tire balance

[Fred W]

It has been said that rear tires dont really need to be balanced. Im not sure that I subscribe to that but there is a wide range in the amount of weights required to achieve balance on both front, but especially rear, tires.

Ive never seen any sort of even a pseudo scientific analysis of how out of balance s wheel has to be to create a problem at X speed. Seems like it would be worthy knowledge as compared to a lot of other useless studies we see coming out regularly.

But Im not going to do it. Because it is too easy to balance it right.

 

[art miller]

Red, thats funny!
I still wish someone would put the beads to the test. Mount a tire that really has the vibes. Add beads. Ride it again and see if the vibes are gone. Wait. Silly me. I did actually do that.

I removed the beads, static balanced the wheel and all was well. Smooth from zero to felony speed. For all those that swear by them, try this: take them out and see if your bike shakes like a paint mixer. Heck. Nobody is going to do that. Since beads are installed along with the tire, how does one know for sure they do anything?

Perhaps this would be a way to determine if beads really balance wheels. First, the beads are not put in the tire until after it is mounted and beads are set. Check the balance before putting in the beads.