Balancing beads

[mmattockx]

Chuck, I was kind of wondering about that. The local shop guy swears the mags on 80's GS's leak air so he always puts a tube in the tire when I have had tires put on.

I'm running tubeless on my 1100E. The front does bleed down a bit but never below 28-29psi and I top it up once every 7-10 days. The rear is solid and I top it up maybe 3 times in a summer.


Mark

[mrbill5491]

Chuck, I was kind of wondering about that. The local shop guy swears the mags on 80's GS's leak air so he always puts a tube in the tire when I have had tires put on. Looking at the ways you can do tire removal/installs at home I am convinced I can save money on mounting and balancing. If the aluminum mags do really loose air I was wondering if the beads can be used in tubed tires. Apparently so. Has your experience been good?

The mags on our GS bikes are not aluminum they are a magnesium alloy. From what I have read on them the early mags were a bit porous when first manufactured or poured, hence they pass air and the required a tube (seems there are a couple exceptions to this on the early 850s). Sometime in mid production in 82 the manufacturing process was changed which tightened up the process and became tubeless rims.

[greg78gs750]

pretty sure you are wrong on the magnesium bit...but someone else would know better than I....not germane to the topic tho....

The mags on our GS bikes are not aluminum they are a magnesium alloy. From what I have read on them the early mags were a bit porous when first manufactured or poured, hence they pass air and the required a tube (seems there are a couple exceptions to this on the early 850s). Sometime in mid production in 82 the manufacturing process was changed which tightened up the process and became tubeless rims.

[aclaytonb]

Read the same somewhere. My mags had tubes - 1979.

[sharpy]

The mags on our GS bikes are not aluminum they are a magnesium alloy. From what I have read on them the early mags were a bit porous when first manufactured or poured, hence they pass air and the required a tube (seems there are a couple exceptions to this on the early 850s). Sometime in mid production in 82 the manufacturing process was changed which tightened up the process and became tubeless rims.

Very sure you are wrong. Magnesium wouldnt last 40 yrs safely for wheels, Mag ally is very light and suzuki wheels sure arent light. as for rest of these posts im staying out of this.

[greg78gs750]

aw, cmon sharpy, now that rotella has emerged as the winner of the oil wars and sh775's have become standard equipment we need SOMETHING other than vortex crap to argue about....lelz

Very sure you are wrong. Magnesium wouldnt last 40 yrs safely for wheels, Mag ally is very light and suzuki wheels sure arent light. as for rest of these posts im staying out of this.

[sharpy]

Sorry, but i find it hard to dumb my self down for this post "argueing". They taking a simple thing like balancing a wheel and added extra crap just to place a band aid solution over problem the bike has. Walk thru any race pits and tell me how many containers of beads or even electrontic balancing equipment does one see. One stand, 4 bearings, a rod and stick of lead or knock on weight does the job for bikes that do 50mph to bikes that do 230+ mph. I even recently had a bike shop owner tell me to leave the weights on the wheel when fitting new tyres as there suited to the rim and electronic balance it that way. SMH. Glad i was only helping him out for a few hrs. K.I.S.S. method always works best. Also i find it wierd that basically almost half the chat in this forum isnt about GS bikes. And i thought FB had a lot of crap. lol Plus theres the term "each to there own" so do what you think is right, me dont really care. Drops the microphone and leaves the room

[mmattockx]

Sorry, but i find it hard to dumb my self down for this post "argueing".

Your sarcasm detector is broken, maybe have a look at getting it re-calibrated.


Mark

[limeex2]

I would have to agree. Your balancing a tire. Use weights and be done with it.

[1980GS1000E]

Tubeless and weights for me. I change my own tires and balance them courtesy Harbor Freight and the Mojo Tire lever.

[sharpy]

Tubeless and weights for me. I change my own tires and balance them courtesy Harbor Freight and the Mojo Tire lever.

Ok since your running tubless. And IF your tyres have balancing dots (IE: Dunlop/Bridgestone or Metzeler) have you balanced just the wheel minus tyre to see where to place the balance dots? U be suprised its not always at the valve.

[bwringer]

Ok since your running tubless. And IF your tyres have balancing dots (IE: Dunlop/Bridgestone or Metzeler) have you balanced just the wheel minus tyre to see where to place the balance dots? U be suprised its not always at the valve.

Agreed.

I've found that with vintage bike wheels the true "heavy" spot is quite often not where the valve stem is. It's well worth putting your bare wheels on a balancing stand and marking the true heavy spot with a dot of paint or nail polish, then using that to place balance dots.

On modern bikes, the casting methods (GS and modern bike wheels are and always have been aluminum alloy, BTW, not magnesium) are a lot more accurate, so the valve stem is almost always the true heavy spot.

Also, tire manufacturing is a lot more accurate these days. Many tires are perfectly balanced from the factory, so there are no balance dots.

Avon tyres, for example, don't have balance dots. So once you balance the wheel, you don't really need to balance again as long as you stick with Avons.

Of course, if you have spoked wheels and thus need to use tubes, the heavy spot will definitely be at the valve stem because of the extra weight of the reinforcement in that area of the tube and the valve stem itself.

And no, Suzuki GS cast wheels generally aren't porous and don't generally leak (if you look closely, most are painted or coated on the inside). I've seen and converted many from the era before tubeless tires, and never seen a GS wheel that leaks.

Perhaps some lesser brands had cast wheels that leaked, or this might be yet another one of those "old biker tales" urban legends. Or maybe it's borrowed from the car world, where cheap cast aluminum wheels sometimes leak through defects in the castings.


Tire beads always seem to kick off a minor holy war, but I don't use them simply because they're so damn inconvenient and messy. I simply don't care whether they work or not; I don't want to fool with them. Static balancing is easy, fast, cheap, and more than good enough for MotoGP.

Plus beads are just a crappy thing to do to anyone who might deal with your tires later on. I was once surprised by a tire on a friend's bike that contained beads. Four or five years later, I'm still finding the damn things all over my garage.

[Gorminrider]

per bwringer post above:

most are painted or coated on the inside

huh! I've yet to see one painted but this reminds me: it was an idea offered to me to stop some avons leaking at bead...on some old tires taken off my old bikes, corrosion and scratches might be helped by painting before remounting...I am thinking latex paint as it's reputed to stick to aluminum very well? (anybody know what paint might be best?....)

[sharpy]

Cant believe it, a thread on balancing beads and almost a full page with common sence yahhhhhhhh

[mrbill5491]

Very sure you are wrong. Magnesium wouldnt last 40 yrs safely for wheels, Mag ally is very light and suzuki wheels sure arent light. as for rest of these posts im staying out of this.

Good, stay out.