Has anyone tried or now use balancing beads in place of weights.

[ojstinson]

Are they a scam or do they balance the tires?

[tt_four]

They work pretty well from what I've heard. I haven't messed with them because it's not that hard to balance a wheel the normal style, and I'm the kind of person who likes to let other people test new things out, and I'll come along once I'm comfortable with it, but I've only ever heard good things.

[Firstoni]

Actually there are a couple threads on this out there, comes down to the people that use them say they don't really notice a difference between these and stick on weights but that they don't work at low speed (when you presumably don't really need them)

[Electrojake]

Motorcycle Consumer News http://www.mcnews.com/mcn/home.aspx did a review sometime in 2010 on Dyna Beads, http://www.bestrestproducts.com/c-100-dyna-beads.aspx and as I remember they said the beads made no measurable difference. Shortly thereafter the makers of Dyna Beads sent a letter to MCN expressing their displeasure with the review. MCN held their ground and reiterated their findings and the issue never came up again.

If I was you and I wanted them, I would buy them!
Then do your own review and post the results here on the forum.
Regards,
-Ej-

[twocool]

Are they a scam or do they balance the tires?

Pretty much scam IMHO ..........

Do it the old way, the right way, the way that really works.....be happy...sleep well........


Cookie

[GI_JO_NATHAN]

I'm kinda thinking about trying these. Main reason is because for some reason I've lost some of the weights off my wheels three different times. And they always fall off in my garage.
I was just looking around the BestRest site and they've got some pretty cool stuff. Not all the cheapest though.

[reload]

...this sounds quite dangerous but my motorcycle tires are not balanced. i don't see any weights on it and i don't remember ever seeing weights on it when i bought it in the summer.  i'm pretty sure there aren't any beads in it either.

i've taken it to like ~90mph too and haven't had any problems *knockonwood

tire balancing is a myth? 

[tt_four]

It's definitely no a myth. Not all wheels/tires are perfectly balanced, and if the weight is off enough you'll feel it when the wheel get to spinning at 50mph+. Your specific wheels may have never needed it. The wheels on my other bike have a bunch of weights on the front wheel, but don't need any on the rear wheel. I've even double checked them just to make sure I wasn't having an off day the first time I did it. You could get away with not doing it on a GS if you're not going stupid fast all the time, and I assume you going to 90mph is just an occassional thing. The faster you go the worse it has the potential to be. You'll survive if it's not balanced, it just won't ride as smooth.

[Twism86]

Wheel weights work. Why mess with a proven system IMO.

[Firstoni]

Because like most things there is always the possibility of a better (or easier) way to do something.

[reload]

It's definitely no a myth. Not all wheels/tires are perfectly balanced, and if the weight is off enough you'll feel it when the wheel get to spinning at 50mph+. Your specific wheels may have never needed it. The wheels on my other bike have a bunch of weights on the front wheel, but don't need any on the rear wheel. I've even double checked them just to make sure I wasn't having an off day the first time I did it. You could get away with not doing it on a GS if you're not going stupid fast all the time, and I assume you going to 90mph is just an occassional thing. The faster you go the worse it has the potential to be. You'll survive if it's not balanced, it just won't ride as smooth.

oh i was kidding about the myth thing. forgot to add the jk

yes and 80+ is a once in a while thing. 60-70 is more like it

[GI_JO_NATHAN]

Yeah mine needs weights for sure. I rode to work and back one day and couldn't figure out why it was riding like crap, not smooth. Pulled into the garage when I got home and saw my weights laying on the floor.

[ojstinson]

They say you can do it W/O using the expensive kit, they say to just buy cheap air soft BBs at Walmart or sporting goods store. What have you got to lose, it can't hurt anything.



http://aircooledtech.com/tools-on-the-cheap/balancing_beads/

[GI_JO_NATHAN]

Well I think It's only like $15 for the 4oz tube. I'd hardly call it expensive. On the other hand you could buy like $10 worth of airsoft bb's and only use like 3oz worth..I don't know what the smallest/cheapest you can buy is.

[twocool]

Because like most things there is always the possibility of a better (or easier) way to do something.

Yeah, but in this case, "beads" ain't it!

Cookie

[twocool]

Well I think It's only like $15 for the 4oz tube. I'd hardly call it expensive. On the other hand you could buy like $10 worth of airsoft bb's and only use like 3oz worth..I don't know what the smallest/cheapest you can buy is.

That's part of the psychology of a good scam......charge just cheap enough that the sucker won't feel too bad about losing his hard earned cash!

I researched these bead things pretty well...........it's what I call a "semi-scam"...........they sort of work, but sort of don't work..........it is hard to quantify their performance, so its hard to tell if they actually do anything......many bike guys don't balance their wheels, and run fine...........so if you run fine with no balance, what can the beads do better? 

It's what I call "a solution for a problem which doesn't exist"..............

For me, its balance the old fashioned way, with weights..........then you know the wheel is balanced,  fast, slow, hot cold, whatever, balanced ...period.

If a weight falls off, well then you gotta re balance...big deal....

Now, if you guys are interested....I have some special spark plugs for sale....with TWO electrodes!   



Cookie

[mister]

They say you can do it W/O using the expensive kit, they say to just buy cheap air soft BBs at Walmart or sporting goods store. What have you got to lose, it can't hurt anything.

Well, I'm not a wheel-in-motion-laws-of-physics-on-two-wheeled-machines expert, but an unbalanced wheel mean less desireable/stable handling. Anything that hinders handling is dangerous. The worst case... the bike crashes. I'd say that can hurt. And depending what you hit, you could lose quite a bit.

Michael

[ojstinson]

Like you I'm not an expert but I still say that having balancing beads in your tires isn't going to hurt anything. Here is another opinion, this from a trucking company manager.


"They're not a scam, but are unsuitable for smaller tire/wheel combinations. IMI is probably the market leader and they have discovered, as I did as a "guinea pig", that they just don't work as well in smaller set-ups. On heavy vehicles and in large tire/wheel combos they work quite well, as has been shown in the transport industry.

In a commercial truck, I use them without hesitation. But I'll never waste my time using them in a light-duty vehicle again. IMI had such a poor showing in field tests, and the limited use of the technology by customers, that they withdrew their product from the light-duty market. They instead spent a great deal of time and money to develop an alternative product to serve the light-duty market. It's real simple, would you spend a fortune doing this if you already" had the solution"?