I just watched a you tube video where a clear plastic water bottle was hooked to a drill. It had a 20 gram weight taped to the side of the bottle. They spun it and it wobbled so bad they could barely turn the bottle. Put 1 oz of beads in then spun it. After just a few revs it smoothed right out and could run it fast or slow with no wobble. They stopped and started a couple times and the bottle run true each time.
If i was smart enough I would post a link.
Just google tire balance and you will find it.
A very impressive display.
Travis, the beads are very heavy for the size. It's one of Newton's laws, A body at rest tends to stay at rest. The force of the tire lifting is less than it takes to lift the beads.
So the beads stay in place as the tire rises. After a few revs of the tire the beads get held in place by centrifugal force. Even with the lipped wheels like my 5 has with mud in the lips it balances.
When I first put then in a tire I rode the bike as a baseline, rode fine, Took off the big weight on the spokes. Rode it, ow, not good, very much worse. Installed the beads. rode it, much smoother than it was with the balance weight. Very impressive. I have only a few thousand miles on those tires, so how the beads effect the tire wear and life I don't know yet.
On the Harley the improvement wasn't as noticeable but it is still better. The Harley tires being a more expensive tire my have better inherent balance. Only about 5000 on them. No noticable cupping or wear yet. But they take around 7-8000 before the show much cupping on the front tire anyway.
Maybe by the end of the season I'll know more about wear.
Leo