China has entered the chat.
Adjustable aero weights for bike spokes coming up soon on Alibaba.

...I personally cant wait

Remove the reflectors, true the wheels, replace tires if damaged (and use quality tires and make sure they're seated correctly), and if the tubes have chunks of dried up sealant inside them, get new tubes. Bicycle wheels are light enough, and they spin slowly enough, that the weight of valve stems and manufacturing variances are negligible. I've personally tested this at speeds over 50 mph.

To shift the drift a bit- Who here has filled their tubes (yes, remember those old school bladder things?) with some water? With a floor pump it's easy to remove the top cap off the cylinder, remove the piston and rod/handle, pour water in it and reinstall the piston then pump water into your tire. a few pump fills in both tires and then go ride it. Lot's of fun feeling the bike surge back and forth as the water sloshes about in the spinning wheels. Talk about un balanced wheels Or maybe the rider is un balanced. This is a fun trick to play on a friend too. Andy (who didn't forget to dry out the pump as to not corrode the check valve)

I experienced something like that last Cycle Oregon. The first 4 days were wet. At times seriously wet. Bikes were outdoors the entire time. Night 4 it rained hard. Temps went below freezing. Apparently I had water in the tubes, in the rims? Anyway the early miles I had a block of ice that made for a very disconcerting, Paris Roubaix-like ride. This while on a road surface with ice. Finally the ice melted and the the rest of the (long) day went fine.

And I l know I should have brought a waterproof sheet to cover the bike at night. But, I would have had to stash that still wet sheet in my waterproof bag with all my not so dry clothes to sit in a truck all day, distributing the moisture throughout. Drying wasn't happening except during the hours between rains while riding and in camp some of the time. Bad enough having to roll up my wet tent and stuff it in that bag. (Cycle Oregon - run in the best weather week of the year. Last year's weather had never happened before; at least not in the Cascades or east. The coast is a different story.)

Ben

For those of you not interested in balanced wheels, I suggest you not balance your wheels so you can remain happy in your unbalanced-ness. My original post was not, "tell me if you think this is worth doing"... I don't care if you do or don't. My questions are for those people who have done it and are interested in the topic. A balanced wheel won't change my life, I know that, but I enjoy wrenching on my bike and am a believer in marginal gains.

One thing I am going to do is buy some 44mm valve stems to replace the 70mm valve stems that came with my wheel's tubeless kit. Valve stems are cheap and I have no idea why Bontrager thought I'd need 1 mile long valve stems on my relatively shallow rims. Granted, shorter stems won't balance the wheels, but they'll get the wheels closer to being balanced and shed a tiny bit of unnecessary weight that's far away from the center of the wheel (increasing centripetal force).

I'm going to give these carbon valve stems a try (yup... carbon valve stems?!?!) They're half the weight of aluminum valve stems of the same length and the same price as brand-name aftermarket aluminum stems...

My tractor tires are liquid filled for additional ballast. Typically calcium chloride mix for additional weight and no freeze. I actually have a garden hose to schrader fitting with a vent for filling them. Many bigger vehicle tires are balanced by throwing BB's, sand or balance beads in before seating the tire and airing up.

dedhed,
Have you ever tried driving a liquid filled tire backhoe over 30 mph? Incredible ride, kinda like on a roller coaster. Smiles, MH

Yeah, our JD 410's at work - 10 miles through the city back when I was on a crew.

PoorInRichfield,
Marginal gains is what it is all about! And when using conventional spoked wheels it can be an issue. A big one, maybe not but I figure better safe than sorry, and if there is a marginal gain then that is a bonus.
As a golf professional there has been an ongoing discussion for the last thirty years concerning how well to tune a golf club for a professional player. Most of it concerns how the golf club comes back to the ball at impact. And the balance of the club for the playing professionals is of utmost importance. There are few who could hit a good shot with a broom, but most ask for special treatments to the clubs. My interest in cycling came with me to the golf world and the concept in mind is called: Moment Of Inertia. Essentially it is the effort needed to make something move around a single point.
Think about a bicycle wheel and how it resembles the swinging of a golf club around your body. The hub is your spine, the shaft of the club is a spoke and the head of the club is the point on the rim. When all of the club parts are balanced, it is easy to swing effortlessly. Same with the rolling of the wheel, well balanced is easier riding. Keep up the quest for marginal gains. Do you listen to the podcasts? Smiles, MH

I tried listen to the podcast but I found that most of the discussions revolved around things I wasn't interested in at the time (not bad things, just not where I'm at). Ever since I heard that Team SKY (now Team INEOS) traveled to races with mattresses so their team gets a better night sleep (which is genius!), I was hooked on the idea that it's the sum of the little things that really matter and should be pursued.

For me, small improvements make me happy where as many could care less (as some have stated in their responses to this post). For example, one of my other projects is to cut the length of the shift and hydraulic cables my bike to eliminate all the extra slack. Does my bike work as-is right now? Yes it does, but the bike looks like it has a rat's nest forming in front of the handlebar. Not only is that ugly, but the extra cables and hoses are not very aero, are a few extra grams on the bike that add no value, and the extra hose and cable length result in more friction than necessary to get the job done. Taking the hour to reduce the hose and cable lengths seems like non-sense to many, but is something I notice right away and appreciate.

Don't get your feelings hurt, most of us are envious that you are in the position to ponder marginal gains. In my case, I'm carrying 10 extra pounds, I'm old and don't compete at any level. For me, working on marginal gains would be beyond delusional!

Shelbyfv,
I am 68 and you are correct, but my desire to still be the most efficient does involve things like marginal gains. For me dropping two pounds and having a bit more energy is a big marginal gain at my age. And I don't envision my riding like I did 35 years ago. A single century is possible with some help, but a triple is out of the question. I am doing wishful thinking if I thought I could do a lot of miles at my point in life. But a reality thing is what I am trying to do. I want to keep involved in this sport which I love, and sometimes it may just be here in the forums. Smiles, MH

LOL! Thanks for the kind words, ShelbyFV. I just sold 3 bikes this Spring to focus all my time and money on "pimping-out" the one bike I still own. I'm 6'1" tall at 167 lbs, so body weight is not an issue (although I do work hard to stay slim).

When considering marginal gains, I also consider the cost/benefit ratio. For example, buying the Ceramic Speed oversized derailleur pulley cage for what is darn near half a million dollars and no detectable gain fails my cost/benefit analysis. However, balancing my wheels for a total cost of of less that $30 and a few minutes of my time seems worth it even the benefits are negligible. If nothing else, I'll learn something.

Like many other riders here, I've ridden bikes down hill at 80,90kph and have a fair amount of motorcycle riding at speed, and am pretty observant of any odd two wheeled handling that is disconcerting, but I gotta say that I've never felt anything in all the times going 80kph on bicycles.

I use strips of lead flashing, glued on w/ contact cement or spray adhesive, & covered w/ electrical tape.

You can use just tape initially.

Tennis shops sell adhesive lead strips for weighting racquets, but you need ~10g for a wheel & the tennis stuff is pretty thin.

My feeling is that if it reduces chance of pants-filling speed wobble, it's worth considering, and with the added 20g, the bike is still barely over 15 lbs.

I have a big roll of the stuff, & will send a piece for postage.

Before you do that, I suggest finding the heavy spot on your wheels. You may be surprised and find the stem does not need to be lightened.

I am in no way endorsing wheel balancing as anything other than entertainment, but I have on occasion been bored in the garage with a bike on the stand.

^ This is good advice.

Have you ever wondered why the valve location is placed opposite the rim joint on every single rim?

John

Slow day at Bikeforums.net.

First world problems too...

=8-|

Thumbs up on this answer.

I can certainly see where marginal gains, especially in weight would help around Holy Hill where you live. Here in MKE not so much.

Yup... in the rare instance where I can get a good downhill that does have a stop sign at the bottom, hitting speeds of 45 MPH is quite possible. At which point, I'm thinking a little wheel balance might be a good thing.

I take the time to carefully balance my tennis racquets, but this is an entirely different ball of wax.

Since someone said it's a slow day, I'll drop this bomb of a video (and sincerely apologize if it's already been posted here by someone). At 13:25 into the video, I'm starting to think I should buy solid wheels!

And notice his hands are vibrating after spinning with the motor....
If you want to ignore this, go ahead. Pffft

Here is the Late Jobst Brandt trying to educate an idiot. https://www.yarchive.net/bike/wheel_balancing.html

Zoiks... my bike is almost 5 pounds fatter than yours. Going to need to see a full bike pic, please

For all you wheel balance deniers (this is a thing now... as of like 5 minutes ago when I thought it up), you should be lovin' these wheels...