Tire balancing (slightly OT)

[TodFitch]

I have not had good experiences with tire shops being able to deal with my 525/550-17 wire wheels on their balancing machines. And even worse luck with them mounting/demounting the tires . . . it took me a long time to get the hub caps to go on the wheels after the first idiot munged them on his bead breaking machine.

So I mount the tires myself which is not a big deal. But I haven't ever balanced them myself.

Now I have new tires on order and ought to get them balanced after I mount them up. I suspect that dynamic balancing is not needed because my tires and wheels are so narrow. Probably a decent static balance job would be fine. (Memory of my college statics and dynamics classes have faded, but I think wide wheels present more possibilities for dynamic imbalance than narrow ones.)

So the question: Have any of you heard good/bad things about tire balancing beads. Or perhaps used them yourselves. There appears to be a number of brands around. One link is here:

http://www.innovativebalancing.com/Classicchart.htm

Seems like the beads ought to do the same job that a static balance does without the lead weights showing on the rim. . . But does it really work?

[greg g]

Interesting verrrrry interesting.

[Plymouthy Adams]

Question is, do you have access to a good bubble balancer? Balancing them is not a big deal. I do not however call the thing they sell at Harbor Freight a balancer. Using a 4-weight system will have them tires running smooth.