[62822]

So I work for a large automotive dealership and the newest up sell is putting nitrogen in car tires.
Shop foreman told me it would be good to have in my Ninja 250 tires..what do you all think about nitrogen in motorcycle tires?
Thanks!

Joie

 

[The_AirHawk]

It won't hurt anything, if that's what you're asking. It's dubious whether it's "superior" to air, as that's what the tire was engineered and developed to run inside it. Plus, even if the tire's at 0psig, you're still putting Nitrogen in on top of Air.

 

[acecycleins]

Air is rather heavy in contrast. Nitrogen, it seems to me, would only leak from seals easier. There's always seepage. But if something is lighter, wouldn't it be more prone to exscaping the bead or stem? I'm not a Dr Science, but I've seen one on TV.

 

[mscuddy]

When my dog started eating poop, the vet said "it's from a lack of nitrogen."

So maybe we can start filling motorcycle tires with dog poop. That'd fix the seepage deal too.

 

[62822]

ROFL!!
Now I know why my one dog eats the other dogs poop!
He has a nitrogen imbalance :O

 

[62822]

Ok.
I just talked to a tech about the nitrogen thing.
Seems Nascar uses it to help stabilize tire pressure, which for them is pretty important.
The nitrogen, being 99+ pure, helps with pressure changes due to temperature variations.
A lot of cars these days have senors that monitor tire pressure.
Mine doesn't.
Then, it is 7 years old..

 

[trenttheuncatchable]

Here's a good article on this:
The Straight Dope: Is it better to fill your tires with nitrogen instead of air?

The last sentence reads: "Rather than shell out for nitrogen, you'd be better off just checking and adjusting your tire pressure regularly, something the NHTSA says less than 60 percent of U.S. motorists actually do."

 

[seruzawa]

Bingo.

The last sentence reads: "Rather than shell out for nitrogen, you'd be better off just checking and adjusting your tire pressure regularly, something the NHTSA says less than 60 percent of U.S. motorists actually do."

Something that's useful in racing may be entirely irrelevant off the track. I'm going to have to see some hard proof before I go wasting my time and money searching out someone who'll put nitrogen in my tires. They are already 78.1% nitrogen anyhow.

 

[55028]

Back in the day, cough, cough, when I crewed on a Super Modified crew, the justification for the use of nitrogen was that it was bottled and therefore "dry". Air with moisture in it would expand at different rates depending on how much moisture happened to be in the compressed air used in the tires, changing the way your stagger would increase or decrease based on the tires temp. If I recall correctly, N2, is an inert gas. If it's free what the heck. If they charge so much as a penny tell'em no thanks.

The shop I'm in now has air dried by cooling, desicant filters and centrifical driers. Over kill if you ask me, just more maintenance problems. Good grief it's not like that air is used in any control system. My tools lasted forever with daily oiling and the occasional Ingersall Rand grease.