Tire pressure change

[Coyote Chris]

I am a believer in TMPS . Got introduced to that with my Toyota Matrix--great system and great car. On my bike I carry a tyre plug kit and 12V compessor, and pressure guage. I have not had to use any of that stuff yet. I do fill my tyres with Nitrogen. They seem to run cooler and require less trips to Tire Warehouse for a nitrogen fill up (about twice a year) I use Nitrogen in the Ranger and Shelby as well.

My 2006 Matrix 's system works very well. Did warn me of a leak once....In WA. we fill our tires with 77 percent nitrogen, and the rest is pot smoke and oxegen and used intestinal gas. You wont believe this but I carry an electric pump, a high volume low pressure hand pump that is very small, a Stop and Go mushroom plug kit, gummy worms, and the exquisite Dyna plug plugging kit, as well as tapered rat tail files in graduated sizes with handles. One day I decided to drill a small hole in an old tire and practice plugging it. There is no way in Haidies my old hands and body could force the standard reamer into a hole in a modern dual compound tire.

 

[Coyote Chris]

My theory on N2/air in tires is that the moisture in the air would make more difference than the gas mixture. Wet air takes more energy to change it's temperature than dry air. Of course I would not be able to feel the difference anyway.

Brad

N2 is a great way to change the volume of your wallet.
Race bikes and race cars? YES!
Old man with bad back at 70 mph? No.
(I DID pull .635 Gs today on an acceleration test run on the VFR...try THAT with an NT!)

 

[Phil Tarman]

Didn't you check the VIN numbers? It was made like, a week after your old one, right?

Actually, Traveler may have been built quite a bit after Dudley. There's a 910 number gap between the two. I don't know how many bikes were made a day. It looked to me back in 2010 as if the Silver ABS bikes had been built first, then the Red bikes, then the Silver non-ABS bikes, based on the serial numbers we saw then when we had thread about serial numbers on the Forum. I don't know if that thread is still on the Forum or not.

 

[mikesim]

One day I decided to drill a small hole in an old tire and practice plugging it. There is no way in Haidies my old hands and body could force the standard reamer into a hole in a modern dual compound tire.

I too have the Stop N Go kit and have used it several times. I have enough faith in the plugs now that I will continue to use a plugged tire until tread wear indicates replacement. I too had difficulty forcing the reamer into some smaller puncture holes. Finally, I said screw it, it's punctured anyway so I got my drill with an appropriate sized bit and reamed 'er out electrically,,,,, worked like a charm!

Mike

 

[DirtFlier]

I also did some "practice" in my garage with an old, dismounted tire and had a tough time. If the old tire is still mounted on the wheel, you can practice effectively but with it off the wheel, the tire carcass has too much flexibility so enlarging/cleaning out the wound is often impossible.

By contract, I've repaired punctures at least 2-3 times on the road and had a much easier time, using only the hand tools I had in my tool kit.

ps. by the way, I now only carry the black, sticky worms and the tools & glue to get them installed. I have a Stop & Go kit but the sticky worms have worked fine for me.
The last time I used the sticky worms was when I got a rear flat in Vermont, repaired it, rode around for a few days while I constantly checked air pressure, then rode home. I checked the tire pressure every morning after the repair and it wasn't losing any air. I made it all the way home then with the bike sitting on my lift and a new tire coming, the old tire went flat in about 4-5 days.

 

[Warren]

I also carried a Stop N Go plug kit on my NT. In 9 years of commuting and touring I never had a puncture. Within The first 300 miles on my new Yamaha I picked up a nail in the rear tire. 6,000 miles later the plug is still holding. The Yamaha has bias ply tires which made reaming the hole a little easier.

 

[RedNigel]

I've ridden this particular bike about 80K miles and the only time I have ever noticed anything was the time I had a tire that was nearly flat. It had a shimmy at low speeds that settled down as I sped up, but I couldn't put my finger on it.
Next morning when i saw it was nearly flat I knew what that shimmy was

I only check my tires if I haven't ridden in a few weeks and at the beginning of a road trip.