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Tire (Tyre) Pressure Levels

99007

El Dookey loves to ride.
Okay. Help me out here. This morning I made the mistake of looking at the owners manual for my bike and actually reading some of it. (Just looked at the pictures before.)
I swear the dealer told me to keep 40-42 psi in the tires when I picked up the bike. That is what I have been doing.
Manual says 32 front and 36 rear for solo riding.
What the?????? Who the????
What kinda pressure do you ride on?
 
32/34 on the R65, 36/38 on the K75, and 42/46 on the LT. But we used to run 40psi all the time on our Oilheads.
 
I personally run 38/f 40/r on the RRS, except at the track where we let out all the air pressure, remember? I find that cupping lessens with more pressure than listed in the manuals.
 
I run 38/40 solo on the RT. In addition to less cupping, the higher pressure on the front provides some protection from wheel damage.
 
I'll concur with previous & add: higher pressures inhibit the "hunting" aspect of the front wheel on rain grooved & cheese grating (bridge) roadways. 32 odd works fine here (MI), in Montana (w/deep grooving), 42+ was Much Better. <<<)))
 
Well S&*^

I'm just gonna fill my tyres up with some goll-dern Castrol Syn-tec and call it good.
 
You might want to call the local dealer and see if they have any of the special approved BMW air, imported from the Fatherland.
 
ze derrEaire

I vood Be CareFuul foa da edges of ze molecules off de air: de may cut de inzide off ze tyre; und cauze der own deflation..... (Tee Hee Hee) <<<)))
 
How about tire pressures on GS's. I run 34 / 40 on Tourance's even though the owner manual says 31.9 / 36.3. Is this mostly a personal preference thing or should I be meeting the manual spec.
 
These tire pressure threads are always good for a laugh. Folks sweating about a couple of psi in either direction, everybody has a favorite number....

Look, how accurate do you think that guage is anyway? Some of us undoubtedly have a calibrated high buck number that lives it's life in a climate controlled environment on a bed of the softest foam padding but most of us have something we picked up at the local autoparts store that may or may not be anywhere near accurate. We all check our tires "cold" right? So what the heck does that mean? "Cold" to me here in the Pacific Northwest is very different from "cold" for my in-laws living in Arizona...where AFAIK it doesn't get anywhere near cold for 8 months out of the year. The pressure inside the (hopefully) sealed chamber of your tire is going to fluctuate with temperature, some say the rule of thumb cold to hot is a 10% rise....so what's "hot"? I can ride all day in 40 degree (f) rain and the tires aren't going to get nearly as "hot" as they will after a 15 minute ride at 90.

Use your butt, find a number on your guage that feels right to you
and run with it.

Steve
 
Feel the difference

Tuesday I took the RT on a biz trip, so before I left the office/factory I used the air compressor and gauge there to top off. Well the gauge was off by about 5PSI.

I figured it out as I was riding and felt the ride was wrong and wobbly.

So I stopped and used my gauge, the one I had verified with the calibrated gauge at the factory, 42 PSI turned out to be 47PSI. I don't think the tires were hot, cause it was about 1/4 mile through the parking lot.
 
As per the manual I put 33lb in the front and 38lb in the rear. When I picked the bike (RT) up after the 600 mile check up, the dealer said my tires were low and that he had put 36lb in the front and 42 in the rear. After checking the manual again for solo riding, I went back to the 33lb and 38lb front and rear pressures. Okay so far (5200 miles).
 
There are two reasons people tend to put extra air in the front : to protect a $400 wheel from pothole damage and to reduce tire cupping which is common with BMW's because they are heavy and weight biased to the right. If the ride is good and traction is more than adequate, some extra pressure makes sense to me. YMMV.
 
summer / winter air

Man, good thing I read this tread ...

You all changed the winter air for summer air a while back, didn't you ? ... and soon you'll have to go back to winter air.

You'll never catch me running summer air in my winter tires ... :)

He he ... that oughta teach 'em ...
 
I followed the manual recomendations and ended up with a prematurely worn out front tire AND a bent wheel! The dealer wanted to replace the wheel for 500 dollars but instead I had it straightened. So I think that Air pressure on the front tire of an RT (96 R1100RT) is critical. I run about 40 PSI and have noticed little change it handling.
 
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