dynabeads R1200RT

Has anyone used dynabeads to balance tires on a 1200rt? how did they work?

Type dynabeads in the search bar, I came up with 175 posts on them and they will prettymuch answer all your questions! Personally, I think they are great and recommend them. Now that the law in NY states no lead weights on tires balancing anymore, I think the local Harley dealer that has them was trying to take advantage of that and charge me $17.95 an ounce. I just reused mine in that case.

Oh no, not again...

Given that I cannot pass up a bead thread-I use em! Work great. I have a big bag from a ADV group buy & have saved a bunch of time & $ on balancing.

MODERATOR NOTE:

This is a topic where opinions are often heated. I'd suggest just reading up on older posts on the topic. If opinions do get heated - you can expect this thread to be closed.

FYI..

HEY over here sshhhhhh

I use them on my 1100rs....don't tell anyone.

I'll add something because we love this subject. I change a lot of tires, I have run tires balanced and non balanced, truthfully with today's tires and the lower speeds the BMW's run at, I have not found that the balance on the tires is super critical. I just hand spin balance my tires now, add a few weights, it works great, and I have no issues. I chock this up as something we tend to over think.

-JT

As someone who is fairly new to the computer world, thanks for the input on doing a "search" for a subject. I didn't realize how easy it makes finding stuff.

Can we talk about oil now?

85801 said:

As someone who is fairly new to the computer world, thanks for the input on doing a "search" for a subject. I didn't realize how easy it makes finding stuff.

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On "searching" , I have no problem elsewhere but seems that here you get everything under the sun with a search.

85801 said:

As someone who is fairly new to the computer world, thanks for the input on doing a "search" for a subject. I didn't realize how easy it makes finding stuff.

Click to expand...

another option for searching bmwmoa forums is to use Google.

In the Google search text box, if you type ...

dynabeads site:bmwmoa.org

It will return the threads from this site related to dynabeads. In Google, you can specify a data range by clicking on the "show search tools" link. You can also sort the returned information by relevance or date (newest first).

If you want, you can also refine the search. For example...

dynabeads AND r1200rt site:bmwmoa.org

Will return the threads that contain both dynabeads and r1200rt.

You can search on a phrase if you put it in double quotes...

"don't like dynabeads" site:bmwmoa.org

and you can mix and match them...

(dynabeads AND r1200rt) OR "don't like dynabeads" site:bmwmoa.org

will give all the threads that contain both the words "dynabeads" and "r1200rt" plus all the threads (the OR) that contain the phrase "don't like dynabeads"

You can also do some trickier stuff like...

dynabeads NEAR r1200rt site:bmwmoa.org

That will return the threads where the word dynabeads is in close proximity to the word r1200rt.

pretty powerful stuff.

85801 said:

Has anyone used dynabeads to balance tires on a 1200rt? how did they work?

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Dyna Beads are snake oil and that's the long and short of it. Shop Amazon where you can buy a tire balancer complete with stand for $68 and some 7G weights and there you go.
Couple days ago I was at a well known regional tire dealer (auto/truck) and brought up the subject of balancing beads and mostly what I got was a lot of laughter. You could probably not even balance your tires at all and get the same effects balancing beads give you. Another thought is to just balance the front tire as the rear wheel and tire just go along for the ride and are held in place by the swing arm or running gear as in the case of BMW.

I was wondering when we could talk about snake oil. Again

Red100RT said:

Dyna Beads are snake oil and that's the long and short of it...

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It seems to me that's where these discussions (dynabeads, synth vs dino, custom seats, etc.) run off the rails.

If you look back at the past threads, of the people that have actually used dynabeads, maybe 60 to 70 percent thought they worked well. Provided a smoother ride and longer tire life due to reduce cupping, particularly on the front. Maybe 30 to 40 percent thought they either didn't do anything, performance was worse, or too hard to clean up/reuse. That's pretty good feedback based on peoples first hand experience. I also seems valuable when people say "I've never used them because I'm more than happy with weights" or "I wouldn't use them because they're messy." Those are also good, constructive criticisms.

It really seems to go down hill when we start tossing out names. "Snake oil." "Defy the natural laws of man." Just doesn't seem to add useful information and indirectly is insulting to the people that use them and like them.

Just my 2 cents.

OK, so you don't like the snake oil terminology, that's fine. Now, I would like to see some scientific evidence that these things really work. I used them through 3 sets of tires on my '04RT and sometimes the front tire cupped and sometimes not so much. I think people like to convince themselves something actually works because it is cheaper or easier than time tested methods or maybe both cheaper and easier. I also think that the beads are upset by traces of bead lubricant left inside the tire during tire install and maybe that impairs their performance. I dunno, do what you want but for me it is the weight method. Oh, I tried a set with no balancing and I couldn't tell any difference beads or no beads.

Not yesterdays tires anymore

I'm thinking tires are better quality today than ever before and mfg'ers have it nailed or almost so compared to yesteryear, therefore I have NOT balanced a tire in probably 100000m+ now. I do my own mounting too. The DOTS are still painted on the sidewalls, for proper aligning the marks to rims and valve stems,etc. Thats about all I go by for quite a long while now, no issues. I DID notice not too long back a mc tire shop mounting a tire, ignoring the sidewall painted spots and aligning them and the tire took a lot of weights to get proper. Seems ugly to me! I do like a NEW idea and the beads are just amazingly entertaining and keyboards light up, whatever you happen to believe. Seems to me the beads would want to migrate to the heavier part of the tire as it rotates faster and faster? I must be wrong, as this would make a worst case balance issue. Too many folks LIKE'em. Randy

Physics anyone?

Just had to add this! I'm not an engineer and/or physics guy, but somebody with those credentials must ride BMWs and maybe even here at our forum? The beads phenom is probably an easier than life solved question, just not so apparent to all us normal folk. Obvious from ALL the discussions here over recent years. IF you're here, make it easy on us and explain in laymans terms....Randy

Polarbear said:

...make it easy on us and explain in laymans terms....Randy

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How does this sound...

1) The beads only work on a suspended wheel/tire where the axle is free to move up and down.

2) On a wheel/tire that is in perfect balance, the center of the wheel/tire is the center of rotation.

3) On a wheel/tire that is out of balance, the center of rotation moves away from the center of the wheel and is closer to the heavy side of the wheel. It has an oblong rotation. That's what causes an unbalanced wheel to go thump, thump. The wheel is spinning around the axle, but the center of rotation for the forward movement of the wheel has moved away from the axle. The suspension lets that happen.

4) Just by default, because the center of rotation is closer to the heavy side of the wheel/tire, the lighter side of wheel/tire is further from the center of rotation.

5) Centripetal force causes the beads to want to leave the rotation of the wheel/tire, but because they are contained in the tire, the farthest away they can get from the center of rotation is the light side of the wheel/tire. As they accumulate on the light side of the tire, the light side gets heavier and the center of rotation moves back towards the axle.

6) When the center of rotation for the wheel is back at the axle, the beads stop moving and the wheel/tire is in balance.

7) When you stop, the beads drop to the bottom of the tire. When you first start moving, the wheel/tire is out of balance (if it was out of balance to begin with). It takes a few rotations to spread the beads around. The speed is so slow you don't notice the imbalance.

I'm sure there will be plenty of disagreement.

EDIT to add - I don't think any amount of explaining will convience anyone to use beads. If you're having tire issues, try them. You'll either like them or not. When I had my RT, I had cupping issues on the front. The beads seemed to solve the cupping and extended front tire life. My GS has no weights or beads and is just fine with neither.