counteract balancing beads

[gene]

Has any one tried these in st1300 dealer says they really do work I ordered some for ATV and truckk to try. Might make ride even better?

[mbrewer566]

Can you clarify what balancing beads are?

[billxp]

Looks like its another way to balance a tire.

Link (http://www.counteractbalancing.com/)

[tdeboeser]

I'm seriously considering these. I've traded emails with them a little while ago:

Hi Tom,
My apologies for the slight delay – I have forwarded your email to one of our agents who should be able to help provide you either with the product or information as to where you can source the motorcycle product.
Good luck – please let us know your opinion – I know that Harley riders love our product; it’ll be interesting to have a Honda owners opinion.
Thanks again
Steve Donohoe
Sales manager
Counteract Balancing Beads Inc.




I got the email from the "agent", they say to use 2oz. They run about $4 a bag. Anybody actually use something like this?

Thanks,

Tom de

[Mark]

Let's see...
Quote from site:
" Our product is easily removed simply by striking the tire with a tire iron several times along the tread. This will cause the material to fall to the bottom of the tire where it can be scooped or vacuumed out."

Now... imagine I'm riding with these beads in my tires...
I'm in nice set of twisties and see a cattle crossing up ahead.
I straighten up and wouldn't you know, this is one with a ridge on both sides: smack, smack.
Hey... why is my tire out of balance in the next turn!

I think I'll skip this farkle.

Mark

[billxp]

I don't see the benefit. Tires are easy enough to balance.

[CrashTestDanny]

Has any one tried these in st1300 dealer says they really do work I ordered some for ATV and truckk to try. Might make ride even better?

I'm with the Bill and Mark.

First - tires are too easy to get balanced.
Second - there are too many ways in which this could cause a problem, and in a twisty would be the wrong place to learn about it.

I'd really have to understand the principles upon which this was working before I'd try it in a motorcycle tire. They really should have an explanation of how/why it works on their web site. I looked, but didn't find any such explanation, just a lot of claims that I'm a little leery of trusting.

[tdeboeser]

Carl_T reported 1500 miles on his ST (before he sold it :( ). And said he was sceptical at first but, after a few twists and turns he was happy. Yes balancing isn't hard, but I don't have all the equipment yet, and it seems abit cheaper than buying all of that stuff

Think I'll try it, my wife can always sue 'em :D.


Tom de

[Carl_T]

I tried the ceramic beads from Dyna Beadhttp://www.innovativebalancing.com/

They claim a superior product that will not clump up or wear down. I can say that the bike was completely and totally vibration free at some higher speeds I won't mention figures over. I certainly rode it with them in for both ConSTOC and NHSTOC events over a very wide variety of roads both at these events and on my own, including dirt roads, rough roads, and smooth roads.

Not even a hint of any problem and never a hint of any (even minute) out of balance situations during the time I rode with them in.

SteveST1300 can attest to my coming over a small hill with a quick drop away on the backside, on our way back from NHSTOC, and having to do a violent whipping counter-steer change to split the difference between two severe deep ruts in the blacktop on the other side. I managed though there were some very strong forces involved in the whole maneuver on the front tire including side forces combined with heavy pounding bump forces in a very rough patch of pavement as the front took on weight over the back side of the rise. Never any hint of out of balance during or after the maneuver.

I can’t speak for them at the latter part of the tires life, but they were good for the first part and I’ve not heard of complaints from the new owner over them. I’m sure there is more miles on them by now as he went to FL for the winter.

I liked the ceramic Dyna Beads over some other brands, because they claimed no clumping, no hitting the tire to unclump them etc. etc.

I’ll probably go with them again in the SV and see how they work long term.

[gene]

I have these in my truck and atv tires and they seem to do as claimed. As for clumping I did dismount one of the atv tires and there were no clumps inside just stuck all around the inside center of tire. Counteract balancing beads are supposed to cling to inside of tire by way of static cling but to dislodge them a good shack with a hammer will dislodge them, but a few revolutions and they are to return to the proper spot to balance tire. In my truck they work great as tires would be perfect balance at shop, than pick up mud and develop a vibration until being washed beads seem to have fixed this as they move to compensate for changes in tire weight.

[Shuey]

Just received an add email with a good explanation of the Dyna Beads. I'll be changing tires soon and will give them a try on my ST1300. Non-clumping beads that relocate themselves whenever the tire is spinning seems like a great benefit. Uneven wear, a little cupping, tire pressure changes all contribute to the balance and ride and this little beauties supposedly keep the tire in balance ALL THE TIME. Only two expensive tires between me and the road - so, seems like worth trying. Haven't heard/seen any negative comments. Local Harley dealer says he sells a lot of it, although a different brand and has had no complaints at all. Anyone have any, please chime in.

For the ignorant (like me) and the tire experts, here's the Dyno Bead info which seems like the best choice.
http://www.bestrestproducts.com/celestia/products/dynabeads/

[Klackey]

I have been running Dyna Beads for about 7,000 miles with no complants of any kind. They seem to work and are very easy to install. I like the fact that the tire is rebalenced every time you ride and that the weights are gone from the outside of the tire and will never come off or just look bad. I am happy and will use them again.

[George]

I just ordered some, and some of their tire goop. Sounds like a good thing to have especially for me with field tire changes being the norm!

[Gonzo]

I am just naturally suspicious - it looks too good to be true.

What about those using Ride-On or equivalent at the same time?

gonzo

[ST13Fred]

One of the motorcycle mags did an evaluation of this stuff a year or so ago and said to save your money. I actually bought some, but never used it after reading the article. I am happy with the low-friction bearing balance method.

:04biker:

[STPaulK]

One of the motorcycle mags did an evaluation of this stuff a year or so ago and said to save your money. I actually bought some, but never used it after reading the article. I am happy with the low-friction bearing balance method.

:04biker:

Yeah, I recall that article. You could almost hear them laughing in their offices as they wrote and edited the review.

My problem with "first hand" accounts from guys who use them is they can't make a fair comparison without running their bike completely unbalanced at speed. In other words, either remove the existing weights or even repostition the weights to impart a wheel bounce at speed then install the beads to see the effect. Simply stating that "I do not experience wheel bounce or vibration with the beads..." is not proving the beads are working. That only suggests to me the beads did not do anything bad.:rolleyes:

[fastflyer20]

GP, World Superbike and AMA racers all use static low friction bearing balancers and lead weights at 180mph+. Simple and good enough for me and my ST.

[tdeboeser]

I've used 'em. They work. I didn't like their valve cores tho. I currently use "Ride On". It works well too.

With "Ride On" you can tell when the bike has sit for a week, it takes a few miles to get balance back. With the Counteract Beads, I could feel 'em when I "loosened" them ( I felt the tire had enough wear to unbalance them). But they come back to balance after a few miles.

I've used beads for 16k or so, and "Ride On" for 10k.

I like these types of "balancers", 1) it's easier to change tires at home, 2) the balance is "adjustable" or "dynamic" - as the tire wears the balance can change, these balancers allow for that change.

my $0.03 ( I'm a contractor ),

Tom de

[sennister]

I've used 'em. They work. I didn't like their valve cores tho. I currently use "Ride On". It works well too.

With "Ride On" you can tell when the bike has sit for a week, it takes a few miles to get balance back. With the Counteract Beads, I could feel 'em when I "loosened" them ( I felt the tire had enough wear to unbalance them). But they come back to balance after a few miles.



So I have been thinking about this for two reasons.

1. I lost the stick on weight from my front tire. I haven't noticed any difference unless passing someone and I am not looking at the how fast I am going and then it is only a little more buzz in the grips.

2. I need new tires

So my question is if the beads have to rebalance the tires after every stop and it takes a couple miles for them to balance the tires would my tires ever be balanced if I have to make several stops on my ride due to 4-way stop signs and stop lights. On my commute to work it is 26 miles each way but I may have to stop up to 16 times. Sometimes less if I hit a light green. Yeah like that ever happens :mad: But basically if you average that out I am stopping every 2 miles even if I make a couple of those lights. Now it may be a better solution ATVs and trucks that can get mud in their rims. It may also work well for a race bike or someone that does IB Rides but as much as I would like to use them I don't know how well they would work for me.

For the people that like them, how much stop and go riding do you do?

[Bliz]

The only way to evaluate balancing beads is to actually use them. I've used them on my ST for about 2000 miles. You can tell no difference in using the balancing beads or wheel weights. Ride is the same. Takes about 2 minutes to balance a tire using the beads. Beads are hard and about the size of a pencil point. Doubt very much if there is anyway they can "clump" up. I like the beads and will continue to use them.

[sennister]

The only way to evaluate balancing beads is to actually use them. I've used them on my ST for about 2000 miles. You can tell no difference in using the balancing beads or wheel weights. Ride is the same. Takes about 2 minutes to balance a tire using the beads. Beads are hard and about the size of a pencil point. Doubt very much if there is anyway they can "clump" up. I like the beads and will continue to use them.

I may do that. I have been thinking of getting some tire irons and changing my tires myself. I figure I can add them. If I don't like them I can take them out and take the wheel to get it balanced. I was just thinking that if they take a few miles to balance that I may rarely get to the point where they are balanced. That said I do have most of the stops and the start and the end of the ride as that is more of a residential area.

[Gonzo]

Let's just say for the purpose of argument that you have these in your tires and all seems well.

You are on a straight, level, very long road at about 130 MPH (200 KPH) and you hit one of those little holes. You know, where the gophers are using picks and shovels.

The beads break loose and it takes about 2 minutes to re-adjust the balance?

Sounds like a very non-boring 2 minutes to me.


Tom de:

Did you use the beads and RideON at the same time? That was the intent of my question.

gonzo

[sennister]

Let's just say for the purpose of argument that you have these in your tires and all seems well.

You are on a straight, level, very long road at about 130 MPH (200 KPH) and you hit one of those little holes. You know, where the gophers are using picks and shovels.

The beads break loose and it takes about 2 minutes to re-adjust the balance?

Sounds like a very non-boring 2 minutes to me.


Tom de:

Did you use the beads and RideON at the same time? That was the intent of my question.

gonzo


I don't know that I would have to worry about that. I don't have a black ST and we all know that they are much faSTer than the other colors... :rolleyes:

Anyhow I would think that it would take a couple minutes to balance out only after you come to a stop. Then the beads would have a chance to stop spinning with the wheels.

Think of it like this. Remember that carnival ride where it is like a big marry-go-round where everyone stands in against that wall. The ride takes a few minutes to spin up and everyone is then plastered to the cage wall. Did you ever try and scoot up a little so your feet were off the ground? I know I did. Well the same centrifugal forces that would pin you to the walls and make it hard for your to lift your head or arms are going to be acting on these beads. Lets say someone was standing outside the cage and hit it with a sledge hammer as hard as they could. Lets also pretend they didn't hurt anyone when they hit the ride with the sledge hammer. Now I haven't tried this experiment but I would assume that everyone would still stick to the walls of the ride. Maybe the people in the area of the impact might get moved a little but they would stabilize pretty quickly.

The only reason I can see it taking a couple miles or a couple minutes is if the speeds changed rapidly. Like going from a total stop to highway speed. I guess if you stopped quickly they would start spinning in the tire for a little bit as well. I wonder if this wears the inside of the tire at all. Granted on motorcycle we don't put that many miles on a tire before it is worn out but on a car or a truck that may be a different story. I think on my Blazer I have about 70,000 miles on those tires and they still are fine. On my ST I think I only have 8-9,000 miles and they are nearing time for replacement. I am debating before the end of this season or over the winter. The thing pushing me to do it yet this season is that I can scrub them in a week or so while my skills are not rusty from not riding for 3-4 months of winter. If I go this route and change the tires myself maybe I will throw a new set on for a couple weeks, scrub them and swap them out for the old rubber again to finish out the year. This may be a good test of the beads.

[Gonzo]

Well, speaking of long-wearing miles on tires, I bought my Ford F-150 new, a 2000 model. I just decided to get new tires to go on vacation. I had just over 100,000 miles on the original tires, and I might have been able to get another 20,000 miles. I decided to spend a little money and not take a risk.

My little obsession with tires is that I check the pressure weekly, and I rotate the tires myself every 5,000 miles. At that same time I scrub the tires clean and use a little armor-all. In addition, I clean the wheels very well and wax the wheels inside and out for the purpose of reducing the dirt/mud buildup.

On that first set after 20,000 miles I checked the wear at 32 points on each tire and analyzed the profiles with an Excel file and determined to change the tire pressure slightly for more even wear.

In all that time I never had to have the tires re-balanced.

My conclusion from this is that properly balanced and maintained tires don't need something inside them that moves.

Oh, by the way, I believe it's dangerous to use Armor-All on the treads of the tires because it makes them very slippery in the wet. Perhaps it's not so bad on cage tires, and maybe even not so bad on motorcycle tires, but for sure it's an accident waiting to happen on a bicycle tire.

gonzo

[George]

Armor all on an MC tire is an immediate accident, no waiting.

[Shuey]

FWIW: Put new PR2s on and instead of balancing had Dyno Beads put in; 2 ozs in each tire. Rode smoothly up to about 70mph then started to have balancing problems that worsened as speed increased and unrideable at about 95 so backed off and headed straight for a Honda dealer. Had wheels pulled, beads removed, and balanced. 125, no problems.

Contacted seller and after research they got back with me - I'm first problem report they have received. Suggested the beading slurry might have been applied to liberally during the mounting and that the beads might have clumped to the wet globs. No info available from the original mounter or the remounter. Sounds reasonable - but not trying it again.

[gregj]

I use the Innovating Balancing beads, same as CarlT, and have had no issues. As far as I can tell, ride is very smooth.

[Shuey]

I tried Dyna Beads from Best Rest Products. You don't manually balance the tires, just put these beads in each tire and then they're self-balancing from then on.

FWIW: Put new PR2s on and instead of balancing had Dyna Beads put in; 2 ozs in each tire. Rode smoothly up to about 70mph then started to have balancing problems that worsened as speed increased and unrideable at about 95 so backed off and headed straight for a Honda dealer. Had wheels pulled, beads removed, and balanced. Afterwards up to 125mph, no problems.

Contacted seller and after research they got back with me - I'm first problem report they have received. Suggested the beading slurry might have been applied to liberally during the mounting and that the beads might have clumped to the wet globs. No info available from the original mounter or the remounter. Sounds reasonable.

I like the idea of dynamic balancing as the tire wears, but will wait until there's more experience reported before I try them again. The key to success might be that the beads are for those who change tires themselves and can be sure of a good clean install without excess glop in the tires.

[Mean]

True enough about the install. I was thinking about writing Motorcycle Consumer News and asking them to test the beads if they haven't already done so.

G