New Tires Came Today... Dynabeads?

[crazybrother]

Who uses Dyna Beads and what's your experience with them. I'm seeing all kinds of opinions on them. Has anyone used them on our VFR's? If so what works and what doesn't?

Thanks.

[luvtoleanit]

Forget them man. Nothing but hype and bs. Use stick on weights

[FJ12Ryder]

I'll stick to weights, I know they work.

[Guest]

Putting new tires on in the next week or so, and bought some to try out. Mind you I never balanced my tires for my '85 Kawasaki, but that thing vibrated enough as it was.

I can let you know what I figure out.

BTW, anyone near me can have a couple ounces for free, I picked up a bulk pack for not much more than individually portioned packs.

[Volfy]

You can get a wheel balancer from Harborfreight for about $30, on sale and with 20% off coupon. I ended up buying a No-mar balancer too, which is a bit nicer and smoother, but I honestly doubt I could balance better with it enough to make any difference at less than go-directly-to-jail hwy speeds.

[VFR-SPORT]

I tried Dynabeads last summer in the BT-023. Rear tire called for 2 oz and the front called for 1 oz. The rear tire worked fine at all speeds but the front seemed to start vibrating some at 120 kph. I replaced the Dynabeads with weights, statically balanced, and the vibration went away in the front.

[smoothsailin]

Take my advice - don't waste your money on Dynabeads.

I purchased one of their kits in an attempt to correct an;imbalance issue realized after I'd;paid to have a shop install, mount and balance a fresh set of Dunlops for my T-509 Speed Triple a few years ago.

After installing the recommended volume of dynabeads (which turned out to be a tedious & time-consuming process) I soon discovered that adding the beads did little to get rid of the imbalance issue. I've noted that when I come to a stop or run over bumps in the road the sensation of imbalance tends to start up, then dampen out (somewhat) after each impact. Even when riding on relatively smooth roads the beads never would fully eliminate the sensation of imbalance.

Note that I experimented with leaving the original lead weights on after installing the beads, tried removing the weights and finally added more than the recommended volume of beads to see if doing so allow them to work better. In the end I came away unimpressed by dynabeads' (lack of) effectiveness.

I've read comments made by people who claim they're sold on Dynabeads, but after my experience can't say I'm one of them.

[Duc2V4]

Dyna deads = Snake oil IMHO. I've always used traditional weights on all my bikes and never had an issue. I cannot same the same for Dyna beads as I personally have not used them nor will I. I use something that works, so no need to look for another solution, particularly one with conflicting results.

[Rice]

I've used them and didn't feel that they helped with the balance much.

Switched to stick-on weights and all is good now.

Don't waste your money.

[Guest]

I used the beads last time. Don't know if they're worth it. No problems though, just expensive.

[Guest]

No. Used them on my custom big tire M109. Wasn't long before terrible front tire vibration.

[spud786]

Once you get a set of used weights, you can use them over and over. I never tried dyno beads, but at over ten dollars a bottle every tire change, it is expensive whether they work or not, Used weights are free, and recycleable.

[Guest]

Spooned on my new rear tire today. Didn't align the tire by any special paint dot, didn't scrape off the existing weights either.

No noticeable vibration at highway speeds up to sustained 80 mph. May or may not put in any beads. Probably not tonight as I really should replace the water pump.

[Roebling3]

There's no controversy w/in this illustrious group. From totally useless, pure bull sh*t to ? And they cost more than weights? They're very difficult to get into the tires? You cannot rebalance a moving target (the beads), with stick weights If they don't work you must dismount the tires to get them out? BTW: How do 'they' know how many beads to add to any specific tire wheel set? Oh. The beads distribute themselves to wherever they are needed. Hmmm.

Good fortune, R3~

[Volfy]

Most current sport bike rims and tires are fairly well balanced as is. I've changed some 6-7 sets of tires to date, and rarely do I need more than 1 Oz. or so. They probably won't vibrate perceptively even at legal highway speeds. I actually rode one full track day on a set of unbalanced tire/wheels. Long story, but it was a set of old Michelins that I was gonna toss out after the TD. Because it was a rather technical track and I just about stayed in 2nd gear (gixxer 600) the whole time, speed was low. But it is never a good thing to ride on unbalance tires.

I bought my weights at Harborfreight. They are chromed on top (?), self-adhesive on bottom,and come in 1/2 Oz and 1/4 oz sizes. They don't look unsightly on the rim and are cheap enough I don't think I'll bother trying to reuse them. http://www.harborfreight.com/1-4-quarter-oz-wheel-weights-67225.html

The only added expense balancing the VFR is this large cone set I got from No-Mar: http://www.nomartirechanger.com/product_p/bl-largecones.htm Once I have these, I can do just about any single-sided swingarm bikes.

[clwesel]

When I bought my '99 the front tire was cupping and felt slightly out of balance. It would shake violently when I was slowing down and took my hands off the bars. I hoped I could fix this by balancing the tire, until winter when I planned to tear the front end down and change the steering head bearings, new tires, etc. I put the recommended amount of Dynabeads in the front tire (it was a slow process to get them in the tire), and it did nothing for this problem. I just never took my hands off the bars, until I rebuild the front end over the winter. I changed the tires and balanced the new ones (PR2's), using the Marc Parnes balancer (http://www.marcparnes.com/). Neither wheel took more than 1/2 oz of lead to balance the tires, and I haven't had a problem with cupping or vibration in the last 4000 miles.

I would not recommend the Dynabeads. I think they recommended you put 1 oz of the beads in the front tire and 2 oz in the rear tire. That is a lot of extra weight spinning around in your tires, when you don't need it. I believe this type of balancing works above a certain speed. Forty years ago, when I was working construction, I remember the truckers told me they would put antifreeze or calcium carbide (?) in their tires to balance them when they were rolling down the road.

If you don't want to cough up the $ for a good balancer, maybe someone on this site, in your area would loan you a balancer or balance the tires for you. If you lived in CO, I'd be happy to balance them for you.

[Guest]

If needed, I have no problem buying a static balancer. However the price of admission to bulk beads was low enough I thought I'd try it as an experiment.

I have some rather interesting front end shaking if I take both hands off the bars while decelerating, or if I go off a sufficient bump (think railroad crossing). I assumed I just needed to replace my head bearings, or possibly front wheel bearings.. Never even occured to me that it would be balancing.

Still probably not going to do anything with my rear wheel.

[Guest]

I used the beads in the bt023s on the Vfr. Can say I notice any difference over weights. I dunno. Go with what's cheapest. Probably regular weights.

[kaldek]

I used Dynabeads for two years in my 6th-gen, no complaints. That was with tire pressure sensors strapped to the rim too, so balance was a huge issue for me (sensors weighed over 50 grams).

f you have the kit at home to do static balancing, by all means use weights. I do all my own tire work and don't have a static balancer so I just use the beads.

I did get vibration on the front wheel at one point, so I just added more beads - problem solved.

The complaints about Dynabeads regarding bumps are not justified. If you hit a bump, the force of the bump is nowhere near as much as the force which is throwing the beads out to inside surface of the tire.

I would not use the beads in a racecar however, as the high lateral G-forces *could* throw the beads out to the sidewall and stop them from being as effective.