The GRAVIBAL view and knowledge obtained during the development on the old question of dynamic vs. static wheel balancing is presented in short form here.

Let us look at the way the dynamic wheel balancing is made and why this is not very relevant for cars, motorcycles and bicycles.

We have used a picture to explain why this is the case.

The picture shows the fundamental difference between the old dynamic wheel balancer forces (the arrows shown) and the forces possible in a car.

In an old dynamic wheel balancer, the forces are measured due to movement around a round point bearing, allowing to measure forces in both horizontal and vertical direction.

In a car horizontal forces are not possible for several reasons.

The car is constructed so no movement in horizontal direction must be possible, this is checked every time you go for the technical audit at Ministry of transportation (MOT).

Because the car, motorcycle or bicycle is constructed with a hub that is wide above 5cm also if it is made with 2 separate bearings, this will stabilize and is the only way to stabilize a wheel in rotation when it carries weight. It cannot be moved around the hub (green circle expanded), the forces will remain inside the hub, as seen in picture below.

The size of forces will result in a force moving around inside the hub but not extending to the car. The forces must be app. 100 times higher than normal imbalance weight before the forces can move the weight of the car (same for motorcycles and bicycles relatively), as this there is not horizontal freedom of movement.

In vertical direction there is a lot of freedom of movement, due to suspension, you can move the full weight of the car with just a hand, and the forces are 100-1000 times less.

In case of an old dynamic wheel balancer, the rotational forces are small compared to real life driving at high speed where the forces are critical. At high speed the outwards forces (gyro effect) will stabilize the wheels. The resulting force vectors are expanding to very high values for the vertical forces of the static values (inside+outside), while the dynamic values (inside-outside) horizontal will remain small as there is no velocity in horizontal direction. You know this when driving a motorcycle or bicycle, that at low speed it is not easy to keep balance, but the higher speed the more stable balance. Thus, effect from imbalance in horizontal direction is lower at higher speed, even the rotation is higher, but old dynamic wheel balancers cannot measure this effect and if it would, it could not measure the inside outside difference.

A rim is a stiff and strong construction, that is the core importance of a rim, no forces the size of imbalance will be able to impact the stiffness of the rim and set this in internal movement. It is constructed to be stiff for ex. 1000 kg. An imbalance force will be able to generate in approximation 1-50 kg. m, so there will be no internal vibrations in the rim, the forces are directed into the hub. This is the same nommatter where the force vectors are oroginating and why the suspension starts to shake up and down. The tire is soft and forces in the tire can never be compensated as the rim is stiff, no matter where balance weight is placed on the rim, placed on the inside will move the force balance a little more to the inside in the hub, and opposite. Road forces can be removed slightly for maybe one severe point, but tires have in reality many points of soft and hard contact, only one can really be given an effort to balance.

if wheel are made outside construction limits for easy balancing, as the case on heavy electric cars, then the requirements to the wheels becomes too high and wheels most be made on expensive equipment, allowing in future again for true static balance.

In short:

1. An old dynamic wheel balancer is based on the principle og seperation of forces, while only the vertical force is actual and sold ad a feature for marketing purposes, so this has become the industry standard view for the past 50 years, since invented. However now the suppliers are actually having new methods, to firstly balance the static balance and only if needed add for dynamic imbalance, again in most cases the machines should not show such need, as iit has no effects on a car, motorcycle or bicycle. They use the reason to save cost on weight blocks, but the truth is the one described above.
2. The fundamental imbalance to solve is the static imbalance, thus the machine is a static balancer, with the many advantages.
3. You can place your weight blocks any place you prefer, as it will not create forces for a car, motorcycle or bicycle (relatively) that can create heavy forces in the horizontal direction. We always recommend placing at the inside of the rim.
4. The wear of tires is for a typically 10 g. imbalance, a 10% extra wear compared to a fully balanced wheel, based on statistics collected by GRAVIBAL. The balancing due to this even not being felt in the steering wheel still must be balanced to save tires, so we always try to balance down to 2.5 gram, not just 5 g. You get even more steady steering wheel and brakes.

GRAVIBAL welcome all questions and comments back on the topic of balancing wheels including the hubs, compared to balancing part of wheels with a dynamic balancing principle.