Tubes & balancing beads Part II

[R.V.Anderson]

Well, I did what I threatened to do. Pulled three of the four tubes from my '14 and set them aside as my new spares. I took a pair of NOS Lester
30 x 3s, removed the rubber stems, smoothed the hole, and poured in the beads. Installed the original 777s and remounted them. The fourth tube already had an original stem installed so I just removed and re-installed it after adding the beads. Went for a test run and was very happy with the quite noticeably better ride. Well worth the effort!

Things learned: 1. If for any reason you are installing an original stem in a rubber-stemmed tube, add the beads then and there. You won't regret it. 2. The special valve core designed for use with the beads cannot be turned in as tightly as the regular core. It will distort, blocking most of the incoming air to the point that it becomes a day's project to inflate to 65 lbs. 3. Dismounting and re-mounting four tires confirmed that I'm no longer young and nimble. 4. Back to preparing the tube: If the rubber stem's brass innards' stump fights its removal to the point of twisting off flush with the cutoff stem, leaving no way to grip it, it can be drilled out. But that's a subject for another time.