Balancing bead work on the 1800

[Robert]

Just wanted to tell of my experience with balancing beads in the 1800. I do balance my tires when I put them on but the bike is so smooth, I felt what I thought was the road surface in the handle bars. Well for an experiment I put balancing beads about 1.5 ozs in the front and did not take off the weights and its actually smoother. So smooth in fact that I would have to compare it to a car with new tires properly balanced. I didn't think these bikes could get any smoother on the road but the beads did it.

 I am going to put some in the rear and have not decided if I am going to take off the weights or leave them on since they are already there. When I balanced my wheels the weight was pretty much the same and in pretty much the same spot as the old tires. So now I have in my mind on my next tire change to balance the rim without the tire to see what I come up with. I'm thinking maybe its the rim and not the tires. Well that wont be long in the front because I didn't change that out although it still has some good life left in it.

Compared to the 1500 Valk its kind of different results. I did put beads in it and it did make a slight difference but the difference on the 1800 seems more pronounced. I'm not sure what is the reason but eventually will have the time to find out.

[six2go #152]

I did somewhat the same thing on my V-Strom, only I used "Ride On" for flat prevention as well as balancing. The tires were already weight balanced, but the Ride On really fine tuned things...............really smooth on the highway.

[hungryeye]

I'm a bead guy from way back. Only bad is the bottle and tube on the valve stem and sitting there for 20 minutes beating it with a screw driver handle till they all fall in. Did you have a better install method? when installing new tars I just dumped the whole 1 or 2 oz. in.

Back in 06 I installed  new tars on my 89 Wing prepping for a cross country, I used Ride On. Did 6000+ miles on that trip, when I got home the tars still looked new. I have read that using any type on balancing agent will extend the life of your tars. (a little trucker lingo there, tars.)

[CajunRider]

Since your weights are already on there and the tire was at least CLOSE to balanced, it would be best to leave them. 

As the tire wears, the beads will have less work to do for adjusting to the wear. 

My usual setup is to leave the original weights, and mount the new tire with the heavy mark opposite the valve stem.  Then 2 oz. beads and let it ride. 

So far it has worked great.  I haven't had the need to re-balance *YET*. 

I did end up having to replace a tire while on a trip... new tire was mounted and balanced.  I put in 2 oz beads when I got home and called it good.  No problems there either. 

[hungryeye]

Dyna beads says to remove all wheel weights, I always did and worked great.

[Robert]

I did somewhat the same thing on my V-Strom, only I used "Ride On" for flat prevention as well as balancing. The tires were already weight balanced, but the Ride On really fine tuned things...............really smooth on the highway.

Glad you liked the Ride On and it worked for you, I was thinking about it but just couldn't do it. I do have some in my lawnmower tires and it does work. Ran over some Bougainvillea thorns and it went through the tires.

As for the remove weights when using the beads, it says to do this only on motorcycles. I was going to remove the weights as soon as I feel comfortable enough. I will have to  put in some more beads and then take off the weights like you I have removed the weights in the past.

[Jambriwal]

The method i found for installing Dyna Beads is to not let the tube fill up. If you can keep the beads flowing but don't let them bunch up. Takes about two to three minutes per tire.
JW