Wheel balancing...

Anybody here used this? Does it actually work? Seems awfully simple - so simple, my reaction is, "Why are we doing wheel balancing any other way?" Which in turns leads to me believe it doesn''t really work. Any experience?

http://www.innovativebalancing.com/index.php

mike996 said:

Anybody here used this? Does it actually work? Seems awfully simple - so simple, my reaction is, "Why are we doing wheel balancing any other way?" Which in turns leads to me believe it doesn''t really work. Any experience?

http://www.innovativebalancing.com/index.php

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I have used them on several bikes and they work very well. I have used them on a Honda CB 360, an older Goldwing and my Norton.
Be sure to mount the tire with the placement dot in the correct location at the air valve.

They work dynamically as the wheel is turning. You may notice a slight wobble at very slow speeds because the beads have not been distributed around the wheel. Other than that the bikes I have used it on have have normal even wear on the tires an no noticeable tire performance issues.

Dyno beads and others like them, plus various fluids in the past definitely help hi speed tire balancing, but its not for the likes of you, me or all the rest of our antique cycle friends still running heavy heat generating inner tubes inside their tubeless tires on spoked air leak rims. Even with beads you'd still want to use wheel wts. to balance fairly well too, to reduce the mass of beads needed to do the job. Harely specialists have used this principle to help balance their flywheels with a channel around the rim 2/3'd filled with mercury.

Seems like this stands as much chance of making matters worst rather than better. Say an imperfection in the tire mold means that the mounted tire is a few thousandths of an inch off center relative to the center line of the axle; there would be a "low point" as far as centrifugal force (I know there isn't really any such thing) is concerned and the beads would tend to sit there in preference to anywhere else, so a potentially "heavy" spot from the balance point of view would become even heavier.

For things to work as described on the website when the "tire goes up" the whole unsprung mass of that wheel must go with it; are we to believe that a few ounces of beads will have a noticeable affect on 30 odd lbs of unsprung mass?

There are some VERY long threads on dynabeads over at ADVrider with opinions and experiences all over the map...personally I use a cone type balancer and it works great on my three bikes, bought it because my unbalanced Commando wheel had a slight hop at freeway speeds and balancing it fixed that. I've found many new tires these days are so consistent that the wheel does not need a rebalance if the same make and model is used as a replacement and FWIW Avon AM26's do not even have a light spot marked as supposedly there is not one so really it is the wheel and tube/valve that is being balanced...in these cases balancing the wheel once w/ weights is less work than fooling w/ dynabeads....checking that the balance is still good after a tire change only takes a minute or two.

ha-ha! snake oil :shock:

FWIW I use Dynabeads in all my bikes, tube and tubeless and like them. Never an issue with uneven wear or tire hop.

MikeG said:

FWIW I use Dynabeads in all my bikes, tube and tubeless and like them. Never an issue with uneven wear or tire hop.

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And what would happen if you didn't use them? I'm just naturally skeptical. If it were so good, why doesn't everyone use them? I don't have any weights on either of my tyres and they seem fine, but I don't go much past 60.

Dave
69S

One explanation on the ADV Riders site is that an out of balance object, if not constrained to rotate about its geometric center, will rotate about its center of gravity. The example of a Frisbee in flight is used and you can imagine that if the frisbee’s CofG is, say, half way between its center and its rim and the rim contains beads then the beads will move to the point on the rim that is furthest from the CoG which will improve balance. The explanation goes on to say that a motorcycle wheel is not constrained to rotate about its center because flex in the forks and suspension will allow it to move about. Well… the constraint might not be perfectly rigid, but the wheel is going to spin much more like a…wheel…than a seriously out of balance frisbee.

If the Frisbee explanation were true you’d think DynaBeads would use it on their website, but they don’t, instead they say when the wheel moves up, the beads move down to compensate.

If you start with a perfectly balanced wheel and then throw it out of balance by sticking 4 x ¼ oz weights to its rim those weights are subject to enormous G-force at 60 mph. At 60 mph 1 oz becomes 10 lbs. The beads also experience the high G but if they are distributed uniformly the resulting forces cancel one another out. A 10lb out-of-balance force can act on 30lbs of unsprung mass to cause it to accelerate at 1/3 g (in the absence of constraints). The beads experience that 1/3 g which will produce a resultant force that will oppose the motion of the unsprung mass, but that resultant force is only (at best) the mass of the beads (2 oz?) multiplied by the 1/3 g, which is 0.04lb

So out-of-balance force without beads = 10 lb: out of balance force with beads 9.96 lb.

mikegray660 said:

ha-ha! snake oil :shock:

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no experience with them but palletised snake oil is my feeling.
I fit my own tyres on my old bikes, treat it as practice for road side puncture repairs, and the last two times haven't bothered to rebalance after fitting - with no noticeable vibes.

Kind of like if enough ice melts off the poles the crust and water will shift to rebalance the wobble. Takes a fair amount of out of balance to be felt over just road and wind and most get away fine on the knife edge or losse bearing axle balancing. Bluto has me piqued on his success with a cone balancer. If that's anything like mower blade balancer, my great respects and need to learn the trick as I couldn't begin to get my wheels to level out at all on my attempts. The tire shop spin balancers shaft is too darn big to pass through our hubs but if an adpter was made...

DogT said:

MikeG said:

FWIW I use Dynabeads in all my bikes, tube and tubeless and like them. Never an issue with uneven wear or tire hop.

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And what would happen if you didn't use them? I'm just naturally skeptical. If it were so good, why doesn't everyone use them? I don't have any weights on either of my tyres and they seem fine, but I don't go much past 60.

Dave
69S

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Good question..Kind of like if I told you I stand on my head and shout at the full moon while drinking Olde Panther, and I've never been attacked by Tasmanian devils. Any connection?? Who knows! :lol: I started using them because I have lots of customers that use them in the tires on their trucks ( Kenworth, Mack, ect ) and they all seem to be sold on them. That and I find it easier than trying to static balance while on the bike, and their claim that as tires wear balance can change. Been at 130 mph plus on the Suzuki with 1/2 gone tires and felt nothing out of the ordinairy.

Way back in the Tiger Paw days they sold a ring with beads or fluid in it that bolted to the wheel lug nuts. Couldn't tell a thing myself. Later with Mercedies and Jag and Lexus, I had tires cut round then spin balanced on the car. Now that I definitely could feel nice and smoother secure longer lasting tires. Peel will run tubeless so definitely thinking to try beads to see if they dampen down tire harmonics in the audible range reacting with surfaces.

Got another happy handling Commando note from Joe Piska in rural NY state, on 2nd known triple linked isolastic baby buggy. Rich 'seaguy' send me a bean bag of em to try too.

On 6/30/2013 5:56 AM, jcb500@aol.com wrote:

I scored some Ceramic tire bead off ebay from a seller in NJ.
The are tiny, smaller than the ones used for car/truck tires. Not so
difficult to get inside Tube stems, just takes a little patience.

I will NEVER leave home with out them!! There was a nasty wiggle on the
Commando from 40 to 50 mph!! Completely gone!! Even with a bent rim, these
beads make the world a difference! May have possibly been the best $8.oo
I have spent!

Regards

Joe Piska*Valley Falls*NY*USA

THE CERAMIC TIRE BEADS!!! I will never leave home with out them in any of my personal MC's. Man, I can stuff that Commando in a shoe box and then explode out of a hole like a stripper from a cake at a bachelor party Now!!

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