Modern Vespa

Steve Mould on YouTube - he does a lot of interesting physics videos.

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TLDR: they do work, although you first have to get the wheels rotating at sufficiently high speed.

The comments are also very interesting.

Very interesting stuff! I put Ride-On Motorcycle Tire Sealant in my last bike, a Triumph T120 and it worked amazingly! Thinking of getting some for my new GTV as well and pull the ugly weights off the rim. Not sure how well the stuff works on 12" tires though, I need to research it.

Funny, I just watched that yesterday.

I used them on my Chinese bike. Once up to speed they did make a difference on some wobbly tires.

Isn't it just easier to fit weights and be done with it ?

It seems a bit unnecessary.

The beads work out well for long distance truckers. For around town, I can't see where they work out well.

proof that this is another snake oil product. will only balance at certain speeds. Oh great you can now only ride at 67.87659 MPH so your tires are in balance.

where traditional wheel weight maintain balance at ALL speeds.

Hmm which do you want ?

1 speed
or
all speeds.

I don't think you watched the video.

It didn't really make a user out of me - none of my scooter tires have been balanced using any method, with no evident side effects - but I do have a better idea of how the beads work.

I did watch the first parts of it and have seen other videos that folks have done.

bottom line is they don't fricken work when decelerating or accelerating. they only work at a steady consistent speed.

show me 1 race team that uses them in nascar, F1, Indy car, motoamerica, motogp.
Ask any professional tire tech at any of those events on the beads and if they work.

Watch the rest of the video. Once you hit the resonant speed (or whatever it's called), they stay in place until you go slow enough for gravity to overcome centrifugal force, about 5-10 mph.

So you didn't watch the part of the video that demonstrates why your statement is incorrect. Mmmkay.

The ride on stuff is also a tire sealant to prevent flats from small nails or screws. I believe it would make a mess of things for a tire change. The Dyna beads are dry. I'm sure they work but if I'm installing a new tire, I just a soon balance correctly. In fact I will take the time to get it as exact as possible. I have the balance stand, so not much extra work to do it this way. You can also tell if the wheel is true in both X and Y axis. I've laced many spoked wheels in the past- that's why I have the balance stand, dial indicators, etc.

EXACTLY.

Even the Marc Parnes balancer doesn't do the axial imbalances. That's why a dynamic balancer is pretty essential for anything that can go over 60 mph (some say 50).

Can Steve Mould answer the question that's keeping us all up at night though. Do the beads roll or do they actually slide?

I'm wondering if the tyre manufacturers were consulted at any point ?

Next thing they'll be telling you that Nitrogen is better than Air in your tyres.

This is the reason I used them on my ZNEN. I had a business put a set of 10" Heidenau K58s (J rated) on my bike. They got wobbly at about 20mph and continued to wobble afterward. I didn't realize that they did this to the tire beads when they put them on my wheels. (see below) I'm surprised they sealed up.

Under 20mph around town, they weren't spinning fast enough for it to be as noticeable. (In fact, I've been told that a lot of places will not balance tires on a 50cc bike because at those speeds it's unnecessary.) Granted it was there, but not as bad as it was at higher speeds. I used the Dyna-Beads (or whatever brand they were) in them and they stopped the wobble. I could cruise at 55mph comfortably.

The thing to remember, as in the video, he's using a standard sized CAR tire for testing. Not to be confused with a 10" scooter tire. I won't do the math, but how many RPMs is a standard car tire spinning at 40mph vs a 10" scooter tire? It's about RPMs, not linear speed. The beads settle in at much slower speeds on smaller tires because the centrifugal force is greater at lower speeds. It's spinning faster.

Having said all that, I reshaped the beads with clamps and put them (with tubes) on some split rims for the Stella, where I've had no issue.

static balance is THE balance method in motogp and motoamerica. They do not use dynamic balance machines. and those motorcycles go well over 60 MPH.

I had tire shop put ride on sealant. It was gelled to the tire when I next changed it. Unfortunately, they didn't put enough or the puncture was just outside the coverage area. luckily, I had worms under the seat and a kind stranger with an air pump stopped to help.

Sahara on the other hand was a sloppy mess. It did wash off easily with the water hose. It did feel off-balance for a few when transitioning to interstate speeds.

I tried static balancing this time with worms packed away. Hopefully another kind stranger with an air pump will stop to help.

LOL! I bought an old Chrysler in Florida that I drove back to Michigan. The old guy that owned it dropped it off for some work with a mechanic and died while it was in the shop. The family didn't want the car, so I gave the mechanic my Ford Fiesta with a blown water pump and a hundred bucks for it. The Chrysler still had old bias ply tires on it, and apparently they were only holding air because they were full of Fix-A-Flat. There were bare patches where the belts were showing through.

I had a set of tires put on it and you should have seen the techs who had to swap them out. I didn't make any friends that day. Those tires were glued right to the rims.

They have "perfect" rims and always have new tyres, so static balance is fine. Our bikes have rims that can be way off side to side and around - that's when the axial balancing is necessary. One of my Fuoco wheels needed 90g one side and 30g the other side, on the opposite radius - and that was before the tyre went on! We marked those so we knew not to take them off when putting a new tyre on.