Balancing Beads

[bamarider]

Getting ready to install a new set of tires on my FJ-09 and thinking of using balancing beads inside the tires instead of the stick on weights on the wheels. Anyone have experience with them? What amount did you use? Seems like I read somewhere to use 1oz in the front & 2 in rear.

[Merkur Man]

I used to install them when I worked in a moto shop. Our service manager would tell us to only put one bottle of beads per wheel, which was 1oz.
One thing to remember; Lets say for example after you install them, your bike still has a slight imbalance and you take it to a shop to have the wheel balanced. You will not be able to spin balance a wheel after you install the beads. With all those beads moving around inside the tire, the balancing machine cant figure out what's going on. Whenever the wheel stops spinning, the weights just fall to the bottom. 

I will also tell you that our shop would charge a $10 clean up fee for every tire that we changed, that had the beads inside. Because those dam beads would be all over the floor and tire machine. He did not like all those beads falling into his $10,000 Coats tire machine.

And on a related note; something that I used to see a lot in the shop. The valve stems on sport bikes would be bent over from the centrifugal force generated by the spinning wheel. I'm talking about scary bent over, almost to the point of being ripped out of the wheel!
Most of the time there would be some kind of stupid thing for a valve cap, like a dice, pigs head, flashing light thing or even a heavy shell casing.
If you make a lot of high speed runs, remember to check for this condition. I have seen it on both front and rear wheels.

I hope this helps you out.

[bamarider]

Thanks for the reply @Merkur Man. Was beads the default method for balancing tires, or was it customers choice? Did you have many complaints?
I will be mounting my tires and also have a static balancer, so I can experiment some, and if needed remove the beads and go back to weights.

[N4HHE]

I would not use balance beads. The science works but the engineering (practical application of science) does not. For the beads to balance the wheel has to shake out of concentric, this is why the beads will not magically balance when held on a rigid axis spin balancer. Then similar occurs when riding. A crack in the road bounces the wheel out of balance then back into balance. You get a double hit.

Having said that, some people think balance beads are the greatest thing since Slick-50.

An ounce? I rarely need an ounce of stick-on weights but sometimes more is needed. Only way to know is to balance the wheel. Recently a friend's Tiger 1200 required 2 oz directly opposite of the factory TPMS sensor.

[Merkur Man]

The customer would request them to be installed.
Myself and the other mechanics that I worked with, would not have requested it because we didn't want to mess around installing them. It was quicker to spin balance the wheel, then add the appropriate weight, sick on or clamp to spoke type.

I think that the beads came about for use on high dollar custom bikes. For guys who did not want ugly stick on weights showing on their $1000 wheels.

[jrobinson]

I tried the beads, but was out on a tire changed. I installed the tires without any balancing. I can't tell the difference and I've mounted 3 sets of tires without any weight.

[N4HHE]

I think that the beads came about for use on high dollar custom bikes. For guys who did not want ugly stick on weights showing on their $1000 wheels.

Balance beads were a staple of the JC Whitney catalog in the 1970s. A similar product put the beads in a hoop that one mounted between brake and wheel so that the beads were not inside the tire.

Its a terrible proof, but if balance beads were as great as advertising claims no one would ever bother to affix balance weights.

[bamarider]

Well I wound up static balancing my tires because I didn't have what I needed to get the beads into the tires thru the valve stems. The rear didn't need any weight and front only needed a small amount. I may try beads on the next set.
If anyone's interested revzilla has metzler roadtech Z6 on close, my set was $169 and they had an early 2021 DOT date.