Tire light spot found?

[lacon]

The Valkyrie wheel has it's heavy spot marked with a paint dot.

Some tires have their light spot marked - some don't.  I just mounted an Austone (no mark) & thought of a possible way to find the light spot without first mounting the tire.   (No changing machine here - all manual labor - no interest in the work of seating the bead, then breaking & rotating)

For tire balancing, I use 2 parallel sawhorses with a 24" aluminum level taped to the top of each one.  Leveled both ways (independently & to each other) using coins or washers under the levels with a 6" machinist's level that I have.   What resistance the axle bearings don't overcome will be eliminated by the axle rolling on the flat level "tracks".   Works well.

So, new thought, I took the unmounted bare tire & hung it on the axle, which I put on the "tracks".  I swung the tire on the axle like a pendulum, & the tire would creep a little on the axle as it rolled back & forth on the tracks.   The tire did seem to rotate with a particular spot heading to the bottom.  I played with it 15 minutes or so & assigned the spot that moved to the bottom to be the heavy spot.  Then mounted it on the rim accordingly.    Used less weight than the old Avon that came off.  What do you think?  Has this been tried before?   Seems logical & did seem to work for me, but too simple.  Needs a confirmation.

[Gryphon Rider]

Excellent idea!  The only thing that would mess that up is if the inside diameter of the tire were not perfectly round or the sidewalls were distorted from being stacked in storage.  This would not normally be a problem on the bike, because when mounted on the rim, the rim and air pressure would force it into a perfectly round and symmetrical shape.  If the unmounted tire is distorted, all bets are off.

[Chrisj CMA]

If I were doing my own like that Id just use dyna beads or ride on and forget about it

[The emperor has no clothes]

If I were doing my own like that Id just use dyna beads or ride on and forget about it

+1

[lacon]

I had Dyna-beads in the old Avon & I'm probably the only person to not like them.  On 2 or 3 occasions when adding air, a bead got stuck in the valve core.  Never added air away from home, so a minor inconvenience, but turned me off on them.  I know now that there is a special valve core for Dyna-beads, but don't think it will fit in the 90 degree stems I have.  I do have some Ride-on that I'm going to add this time though - as a flat prevention measure.
Also, after I've gone to the effort of removing the wheel & before I put in the effort of re-installing it, I will do whatever I can to take advantage of the opportunity.  (lube the drive shaft, change "O" rings, clean & grease the caliper pins, change drive oil, just generally clean things up, & balance the new tire)  Balancing is light work - no sweating or swearing required.  Don't mess with the U-joint though.