Balance Beads...

[Steve Bass]

Any experience???

Looking at changing my own tyres and wondering if these are a viable alternative to getting a balancing rig and weights...
Yes, I know there'll be consequences when I change out the tyre in the future but do they actually work as advertised at balancing the tyre dynamically??

[CoolHands]

Never used them but I think they sound like a load of tosh

[normalbloke]

CoolHands said:

Never used them but I think they sound like a load of tosh

For car tyres, no experience. For my Unimog, they were great.

[dikkobat]

Worked great in my FJ1200.

[ConnectionError]

I have use them in the past.

They were brilliant

[normalbloke]

As an aside, I think the official products (Dynabeads?) are inserted through the valve core. There is a formula for how much weight of beads you need for a given tyre size. I think it was 1200 grams for each tyre on the ‘Mog. So I bought air soft pellets and knocked each tyre off the bead and just poured them in, and it worked a treat. Considerable cost saving too.

[bogie]

I've been using them for ten years in one of my bikes that has carbon wheels.

A custom paint shop were using them for cosmetic reasons. I asked my local bike service place to get me some in ready for next tyre change and they were curious so tested them out. They balanced up perfectly. Since then, ive had them in for about 9 tyres on that bike.

The bike shop dont put them in through the valve like you can do if the tyre is already on, they pour them in the edge of the tyre as they put the bead on the rim. If you are careful when changing you can re-use them. I've watch them pour the beads out from one tyre to the other, they are well practiced at it now.

I dont think the beads went mainstream due to costing more than weights and the extra faffing about for tyre places when changing but they work and would be convenient for home installation.

[Steve Bass]

Thanks chaps.

It’s purely for convenience as a balance stand is $230 plus weights whereas a kit of beads is $20 as well as far less gaff.

I’ll give them a try and report back.