I just bought new tires and they installed beads. If had them in the past but previous renditions were almost a powder. Maybe more like large sand. I think that's why they used the valve stem filters. The beads they installed in my tires are more the size of large BBs or maybe like peas. They said these new beads don't require the stem filters. Additionally, I've heard the finer beads/powder can clump when moisture is introduced when airing up the tires. That can cause an out of balance condition due to the failure of the beads to properly distribute. The newer and larger beads are supposed to solve that problem too. We'll see.
