How often do you add air to your tires?

[dhgeyer]

As has been mentioned, always measure the tires cold, before riding, with a decent quality gauge.

Generally, tires will gain about a pound of pressure for every ten degrees (U.S.) increase in temp, and drop accordingly as the temp drops. Might this possibly be part of what you are noticing?

I check whenever there's a big temp change, in the morning, but if I know that the day will heat up I leave the pressure a couple of pounds low.

You can put in a lot more pressure than the GZ250 manual recommends. This will decrease traction a bit, affect handling to a minor degree, and dramatically increase tire life. You should never exceed the max pressure printed on the tire itself. The GZ manual recommends the lowest pressures I've ever seen in any manual - in the 20's. The max pressure allowed, as printed on my tires, is 36 pounds cold. I run 32 front, 34 rear. It's a trade off. Little bit harder ride, a bit less traction (not enough that I've ever noticed it), about another thousand or two miles before they need replacing. Maybe more, depending on how you ride.

Obviously I check my tires a lot. I have a bicycle pump that can make small adjustments quite quickly, much faster than firing up the compressor.

If your tires really are losing as much pressure as you say they are, something is not right. Unlikely that you picked up small nails or screws in both of them at the same time, so I would second alantf's idea, and get the little tool to make sure the valve cores are tight. I just had new tires put on my BMW, and the rear was losing about a pound a day. I noticed on my bill that they had replaced one of the valves, so the loose valve core was my first suspicion. I just tightened it up today, and it did seem a bit loose. I'll know tomorrow if that was the problem.

Hope this helps.

[Water Warrior 2]

A 12 volt compressor is cheap and easy. Scout around for an Airman 2 compressor. Compact and work quite well.

[alantf]

Originally Posted by Water Warrior

A 12 volt compressor is cheap and easy. Scout around for an Airman 2 compressor. Compact and work quite well.

Surely you're not all wimps? :whistle: I've got an old foot pump that I've had for over 40 years (that was before electric ones were even THOUGHT of) I even use it on the car tyres. I find that with car tyres, I need around 10 pumps for every 1lb/sq.ins, & with the bike tyres, even less. I agree that the guages on the petrol station air lines are mostly useless, so I use a digital guage that my wife got me at christmas (on the car) trouble is, it won't fit between the spokes on the bike wheel, so I use one of the pencil types. Again, it's around 40 years old, but I've checked it, & it's still accurate.

[jonathan180iq]

I second AlanTF. I use my bike pump on the scooter. Can't remember if I ever used it on the Gz, but I probably did.
It has a built in gauge so I know when to stop.

[burkbuilds]

I've got a built in compressor in my shop, but it's not worth the trouble of rolling out a 100' air hose just to add a few pounds of air to a bike tire so I use my trusty old bicycle pump to adjust the pressure. As Alan pointed out, it doesn't take very many pumps to add a few lbs to a motorcycle tire and yes Alan, I have actually used it to add 4-5 pounds to a car tire on a few occasions but it does take 50+ pumps to do that and if I had more than one tire to do, I'll drag out the air hose.

[GZ250]

Any Tire (motorcycle, cycle, car) should not loose air that often. Only if you are not using the vehicle and it is parked even for 20 or 30 days, tires would loose air but if they are being used they should not loose that much air. If a vehicle is parked and tire is not in use only for 6 months, you can expect a lot of damage to the tire especially if it is under the sun and rain.

[greenhorn]

Just checking back & read all your responses. I suspect my tires are losing air too quickly but will get back to you all tomorrow after I check them when they are cold (just got back from a nice 50 mile ride). Here's how I can tell: When my tires are at or near the recommended pressure stated on the tire themselves, there is little vibration. When I lose 4-5 pounds pressure , which has generally been happening between rides that are normally only days apart, my head/ helmet starts bobbing 'round. Drives me nuts.

My husband understands the soapy water valve stem trick... we'll check that. If they are losing air & the valve stems are ok, do you think it could be that strip of rubber or something that normally goes around the tire? When I asked the guy at the shop who changed the tires, he first of all, had never changed a tube tire, & secondly, thought reusing whatever that strip stuff is would be ok. Now I'm not so sure & am wondering if that could be it & thus need to replace it.

Later & thanks for all your help.

Mary

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by greenhorn

When my tires are at or near the recommended pressure stated on the tire themselves, there is little vibration. When I lose 4-5 pounds pressure , which has generally been happening between rides that are normally only days apart, my head/ helmet starts bobbing 'round. Drives me nuts.

Ah.....and now for the REST of the story!!

The pressure on the sidewall of the tires is NOT the recommended pressure for your particular model of bike.......or for any other expected use of the tire either. What it IS.....is the absolute maximum pressure that the tire maker deems it is safe to put in them. At that pressure, they will be hard as a ROCK.

In my opinion......backed up by 40+ years of riding......you FIRST need to put both tires back to the Suzuki recommended pressures, check the shock pre-load to be sure it is right (2 or 3 is a good place to start for 1-up) and then see how it rides. If it jumps or bucks, then they might not be balanced correctly or one might be out of round. Then you can check the pressure a couple of times cold and see where to go with the loosing air problem.

You are accomplishing nothing good by running way too much air in your tires. The traction will be slightly less and the ride comfort will be a LOT worse.

It is recommended that you put new spoke strips in when changing tires. Having too much pressure in the tube will make it just that more likely that the spoke heads will rub a hole through the protector strip and the tube itself.

AND lastly, if your tire changer has never done one with a tube before, he might have pinched the tube and put a pin-hole leak in it. Is this a bike shop or a car tire place ?? If the latter, he probably doesn't even have the right equipment to balance the tires.

There are several things "not right" with this picture.

[Water Warrior 2]

Ah, now we see a light at the end of the tunnel.

[Sarris]

I run nitrogen in mine. They feel more compliant, run cooler, and loose maybe 1 lb. of pressure every three months.