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Nitrogen tire fill

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LDB

LDB

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Leo
Is anyone running nitrogen in their tires? I did in my cargo van and had good results. I'm thinking about it for my SilverWing but wondered if others had experiences to share.
 
I go with the standard 78% stuff. The advantage to pure nitrogen is the molecules are larger and don't migrate through the rubber as fast as oxygen. The thing is that if you fill with regular air, the oxygen tends to migrate through and leave you with nitrogen. Next time you fill with air, you are adding 78% nitrogen so over time you will get very close to, but never quite reach, being filled with nitrogen. So I don't bother finding the pure stuff.

FYI, breakdown info on the air we breath from a page on the internet: By volume, dry air contains 78.09% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.039% carbon dioxide, and small amounts of other gases.
 
Unless your tracking your bike and need consistent tire temps as you test different tires and suspension
For the best set up that will I help you win the xx Xx title

Air is just fine

Keep in
Mind it's not just the air and the mixed gasses at issue

It is the moisture as well.


I have dry nitrogen for suspension work , it's cheep to fill the cylinder so I've used it a few times to fill or seat a tire
. But generally would not waste my time
 
You do get those real cool looking green valve stem caps other than that no real advantage other than for track purposes. But if you do go with the nitrogen you have to fill and purge the tire a few times otherwise the tire will not contain 100% nitrogen.
 
yep it is a scam perpetrated on people. now filling tires with Helium reduces unsprung weight and improves handling!:mrgreen:
 
there is a slight size difference and O2 will pass through rubber slightly faster than nitrogen but the difference is very small.
dry nitrogen is more pressure stable than moist air over a temperature range but the difference over dry air is minimal. the most important thing is maintaining your tires by checking the pressure regularly.

you cant just fill and forget with nitrogen, you still have to check pressures regularly and adjust as nitrogen still does slowly permeate through rubber.
 
If you have you own compressor, add a painter's quality dryer/filter to achieve nearly the same result.


swoody126 said:
& don't forget to rotate your tires, while you're at it :lol2:
Click to expand...
I've rotated my front tire by flipping it to run in reverse. That allowed me to use up the tread on the right side that never wears as quickly. I estimate that gained me 30% more use of the tire.
 
The lube shops use during tire changes likely leaves much more moisture than any unfiltered compressed air. For competition, tire vendors dry mount tires, but that has more to do with keeping the tire from spinning on the rim and throwing off the balance of the wheel.

Street tires are very forgiving to pressure and temperature variances and work just about equally well under a broad range of conditions. Most people wouldn't feel the difference of up to 5 psi difference in pressure, say in the range between 37 and 42 psi. Not only is performance fairly consistent under varying conditions, it's also consistent as the tire is used down to the cords. None of this is true for tires designed for racing. The same street tire can work at near freezing temps and at 100+ ambient. There's a whole range of different compound race tires that would tear/grain when used under the wrong conditions. Get out of a race tire's temp range (controlled by pressure, compound, bike setup) and best case you're going to destroy the tire. (Worst case, you're going to crash.) The best feature of street tires is you can go for a month (probably best to check frequently, just in case) without adding more pressure and everything still works so you can go on to enjoy the ride.
 
We have a fancy Kaeser compressor at work that runs the output of the compressor through a refrigeration chiller to condense water out of the air before it goes into the tank.
Works good.


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LDB said:
Is anyone running nitrogen in their tires? I did in my cargo van and had good results. I'm thinking about it for my SilverWing but wondered if others had experiences to share.
Click to expand...

What is the added benefit ?
 
The good results were tire pressure remained consistent for months at a time and tires lasted for 152,848 miles before replacement, while still not being worn totally down to the wear bars. The van had TPM that gave pressure readings for each wheel. Those reading matched or were within 2psi of my and my tire facilities gauges over the course of two dozen readings. At that point I trusted the sensors and was never disappointed by them.
 
focus frenzy said:
yep it is a scam perpetrated on people. now filling tires with Helium reduces unsprung weight and improves handling!:mrgreen:
Click to expand...

Oh please...... Everyone knows that if you want true weight savings it is Hydrogen all the way!:trust:
 
Ok topic slip: the Hindenburg was designed for helium but we (America #1 source of Helium) would not sell the Nazi's any Helium so they had to use Hydrogen.
Back to the Topic:
The nitrogen most commonly found at tire shops is produced using the membrane system and is not 100% nitrogen, it is enriched but still has some O2 in it.


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I removed the green valve stem caps on my Harley, put black caps back on and called it a day.
 
I keep nitrogen in my shop for charging hydraulic accumulators so it would be kinda easy but my air compressor is just as easy so why bother . Cost me about 15 bucks to fill my bottle every few years . SEYA
 
Cagiva 549 said:
I keep nitrogen in my shop for charging hydraulic accumulators so it would be kinda easy but my air compressor is just as easy so why bother . Cost me about 15 bucks to fill my bottle every few years . SEYA
Click to expand...

That's the good dry stuff! There is a bit of a difference using the bottled stuff.
Not enough for the average person to tell but a difference.


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DFW_Warrior said:
Oh please...... Everyone knows that if you want true weight savings it is Hydrogen all the way!:trust:
Click to expand...


When I drove my bike to the top of Pike's peak I let all of that heavy sea level air out of my tires and added that sweet thin 14,000 ft air.
 
Make sure you use the new zinc balance weights as they are not as heavy as the big bad old lead ones:trust:
 
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