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Exceed Recommended Tire Pressure?

SGTBORING

New member
The Side wall!!!!!!

Run what the max of what the side wall calls for cold, only Hot. For example 42psi hot is about 39 psi cold so I keep the rear at 39 PSI. Keep it tight and they will last longer and you dont have to worry about loading down the bike.:stick
I have almost 9 thousand on a rear mtz z6 that looks like it has at least one more year/6 thousand in it.
 
Blitzkreig said:
Owner's manual for one up says 32 front and 36 rear. I hear others say that they run more than 10 pounds higher than manual suggested settings? Does this make sense?

Never underestimate the number of geniuses in motorcycling.
 
sgtboring said:

Sarge,

You're right, they do make the bike, not the tires. But they do have some specific tires that have been developed specifically for their bikes. IMHO, when a company has gone through the trouble to work with another company to build a tire tailored to a particular model and recommend specific tire pressures, I'm happy to honor those recommendations.

YMMV, of course. :)

dave
 
There is no good universal answer to the "how much air" question - there are just too many variables.

In writing and in seminars I have offered the "10% rise" formula on a number of occasions. That usually is vary close to optimal - but not always.

I heard a Michelin rep say that a 10% rise is not enough for their radial tires. He said that a 6 psi to 8 psi increase is what he would shoot for. That will be about a 15% rise.

That advice seems to work very well on Metzeler radial 880s on my R1100R. To limit them to a 10% rise I had to exceed the max cold pressure on the sidewall. (42 psi). I run a Smartire monitoring system that tells pressure and temperature so can watch them pretty closely.

Depending on ambient temperature and whether I am lightly or heavily loaded I run either 40 psi or 42 (max) cold in the rear and get about 6 psi increase. I stressed about it until I heard the Michelin guy. That compares to BMW recommended 32 (1 up) and 36 (2 up).

If I ran with only 32 the tire would get a whole lot hotter than I want it to be. 36 was bad enough.

On the bias ply 880s on my K75 the 10% rise formula works well. The same is true on tube-type Anakee or Sahara tires on our F650s. But not on the radials on either my R1150R or Voni's R1100RS. I haven't got her R1100S exactly figured out yet. It is getting a Smartire setup at the next tire change and then I can dial it in pretty precisely.
 
One hot August day I set out across Wyoming on tour on a brand new Dunlop tire inflated to 36 psi cold. Five hundred miles later, appalled at the wear rate, I checked the pressure and it was at about 55 psi. So much for motorcycle manufacturer's tire-pressure recommendations. That 50% rise and the fact I was lucky to get 2000 miles out of it convinced me never to do that again.

YTMMV
 
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