = 0. (2)
I
Wheel Weight Calculation Dr. Greg 2014

This is something with which we can work. Without going into the solution, the natural frequency ωn of the motion
described by (2) is
r
mu grt rad
ωn = (3)
I sec

This is almost useful, but not quite. The natural frequency ωn is related to the period of oscillation T by
2π 2π
T = =r sec (4)
ωn mu grt
I

The period of oscillation T is simply the amount of time (sec) it takes for the wheel+tire to swing back to its original
position (e.g. complete one period of motion), so it’s something we can easily measure. However, what we really want
to find is the unbalanced mass mu .

2.2 Finding the Unbalanced Mass

Performing some algebra on equation (4), we can solve for unbalanced mass mu . But before that, we must find an
analytical expression for the mass moment of inertia I of the wheel+tire around the axle.
The mass of the wheel+tire can be considered to be concentrated at a single distance from the axle. This effectively
ignores the inertia of the hub+spokes, but they’re fairly small compared to the rim+tire.
The mass moment of inertia I of a mass mw a distance rw from the axle is
2
I = mw rw . (5)

Substituting (5) into (4) and solving for mu yields

4π 2 mw rw
mu = . (6)
gT 2

So all you have to do is measure the (small-angle) period of oscillation of the wheel+tire, and you can compute a close
approximation to the unbalanced mass. But equation (6) is not easy to use. Section 3 makes it easier...

3 Final Form of Result

I decided to put everything in SI (metric) units, since IMHO they make a lot more sense. So if you assume the
following:

π = well, everybody knows what π is...approximately 3.1415926536

mw = mass of wheel+tire (kg)
rw = radius of wheel+tire (m)
m
g = 9.8 2 (gravitational constant)
s
T = measured period of oscillation (over and back) in seconds
mu = unbalanced mass (balance weight required) in grams

you get the FINAL RESULT as

4028mw rw
mu = grams (7)
T2
In Section 4 (next page) I’ll show an example.
Wheel Weight Calculation Dr. Greg 2014

4 An Example
I recently mounted a set of Metzeler Tourance Next tires on my 2013 BMW R1200GSW. The balance statistics for
the REAR tire were:

T = 40 sec (if the unbalance is small, the period is longer)

mw = 11 kg (about 25 lb)
rw = 0.24 m (about 10 inches)

Using equation (7), the computed balance weight needed is

(4028)(11)(0.24)
mu = = 6.65 grams (8)
(40)2

And a 7-gram weight balanced it almost perfectly. This was an unusually “balanced” tire—most of mine require 20-40
grams (this tire had a “balance mark”—most don’t).

4.1 Final Thoughts

• Remember, this is an approximate result, since there have been several assumptions

• The period T is an “over and back” time; measure it with your watch or phone
• When measuring period, use angles of 30◦ or less (small-angle linearizing approximation); an angle of 90◦ would
give too long of a period, and too low of a balance mass
• Make sure all the units are correct (kg, meters, etc.)

• This formula will get you CLOSE, but—like I said—there have been several approximations

HOPE THIS IS USEFUL...