Do you use Dyna balancing beads in your tires?

[Steve]

I just had new tires installed, along with a bunch of other work on my Wing. I asked them to NOT use stick-on weights to balance the tires, they assured me that they didn't. When I got the bike back, I checked to be sure and was rather suprised to see NO weights at all. I know it's possible, but probably unlikely, that the tire and wheel are perfectly balanced. And, the bike rides very smoothly at highway speeds. However, when I slow down to about 25-30 mph, it feels like I have square wheels. The first time it happened, I was on the freeway, in a pouring rain that slowed ALL traffic down to about 30 mph, I was on NEW tires that had about 30 miles on them. I thought it was just some ripples in the highway that only showed up at that speed. Since it has happened again, several times, all under the same circumstances, I am wondering if they installed balancing beads and they are coming out of balance at that speed.

For those of you that use these beads, is this typical? I can also make it happen by slowly acellerating up to about 25, so it's not necessarily a decelleration phenomena.

Looking to see if it's typical of the beads, if so, I am going to take the bike back there and have them remove the beads and use lead weights to balance the tires.

Any input appreciated.

.

[Dogma]

You should try my 850. I've never had the symptoms you describe. Sometimes they feel out of balance at highway speeds after a hard bump upsets them. Other than that, they're always smooth. Now then, the dynamic situation on your wing may be too different to make comparisons. The washboarding we've been seeing may upset the beads in your wheel similarly to what I saw on my 850.

[crag antler]

I'm subscribed to this post. My friend,Bob, who I sold my '83 1100E to, just had the beads put in his tires upon new tires install.
He likes them but I honestly don't know hardly anyhting about the dyna-beads.
Be interesting to hear any input.

[tkent02]

I use the beads, have never felt any imbalances like this.

[Steve]

Thanks, Tom.

What I find especially curious is that it is only at the one small speed range. If it were truly a tire/wheel out of balance, I would think that it would also show at a multiple of that speed, or at least get worse, but it clears up completely.

.

[refeicul]

ok i know its an old post but im curious myself, over all.

im getting new tires and was told it would cost 150 to mount and balance at my local dealer thats almost what i paid for the pair of tires.

found a place that will do 30 a tire but they dont balance. and they told me "unless your driving 200mph ya dont need to balance them." which made me go. did a search here and found out about these dyna beads and bb's etc.

did you find out what was up with your tires?

[Nessism]

ok i know its an old post but im curious myself, over all.

im getting new tires and was told it would cost 150 to mount and balance at my local dealer thats almost what i paid for the pair of tires.

found a place that will do 30 a tire but they dont balance. and they told me "unless your driving 200mph ya dont need to balance them." which made me go. did a search here and found out about these dyna beads and bb's etc.

did you find out what was up with your tires?

Perfect example of why you should do your own tire changes and balancing.

[salty_monk]

It's easy to balance them yourself... all you need is 2 axle stands!

[refeicul]

i was more curious as to weather steve figured out/fixed his problem

[tkent02]

It's easy to balance them yourself... all you need is 2 axle stands!

Or a tiny handful of little beads. If you buy grinding media it costs several bucks a ton, not several bucks an ounce. The same stuff, exactly, the beads are from some fancy grinding process, dense round ceramic beads.

[bakalorz]

I just had new tires installed, along with a bunch of other work on my Wing. I asked them to NOT use stick-on weights to balance the tires, they assured me that they didn't. When I got the bike back, I checked to be sure and was rather suprised to see NO weights at all. I know it's possible, but probably unlikely, that the tire and wheel are perfectly balanced. And, the bike rides very smoothly at highway speeds. However, when I slow down to about 25-30 mph, it feels like I have square wheels. The first time it happened, I was on the freeway, in a pouring rain that slowed ALL traffic down to about 30 mph, I was on NEW tires that had about 30 miles on them. I thought it was just some ripples in the highway that only showed up at that speed. Since it has happened again, several times, all under the same circumstances, I am wondering if they installed balancing beads and they are coming out of balance at that speed.

For those of you that use these beads, is this typical? I can also make it happen by slowly acellerating up to about 25, so it's not necessarily a decelleration phenomena.

Looking to see if it's typical of the beads, if so, I am going to take the bike back there and have them remove the beads and use lead weights to balance the tires.

Any input appreciated.

.

My bead story FWIW

On a car not a bike ... a Camry.
Before starting, all tires well in balance.
Couple of months ago got a nail through the sidewall on one of the rears.
Kept the best of the removed tires (for a spare) last time I got new tires, so I put that one on the rim from the punctured tire.
It was obviously out of balance.
Got the big bottle of BBs from walmart (they were recommended as balance beads on one of the car forums)
Added them an oz or two at a time until it stopped getting better when more were added, think I got to about 8 oz
This got the balance a lot closer, but still not quite right.
still would shake moderately from about 50-70, and slightly above and below that, the shaking was somewhat consistent, but somewhat not ... sometimes it would shake more than normal even at speeds that were usually OK, sometimes it would be smooth as glass even in the 50-70 range.

Just for curiosity (since I had a boatload of the beads) I added an ounce or two to the other tires, to see if there were minor unbalances that they might cure. This was a definate mistake, noticably worse.
So I took them out of all the other tires.

Please note that this was with car tires, not bike tires
My understanding is that they don't work as well with car tires because the car tires are wider, and the beads definately cannot address dynamic balance issues. (imagine a perfectly in balance car tire ... now put 4 oz of weight on the front rim of the tire, and 4 oz of weight on the back rim, 180 deg around the tire ... the tire is still statically balanced, but its dynamic balance is off.)

My impression of the beads ... Althought they do work somewhat, they don't work all that well for car tires. In addition, they are not really consistent, they sometimes work better than other times. There were a few times that they got very poorly "seated" comming from a certain (stopped) on ramp rapidly to highway speed, where they were bad enough that I would pull over and stop, then restart (and then they were good)

The bike tires are so easy to balance using the axle and a pair of sawhorses that its just not worth screwing around with them on the bike (to me at least)
If they would have been off (assume dynamic) in the car, but consistent I might consider them on the bike. But since they apparently varied too, just not really worth taking a chance to me ...
I'm due for a new rear, I won't do them there ... when I do the front I might try them just to see ... (since its so much easier to take the front tire off if I don't like it)

FWIW a trick to make the sawhorse balance even more accurate:
roll the axle back and forth an inch or two continously (fairly rapidly ... once or twice a second or so) on the sawhorses while you are trying to see the balance. It breaks the static friction in the bearings and easily lets you get to better than a 1/4 oz of perfect.