facade wrote: Wouldn't tyre slime have the same effect as beads? That doesn't wear the inside of the tyre (or "tire" if you have a Gen4) and it lubricates the inside if you have a puncture.
The tyre slime is slimy and therefore does not move around freely inside the tyre to balance it. Instead it can clump and cause balancing issues.
I was introduced to this at the weekend actually, so it's funny you should mention it now. The franchisee was putting the thickest slime into the innertube of a family member's grey Fergie tractor as she and her ex-husband believed that thistles were puncturing the heavy duty tyre (ludicrous idea). He stated that the slime can cause balancing issues if too much is used, especially the agricultural type being used on this. The Fergie only cuts grass in a field, so balancing isn't an issue.
The air was actually pissing out from a split in the inner tube where the valve goes through the wheel as the inner tube did not have a protective doughnut on it. The slime managed to seal that! Impressive stuff. They put this in road going motorbikes in its thinnest form so you might never notice a puncture! Impressive stuff.
Back to balancing beads. The linked article labours heavily on modern low profile tyres. That's far from applicable to us.
I cannot say about the science behind it but can say - look at my tyres and then accept that I have no balancing issues! Therefore they work!
Kirkynut
