Dynabeads vs Ride On vs Static Balancer

[Navin]

I dumped these in the bike right after riding it 25 miles. They are basically grains of sand in perfect sphere shape. How an ounce of sand would react any differently is beyond me.

First impression, it is riding noticably smoother thru the bars and pegs. I took it to +80 and didn't feel the axel thrumming about but I need to see it in daylight tomorrow to be sure it is gone. My initial impression is it works, but I could have achived the same result with free materials.

I'll post up what happens in daylight as I watched it vibrate at the axel like mad earlier today.

Second, the low speed decel wobble from 50 down with no hands on the bars. Still have it. My ZZR1200s did the same thing. I'm going to guess it is the Conti tires, a supermoto specific tread that I love for its ability to heat up in cold weather. Great sticky tires. The IRC Road Winners did not have this behavior at all. Dead stable. I had attributed it to the wheel balance, if the axel is still hopping around I'll do a regular balance and look at this again.

Jury is still out for tonight but it is better for sure.

[Navin]

Well I rode it to 85 MPH and the front axel still goes totally nuts starting at 77 and hitting full blown fuzzy in my vision by 80. The bike is smoother so they are doing something. I still have insane decel wobble under 50 MPH but I'm finding alot of talk in searches from the same symptoms with Conti tires.

[Navin]

My buddy has a auto repair shop and is talking about getting a moto wheel adapter for the high speed balance machine. That would be a real test IMO. I'll try it with the beads when he gets it and even if I add 1/2 oz of weight anywhere it should still balance out with the beads. If it shows I need a weight with a naked tire/wheel then I guess this is BS. If it balances out of the box as is or I can add weight and it dynamically self balances I guess it really works.

I wonder why this isn't one of their demo vids???

I did 100 miles today and still only notice a slightly lower vibration level. Might be in my head? The decel wobble is nuts, even with one hand on the bar it starts to kick in.

[levain]

Originally Posted by Bob Tosi

I've had Dyna beads in my kenda big blocks for about 4k miles they ride smooth as silk at high speeds, 80-100mph. Love Dyna beads

Using them in the tubes of my XC as well for the first time. Smooth as silk, but they're a bitch to get in the tube!

[Navin]

Did they balance out a rim lock?

[06yz125]

Tried dyna beads...didn't work..felt about the same...took them out.

Had to remove tire and break one bead for removal..thats was the worst part.

Thought about leaving them in ..then thought..maybe I'll remove them right after
the ride..to really get a comparison.. Like I said...no change.

Thats MY experience...FWIW

[bemiiten]

Originally Posted by Navin

My buddy has a auto repair shop and is talking about getting a moto wheel adapter for the high speed balance machine. That would be a real test IMO. I'll try it with the beads when he gets it and even if I add 1/2 oz of weight anywhere it should still balance out with the beads. If it shows I need a weight with a naked tire/wheel then I guess this is BS. If it balances out of the box as is or I can add weight and it dynamically self balances I guess it really works.

I wonder why this isn't one of their demo vids???

I did 100 miles today and still only notice a slightly lower vibration level. Might be in my head? The decel wobble is nuts, even with one hand on the bar it starts to kick in.

MCN already performed the test- " MCN evaluated the Dyna Beads on a reader's suggestion back in October of 2006. Although the tiny white ceramic beads have apparently found favor with long-haul truckers, we tested them in a Honda 599. Using a shop's spin balancer, we checked the bike's rear wheel, which had 1.6 oz. of balance weights in place. The balancer agreed with the amount and location of the weights. After installing the specified two ounces of beads in the rear tire and then removing the rim weights, the balancer found an out of balance condition. This test was repeated five times and the balancer continued to call for the replacement of the 1.6 oz. of rim weights in the same location. Over-the-road testing was next. Without the rim weights, the rear wheel produced noticeable vibration and the installation of the beads gave a barely perceptible improvement. Also, the weight of the beads added so close to the tire tread gave a noticeable increase in gyro stability, making the steering heavier. We also tried them on a car and were disappointed. Bottom line: Save your money for a proper spin balance."

[kantuckid]

Originally Posted by levain

Using them in the tubes of my XC as well for the first time. Smooth as silk, but they're a bitch to get in the tube!

It's easy-measure them out,place clear tube on valve stem with schrader removed,tip btl of beads then gently tap the tube with a small screwdriver while they merrily roll in. Static makes for the tapping needed.

[mpatch]

Originally Posted by bemiiten

MCN already performed the test- " MCN evaluated the Dyna Beads on a reader's suggestion back in October of 2006. Although the tiny white ceramic beads have apparently found favor with long-haul truckers, we tested them in a Honda 599. Using a shop's spin balancer, we checked the bike's rear wheel, which had 1.6 oz. of balance weights in place. The balancer agreed with the amount and location of the weights. After installing the specified two ounces of beads in the rear tire and then removing the rim weights, the balancer found an out of balance condition. This test was repeated five times and the balancer continued to call for the replacement of the 1.6 oz. of rim weights in the same location. Over-the-road testing was next. Without the rim weights, the rear wheel produced noticeable vibration and the installation of the beads gave a barely perceptible improvement. Also, the weight of the beads added so close to the tire tread gave a noticeable increase in gyro stability, making the steering heavier. We also tried them on a car and were disappointed. Bottom line: Save your money for a proper spin balance."

I'm pretty sure this has been covered before and is incorrect as spin balancers dont spin fast enough for the beads/ride on or what ever to do their thing and for said potion to work the wheel needs to be able to move which it cant on a 1000lb balancing machine. I know on my bike with ride on in the tires I get a bit of a shake from being out of balance by a bit, but once I hit around 45 mph it becomes super smooth. I am running the tubliss setup and spin balance with just the tubliss and no tire, takes about 5 oz because of the rim lock. I still think that a quick spin balance to get close then use whatever potion you like is the easiest/fastest.

[ram1000]

After statically balancing my tires in the garage I heard about and began using using Dyna Beads for a few years now. I had no noticeable out of balance situations on both sport bike tires on my road bikes and tube tires on my dual sport bikes. That said I needed a sport bike tire on a trip once and mounted it up in my son-in-laws garage in Texas, with no way of balancing or getting Dyna Beads. I decided to try it. Since then I quit balancing any of my tires because I could not tell the difference between a balanced sport bike tire and the new non-balanced tire. I did run into an exception about a year ago I put a new Kenda K270 dual sport tire on the front of my DR650 and noticed an imbalance at 30 or 40 mph. I added Dyna Beads and that solved the problem. Now I run Dyna Beads in the tubes of my dual sport bikes since when I change tires I use the same tubes- don't get excited about not changing tubes for every new tire- it isn't necessary. I still have not gone back to balancing my sport bike tires but if I find one that needs it I will add Dyna Beads through the stem. I use a vibrator sander against the stem to vibrate the beads through the stem as they want to bunch up going through.

[Navin]

I hadn't found that test with the spin balancer. Interesting. I feel no low speed wobble at all. I really do feel a difference overall, but it is very, very subtle.Basically just less vibration but there is still some, more than before the tire swap. The bigger issues I have, the decel wobble and axle shake, still remain.

[mpatch]

Originally Posted by Navin

I hadn't found that test with the spin balancer. Interesting. I feel no low speed wobble at all. I really do feel a difference overall, but it is very, very subtle.Basically just less vibration but there is still some, more than before the tire swap. The bigger issues I have, the decel wobble and axel shake, still remain.

Had the same issue on my vstrom it ended up being a combo of loose stem nut and a worn tire, tightening the stem to specs helped a bit but the major change was putting on a different tire. Night and day difference

[GT-STMC]

Static balance, then Ride-On. Been doing 8 to 12 tires a day, 6 days a week for years. Using/Selling Ride-On for about a year, great stuff.

[duckman44]

I have been using beads for a few years now. I have put them in evrything from my H1 Hummer to my Ducati 1098 and never had an issue with balance. I do find that on a tire with a tube and rim lock, you must use more than recommended. Sometimes twice the amount.

I just ordered some Ride on as a friend of mine just started using it in his KTM EXC 530 and loves it.

[Navin]

Well, thanks to a few hours to kill, coldish temps and my tire change machine I decided to really test these things out.

I swapped on the original, 400 mile old IRC front tire. No balance, no beads. Everything was the same with maybe a slightly lower vibration at the bar ends. Axle still dancing at 80, no obvious signs of imbalance anywhere though, smooth ride.

Next, added the beads which after 200 miles are covered in black tire dust causing them to bunch up trying to put them back in thru the stem. Total PITA. I ended up using my compressor to blow them thru as my vibrating tool didn't move them at all. No difference and if it vibrated less it could just be my imagination at this point.

Now, back on went the Conti. No beads. Now I'm pretty sure the vibration difference is just in my head. Here is the kicker, at 75-80 where all the other combos had the axle buzzing to where it looked fuzzy to my eye, dead calm now. I did it 3 times to be sure. It stopped shaking!

Every tire combo still had the decel headshake at 50-40 MPH. I tightened up the steering head bearings again that had originally come loose at the 1000 mile mark on this new Ninja 300 and it got less severe but still very obvious.

I'll be swapping in real roller bearings to tame that, fingers crossed.

My opinion after these back to back test on the same day, same bike, same roads is these Dyna Beads do nothing. My bike has the unbalanced front Conti on it now and rides as well with or without the beads up to at least 80 MPH.

I never touched the rear tire, matching Conti with beads till I wear it out, change it and toss the things in the trash. This is the first streetbike that I thought I had a wheel balance problem with. I've been thru dozens of 17" tires without ever balancing any of them. I never felt them have any problem.

Waste of $30.