Tire balance

[specs95t]

I tried Dyna Beads on my VMax last year with two new tires. 1 oz in front, 2 oz in back - as per instructions.

I felt a smooth ride up to about 80 mph, at which point the whole bike would start to shake. The shake was bad enough to were I never got it over 90 mph.

I removed the 1 oz out of the front tire and did a static balance with regular weights and the shaking issue went away.

Same tire, same road, 100 mph, no issues.

I tried the dynabeads because I liked the concept, did some reading and saw the nice video of the water bottle on a drill with the dynabeads.

Further research into things yielded people on Gixxer forums saying the DynaBead company not recommending their use for the track.

My take is that people that don't get going too fast are happy with them, people that ride at higher speeds are not.


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[Twigg]

Well this thread went downhill fast

My question about Dyna-Beads is "Why?"

Balancing a tire the "old-fashioned-way" is cheap, easy and works. Every time, no issues.

So why change that for an expensive, unproven solution to a problem that doesn't exist, and in the process make tire changing a mess you don't need to be cleaning up?

[NTXFJR]

When I started riding street in the '80's they had the equivalent of RideOn back then in liquid form, it also doubled as a stop leak. I had a buddy that put it in the back tire of his GS850 to plug a nail hole while out on the road. I was intrigued by the physics of this method of balancing thinking it was pretty cool.

Last year, I put on a new set of PR4's on my GenI and used the beads in them, I didn't have a static balancer at that time. With around 2 oz, the rear tire shook pretty hard at anything north of 80 mph. The solution I used for that was to add another 2 oz or so, it's a fairly big tire we have on the backs of our feejers, and if by chance the heavy spot on the tire winds up closer to a heavy spot on the rim, well more weight might be required. At least that was my thinking, it worked out ok for that tire, the bike was good to 130 mph after that, damhik.

The beads have worked for me and I like the science behind this method of balance because it has the ability to readjust to any uneven tire wear, but they seem to be more of a pita to deal with when mounting and dismounting tires than just using static weights imho. I ended up buying a static balancer and some weights, like others have said it's really not that hard to balance a tire this way.

A possible advantage to using this type of balancing might be to use them in higher mileage tires like on cars or trucks. You've prolly heard the term seconds and blems, many tire dealers will sell them at a discount. I think the reason that most of the time they are factory seconds is because they are egg shaped and outside of the factory spec's. My point is that a tire like this will wear unevenly, it will never stay properly balanced. I think that's why Discount Tires offers lifetime balance and rotate on their stuff, not knocking them, it's good customer service. But it's a pita to me to always be having to go back for rebalancing. Maybe the science of liquid or beads would be better in that scenario? ymmv

[HotRodZilla]

So, let's say DynaBeads really work. If that's the case, why pay for DynaBeads? Just put 3 or 4 ounces of water in your tires and call it good. No rim damage, no instances of clumping beads, and nearly free. Hell, fill them with a bottle of Slime, and get the benefit of reducing leaks and impeccable balance.

Me, I use a static balancer, and since I started doing my own tires, I've never had one out of balance. No need for anything else, no matter how whiz-bang it is.

[specs95t]

So, let's say DynaBeads really work. If that's the case, why pay for DynaBeads? Just put 3 or 4 ounces of water in your tires and call it good. No rim damage, no instances of clumping beads, and nearly free. Hell, fill them with a bottle of Slime, and get the benefit of reducing leaks and impeccable balance.

Me, I use a static balancer, and since I started doing my own tires, I've never had one out of balance. No need for anything else, no matter how whiz-bang it is.

So I had an interesting situation years back with a car I bought. Everything was great up to about 70 mph - at which point I would get vibration in the steering wheel and then through the car, as speed increased.

After many a tire check, balance, swap, etc, I finally noticed (by accident) that one of the tires, mounted on a rim and sitting on the tread, mysteriously rolled a revolution and then settled to rest again.

Turned out it had a full can of fix-a-flat that the PO had pumped in.

I cleaned things out, plugged the hole, rebalanced and put everything back together - and no more vibration beyond 70 mph.

As you think about the physics behind the DynaBead application, one needs to consider the constant bumps that the tires are exposed to and absorb, the acceleration caused from accelerating and decelerating, and the changes to vector as you steer with the tire.

All these things create a very dynamic condition that is then imposed on the DynaBeads.

My experience with any material in the tire has been negative, once speed goes beyond a certain point.


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[HotRodZilla]

So, let's say DynaBeads really work. If that's the case, why pay for DynaBeads? Just put 3 or 4 ounces of water in your tires and call it good. No rim damage, no instances of clumping beads, and nearly free. Hell, fill them with a bottle of Slime, and get the benefit of reducing leaks and impeccable balance.

Me, I use a static balancer, and since I started doing my own tires, I've never had one out of balance. No need for anything else, no matter how whiz-bang it is.

So I had an interesting situation years back with a car I bought. Everything was great up to about 70 mph - at which point I would get vibration in the steering wheel and then through the car, as speed increased.

After many a tire check, balance, swap, etc, I finally noticed (by accident) that one of the tires, mounted on a rim and sitting on the tread, mysteriously rolled a revolution and then settled to rest again.

Turned out it had a full can of fix-a-flat that the PO had pumped in.

I cleaned things out, plugged the hole, rebalanced and put everything back together - and no more vibration beyond 70 mph.

As you think about the physics behind the DynaBead application, one needs to consider the constant bumps that the tires are exposed to and absorb, the acceleration caused from accelerating and decelerating, and the changes to vector as you steer with the tire.

All these things create a very dynamic condition that is then imposed on the DynaBeads.

My experience with any material in the tire has been negative, once speed goes beyond a certain point.


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Haha...Your experience is exactly why most of us call bullshit on DynaBeads and any of the like products.

[wheatonFJR]

Put a bunch of gravel in, and call it DYNA gravel.

Just static balance and be done, easy peasy.

[John d]

The whole point or reason behind balancing a wheel is to prevent bounce or vertical vibration at higher speeds, otherwise no need to balance. I agree Dynabeads work up to the point that a wheel really needs balancing.

[raYzerman]

I'll throw this at you... both on the '07 and on the '14, the front wheels as they came from Yamaha had 50 grams of clip-on weights on them. I doubt very seriously if Dyna beads can overcome that, but that the balance must at least be close first. Use traditional balancing and YOU KNOW where you are.

[bigjohnsd]

I've never tried the Dynamic Bead solution, I have a static balancer.

When I installed my last set of Avons neither front or rear required any weight.

I checked them both twice because I was certain something was wrong, I've usually needed 25-40 grams per wheel in the past.

[Abercrombie FJR]

I was given a sample package of Counteract tire balancing beads http://www.counteractbalancing.com/ from a fellow forum member while attending CFR this year. When I installed a new set of PR4s in preparation for EOM, I thought I would I gave them a try. Ozzy said that it would be a little bit of a chore to get them through a 90 degree valve stem. I was unable to get them to pass through the valve stem, and broke the bead to pour them in.

The Counteract beads are made of glass, and are smaller diameter than the Dyna beads. Once they roll around inside the tire, static will supposedly hold them in position once the tire balances, and they don't have to re-balance every time you come to a stop.

They were installed in September and I put under 4000 miles on them before the FJR went into winter hibernation. So far I see no problems with them and they have always felt like a well balanced tire. Ozzy says that if you are careful to retrieve them, they can be reused many times and they are easy to retrieve since they stick with static inside the tire when it is removed. Counteract reports increased fuel economy and tire life but I don't keep track of my fuel mileage and FJR tires are consumed so fast I doubt I will notice a difference. This is the first time I have ran PR4s and I am impressed at the lack of visible wear with 4000 miles, but I can not attribute it to the Counteract beads since this is the first pair of PR4s I have ran.

I have a tire balancer and doubt I will spring for Counteract beads for the rest of the bikes, but its fun experimenting and passing on my results.

[Powerman]

When I went to the Bike Races at VIR I saw Mat Mladins crew chief using a static balancer.

I also told this to the guy that said my static balance was not good enough.

Laws of physics are the same most everywhere. How about strawberry joy gel?

[e2b]

First time I used DYNO Beads I installed both tires at the same time and had a terrible vibration starting at 75 and got unbearable at 90. Had to remove tires as you can't balance the tires with the beads installed. Short story was they used something to mount tire(front) that stuck the some of the beads in one place. I started using them again but only do one tire at a time and really haven't had an issue. 12814.1,12651.1 miles on PR4's had to replace rear due to flat but there was still life left. Sold bike for 2016.

[wheatonFJR]

You boys that love your beads jus keep on a usin dem.

All I know is that when I've thrown a weight, I'm still good to 95 as well, though shaky. So saying the beads are good up to 95 ain't saying much.

Been to 155 and back a few times, no problem.

[OldButNotDead]

Wheat,
I'm sorta with you. Don't run 155, because I'm just too old to waste my time behind bars. LOL
If one does understand the laws of physics, you start thinking about what IS the mass of those beads and what IS the mass of the imbalance. Yes I understand the principle of distribution of the mass of the beads to counteract the heavy, unbalanced portions of the tire, BUT somehow it's hard for me to believe that pack of beads can actually offset the unbalanced mass. Then there is the cost factor. Do you reuse the beads? My weights don't cost much at all and I can do a good static balance that I trust very quickly.