The balancing part is no easier or harder than it has ever been; a dynamic spin-balancer is great - except when it's not. I had a BMW wheel come to my place that had been MIS-balanced by about 5 oz (20 standard sticky weights). They didn't get the wheel (an open center single-sided swingarm type) to center-up on the spin-balancer. For most uses, having your wheel suspended by it's original axle between two chairs (or whatever) combined with some patience will result in a quite adequately balanced wheel. No specialized equipment is required to get most assemblies to about 1/4 oz imbalance, and that is close enough for most purposes, excluding Turbo-Hayabusa's running on salt lakes...
Like everything - the more time you are willing to invest in a project, the closer you will get to ideal results. This is where you have the advantage over the guys at the motorcycle shop, yes, they have the equipment to do it quickly, but they HAVE to do it quickly; you have all the time you are willing to spend to achieve the same result.
