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Dyna beads R1200GS

I've used them with Z6's and my favorite Diabol Strada's. The Dyna Beads are constantly re balancing, my front tire dosen't cup any more. Best of all when you change tires, collect the beads and recycle them.
 
If you're gonna use them, keep a tire valve tool in your toolkit. This picture is from a friend. The same thing happened to him twice.

4720804922_778959d423_b.jpg
 
I used them for 4 years and 50,000+ miles in my K1200LT with no problems at all.

I also put them in a friends R1200RT last summer in preparation for Johnson City. Again, no problems.

Joe
 
If you're gonna use them, keep a tire valve tool in your toolkit. This picture is from a friend. The same thing happened to him twice.

4720804922_778959d423_b.jpg
From the Dyna-Bead site:

Do I need filtered valve cores for my motorcycle / scooter / truck?

The purpose of the filtered valve core is to prevent a bead from getting caught in the valve core mechanism. So if your valve stems can accomodate the filtered valve cores, then by all means go ahead and use them.
Filtered valve cores, however, do not fit a lot of the newer valve stems. They require a seat 1-1/4" down in the stem. If you cannot use them, simply rotate the tire so the valve stem is about the 6:00 position, or give the valve stem a quick shot of air prior to checking pressure.


No interest in them except doing research on them and am considering them.
 
Just a FWIW - Steve, it might be useful to read the Motorcycle Consumer News article, and then letters/replies on Dynabeads. Their conclusion was they are granular snake oil.. doing little of any value. I would tend to agree with them, despite anecdotal claims that they "work".. Dynabead also seemed to think (1) that they'd provided MCN with the product (2) that this entitled them to a positive review. They were wrong on both issues.
 
Well, still doing my research. I found the MCN article and considering the principal the Dynabeads use, I'm not too sure of the value of the MCN test.

What concerns me more is the disclaimer from Dunlop - I've read it copied but haven't read it on their site yet - too little time - that if you use Dynabeads, you void their warranty.

Obviously, it's going to take some time to make a decision. I'm in no hurry.

Thanks Don.
 
Just a FWIW - Steve, it might be useful to read the Motorcycle Consumer News article, and then letters/replies on Dynabeads. Their conclusion was they are granular snake oil.. doing little of any value. I would tend to agree with them, despite anecdotal claims that they "work".. Dynabead also seemed to think (1) that they'd provided MCN with the product (2) that this entitled them to a positive review. They were wrong on both issues.

The thing that the article brings out, is that Dynabeads recommends very frequent checking of air pressure. They think (and I concur) that if you check your pressures as frequently as they recommend, that you will have the same net effect with or without them.

IMHO
-Brian
 
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Well, still doing my research. I found the MCN article and considering the principal the Dynabeads use, I'm not too sure of the value of the MCN test.
Steve,
I've never been real clear on the "principal" the Dynabeads claim to use. I'm an old physics major - and something about weight moving to the light spot on a rotating mass just doesn't seem to work for me. I believe MCN also had a bit of a problem with that theory..
What concerns me more is the disclaimer from Dunlop - I've read it copied but haven't read it on their site yet - too little time - that if you use Dynabeads, you void their warranty.

Obviously, it's going to take some time to make a decision. I'm in no hurry.

Thanks Don.
I just have my tires balanced and forgeddaboutit.. but mebbe I'm just old-fashioned.
 
That's what I've always done as well Don. However, I have had some tires mounted that didn't get balanced correctly. Being as far from any shops I'd trust my ride to, that means when I get home, I have to fashion up a jig again and take half a day piddling with static balancing until I get it right.

What I'm really looking at this for is the case where that's happened.

Frankly, I think it's not going to be necessary any long anyway - though I would like to know more about the beads. A buddy that's only 350 miles from me bought a Coats 200 and the Coats balancing machine. He's my hero...:bow
 
I too must be old-fashioned. I change my own tires and actually enjoy relaxing out in the shop. Even balancing tires really doesn't take much time and effort. I'll stick with the weights.

Now if could just get rid of this baker cyist in my leg so I could do something with my bikes.
 
I've been using them for two years. It's only anecdotal, but they seem to work pretty well to me. I've tried with and without them. Definitely smoother with them.

Been a while since I took physics, but from a physics standpoint, don't the dynabeads act just like a "dry" fluid in a centrifuge? When the tire rotates, they spread across the entire tire with a predisposition to the lighter side of the tire. The imbalance in torque causes the heavy side of the tire/wheel to "race" ahead of the fluid beads. The inertia from the imbalance causes the beads to migrate to the lighter side of the tire until it balances. Like I said, been a long time.
 
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something about weight moving to the light spot on a rotating mass just doesn't seem to work for me. I believe MCN also had a bit of a problem with that theory.


As well they should... that's not the theory behind how the beads work.

The beads do nothing to balance wheels/tires. What they may do is balance the effect that an out of balance wheel/tire has on your suspension. It is the up/down of your suspension that may be balanced, not the rotating wheels. Without a moving suspension the beads do nothing.

Note: I don't use them and likely never will for various reasons. I just wish that someone who understood what they were supposed to do would rig up a reasonable test. Putting a wheel with beads on a spin balancer that measures axle strain does only shows that the people running the test (yes, I'm talking about MCN) are clueless about how the beads could work. It doesn't help that the beads are marketed as something that will balance your wheels/tires. They can do no such thing.
 
As well they should... that's not the theory behind how the beads work.

The beads do nothing to balance wheels/tires. What they may do is balance the effect that an out of balance wheel/tire has on your suspension. It is the up/down of your suspension that may be balanced, not the rotating wheels. Without a moving suspension the beads do nothing.

Note: I don't use them and likely never will for various reasons. I just wish that someone who understood what they were supposed to do would rig up a reasonable test. Putting a wheel with beads on a spin balancer that measures axle strain does only shows that the people running the test (yes, I'm talking about MCN) are clueless about how the beads could work. It doesn't help that the beads are marketed as something that will balance your wheels/tires. They can do no such thing.

I'm always a bit slow (hey I have a Polish ancestry and grew up in a small town in Nebraska - that's like two strikes right out of the gate, right). Here's where I'm confused. If beads balance out the up/down effect that an out of balance wheel/tire has on the suspension, and the axle of the wheel/tire is rigidly attached directly to the bottom part of the suspension, wouldn't that mean the beads were distributing themselves inside the tire in a way that also stopped the unbalanced wheel from going up and down (due to the inbalance)?

Other than that the wheel needs to be rotating for it to happen (I suppose that's why they use DYNA in dynabeads), how is that any different than using weights on the rim to stop the up and down movement of the wheel/tire due to an inbalance?
 
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As well they should... that's not the theory behind how the beads work.

The beads do nothing to balance wheels/tires. What they may do is balance the effect that an out of balance wheel/tire has on your suspension. It is the up/down of your suspension that may be balanced, not the rotating wheels. Without a moving suspension the beads do nothing.
The moving suspension part is fine - but a heavy spot will try to move outward harder then a light spot - so when the heavy spot crosses the movement axis of the suspension - the wheel will tend to move up (if the heavy spot is UP) or down (if the heavy spot is down.)

That's a given. What isn't a given is exactly HOW and WHY the Dynabeads would tend to go to the opposite side from the movement to counteract the movement.

So - what is the theory behind how the beads work?
Note: I don't use them and likely never will for various reasons. I just wish that someone who understood what they were supposed to do would rig up a reasonable test. Putting a wheel with beads on a spin balancer that measures axle strain does only shows that the people running the test (yes, I'm talking about MCN) are clueless about how the beads could work. It doesn't help that the beads are marketed as something that will balance your wheels/tires. They can do no such thing.
Actually IMHO - that's a good test. The "spin balancer" actually measures displacement forces on the center axle going through the mounted wheel. It does this when the wheel is MOVING - not when it's stationary.

Problem with many motorcycle ones (like the Snap-On one I usually use) - is the rotational speed may not be enough to trigger the magical effects of Dynabeads..

But - automotive spin balancers are usually electrically driven - and will spin a tire up to 50-60 MPH to measure imbalance. It would seem that if the effect is real - Dynabeads could be shown to work on a car tire mounted in a high-speed dynamic spin balancer.

So far - I've never seen that happen. Has it? Inquiring minds want to know.. :D
 
...
That's a given. What isn't a given is exactly HOW and WHY the Dynabeads would tend to go to the opposite side from the movement to counteract the movement.
...

I don't get why that would be such a mystery. The beads act like a low mass fluid inside the tire. Been a while on my physics, but when the heavy spot tries to move outward like you described, isn't it accelerating away from the beads directly below the heavy spot on the inside surface of the tire? The beads are fluid and they flow/roll back towards the light spot on the tire as the heavy spot accelerates away.
 
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