Any Dyno beads users?
. Silly me....
Where Jim Jones (infamous cult leader) had a lot of his followers so convinced of something ridiculous that they drank Koolaid that was spiked with Cyanide. So the "drinking the koolaid" is a reference to someone who blindly believes in "something", as in "following the crowd"
Tried dyna-beads and they fixed it. So I'm sold, and I don't think this would be considered as Koolaid drinking. LOL
I got on board with Dyna Beads after the company I drive for tested a similar product called "Equal" in the big trucks. After extensive testing the switch was made and conventional balancing methods went by the wayside. The stuff worked in big trucks.
I have a tire machine and change all my buds tires on their bikes. Most of them drive where I work and they wanted to use Dyna Beads in their bikes after the success of the "Equal" product at work.
I have balanced enough motorcycle wheels to know that the true test of whether or not these would work in a motorcycle would be to use a Harley brand wheel. The reason for this is that a Harley wheel put on a balancing device without the tire installed usually takes 2-3 ounces of weight to balance the wheel by itself. A quality made wheel usually takes about 1/2 to 3/4 ounces of weight to balance the wheel without the tire mounted.
So I used a friends EG that had Harley Agitator wheels for my test. As usual with a Harley wheel, it took 3.5 ounces of weight to balance the wheel alone. I then mounted the tire putting the heavy spot of the tire 180 degrees opposite the heavy spot of the wheel. It then took 2 7/8 ounces of weight to balance the wheel/tire combo. I did this on the front wheel only and left the rear wheel balanced in the conventional method.
The next step was to remove the weights and ride the bike with the front wheel out of balance. The results were predictable. The front wheel did reasonably well at low speeds, kinda pulsated some at mid-range speeds, and rode like crap at high speeds. Then it was back to the shop to install Dyna Beads. I installed the recommended 2 oz of beads for the tire size being used and rode it again. The beads helped. There was a noticeable improvement. I added another 1 oz of beads since I knew the wheel was out of balance by nearly 3 oz. and more improvement still to the point that I was impressed and was nearly sold on the product.
Then the bubble busted. I was merging onto the freeway and didn't like what was developing with the traffic I was merging into. So I decided to pour the coal to my buddies built 103. It came to life, put me back in the seat, and put me nicely out in front of the traffic cluster I wanted to avoid....and the front wheel was bouncing. I glanced at the speedo and was doing about 90. I backed out of it down to the speed limit and the front wheel leveled out and rode nicely again. I then began to experiment with rapid acceleration at different speed and the same result. The beads worked well at consistent speeds up to a point. They never did work well with rapid changes in wheel rpm or at speeds above 80 mph.
To further prove or disprove the effectiveness of the product I installed the beads in my 1125R. Now I could experiment with some true acceleration. Same results. They do not work in a performance environment with rapid acceleration/deceleration. It is my opinion from what I have learned that the beads can not maintain the proper positioning inside the wheel during rapid rpm changes. Think about that and it will make some sense.
So why the success of the product in other applications such as big trucks? In big trucks, wheel rpm changes occur much more gradually allowing the product to keep its positioning inside the tire much better. Also, in big trucks the wheel rpm is much slower at a given vehicle speed than in a vehicle with smaller diameter wheels.
Bear with me and I wll get to the final point of why so many people are sold on the product in motorcycles. The best way to install a tire on a wheel is to put the wheel on a balancing device without the tire mounted. Mark the heavy spot on the wheel (usually not at the valve stem like most people believe especially on a cheap wheel) and then balance the wheel without the tire. Then mount the tire and find the heavy spot on the tire. It will manifest itself since the wheel was in balance when the tire was mounted. Now rotate the heavy spot on the tire 180 degrees to the heavy spot on the wheel and remove the weights used to balance the wheel without the tire. Recheck the balance at this point and determine how much if any weight is required for balance. On a quality wheel/tire combo I can usually get balance with less than 1 ounce of weight and in many cases less than 1/2 ounce. In these cases the wheel is not far enough out of balance to require any weight at all and will perform very well WITH OR WITHOUT DYNA BEADS OR WEIGHTS.
So final point is this. Most of the Dyna Bead market is targeted towards people running aftermarket wheels. Most people running stock wheels don't care if there is a weight on the wheel and most dealerships don't want to use unconventional methods for liability reasons...if nothing else the mess that spilled beads make in the shop. It's almost impossible to remove a tire with beads in it without spilling the beads. The people that don't want weights on their wheels are people running "pretty" aftermarket wheels. They don't want ugly weights boogering up the wheel. Well guess what? Most aftermarket wheels are of very high quality and when a quality tire is installed CORRECTLY they are going to "ride like glass" with or without weights and with or without Dyna Beads.
Bottom line. If your running a cheaper wheel (stock for example) that is truly out of balance enough that it is noticeable, you will not get the performance benefit from Dyna Beads that you will get from a properly balanced wheel using the conventional method. If your running a quality wheel/tire combo that is properly installed, you probably don't need anything to balance them. But go ahead and use them especially if it's not your shop and you don't have to clean up the mess

Don't hate on me if your a believer (or drink the koolaid
The Best of Harley-Davidson for Lifelong Riders
Good luck and be safe out there. Don't blame me when you get laughed out of the garage asking for helium.
I got on board with Dyna Beads after the company I drive for tested a similar product called "Equal" in the big trucks. After extensive testing the switch was made and conventional balancing methods went by the wayside. The stuff worked in big trucks.
I have a tire machine and change all my buds tires on their bikes. Most of them drive where I work and they wanted to use Dyna Beads in their bikes after the success of the "Equal" product at work.
I have balanced enough motorcycle wheels to know that the true test of whether or not these would work in a motorcycle would be to use a Harley brand wheel. The reason for this is that a Harley wheel put on a balancing device without the tire installed usually takes 2-3 ounces of weight to balance the wheel by itself. A quality made wheel usually takes about 1/2 to 3/4 ounces of weight to balance the wheel without the tire mounted.
So I used a friends EG that had Harley Agitator wheels for my test. As usual with a Harley wheel, it took 3.5 ounces of weight to balance the wheel alone. I then mounted the tire putting the heavy spot of the tire 180 degrees opposite the heavy spot of the wheel. It then took 2 7/8 ounces of weight to balance the wheel/tire combo. I did this on the front wheel only and left the rear wheel balanced in the conventional method.
The next step was to remove the weights and ride the bike with the front wheel out of balance. The results were predictable. The front wheel did reasonably well at low speeds, kinda pulsated some at mid-range speeds, and rode like crap at high speeds. Then it was back to the shop to install Dyna Beads. I installed the recommended 2 oz of beads for the tire size being used and rode it again. The beads helped. There was a noticeable improvement. I added another 1 oz of beads since I knew the wheel was out of balance by nearly 3 oz. and more improvement still to the point that I was impressed and was nearly sold on the product.
Then the bubble busted. I was merging onto the freeway and didn't like what was developing with the traffic I was merging into. So I decided to pour the coal to my buddies built 103. It came to life, put me back in the seat, and put me nicely out in front of the traffic cluster I wanted to avoid....and the front wheel was bouncing. I glanced at the speedo and was doing about 90. I backed out of it down to the speed limit and the front wheel leveled out and rode nicely again. I then began to experiment with rapid acceleration at different speed and the same result. The beads worked well at consistent speeds up to a point. They never did work well with rapid changes in wheel rpm or at speeds above 80 mph.
To further prove or disprove the effectiveness of the product I installed the beads in my 1125R. Now I could experiment with some true acceleration. Same results. They do not work in a performance environment with rapid acceleration/deceleration. It is my opinion from what I have learned that the beads can not maintain the proper positioning inside the wheel during rapid rpm changes. Think about that and it will make some sense.
So why the success of the product in other applications such as big trucks? In big trucks, wheel rpm changes occur much more gradually allowing the product to keep its positioning inside the tire much better. Also, in big trucks the wheel rpm is much slower at a given vehicle speed than in a vehicle with smaller diameter wheels.
Bear with me and I wll get to the final point of why so many people are sold on the product in motorcycles. The best way to install a tire on a wheel is to put the wheel on a balancing device without the tire mounted. Mark the heavy spot on the wheel (usually not at the valve stem like most people believe especially on a cheap wheel) and then balance the wheel without the tire. Then mount the tire and find the heavy spot on the tire. It will manifest itself since the wheel was in balance when the tire was mounted. Now rotate the heavy spot on the tire 180 degrees to the heavy spot on the wheel and remove the weights used to balance the wheel without the tire. Recheck the balance at this point and determine how much if any weight is required for balance. On a quality wheel/tire combo I can usually get balance with less than 1 ounce of weight and in many cases less than 1/2 ounce. In these cases the wheel is not far enough out of balance to require any weight at all and will perform very well WITH OR WITHOUT DYNA BEADS OR WEIGHTS.
So final point is this. Most of the Dyna Bead market is targeted towards people running aftermarket wheels. Most people running stock wheels don't care if there is a weight on the wheel and most dealerships don't want to use unconventional methods for liability reasons...if nothing else the mess that spilled beads make in the shop. It's almost impossible to remove a tire with beads in it without spilling the beads. The people that don't want weights on their wheels are people running "pretty" aftermarket wheels. They don't want ugly weights boogering up the wheel. Well guess what? Most aftermarket wheels are of very high quality and when a quality tire is installed CORRECTLY they are going to "ride like glass" with or without weights and with or without Dyna Beads.
Bottom line. If your running a cheaper wheel (stock for example) that is truly out of balance enough that it is noticeable, you will not get the performance benefit from Dyna Beads that you will get from a properly balanced wheel using the conventional method. If your running a quality wheel/tire combo that is properly installed, you probably don't need anything to balance them. But go ahead and use them especially if it's not your shop and you don't have to clean up the mess

Don't hate on me if your a believer (or drink the koolaid
I have to agree with that. I use dyna beads and I have had no problems with them. However I made a post here about a year ago giving a warning after having Doc dyno my bike. When my bike was on the dyno and he cranked it up to high speed, a couple times it started to jump all over the place the way it would if the tire was out of balance.
I don't normally ride like that so it has not been a problem, but it does happen and it is something to be aware of.







