Tire Pressure for the K1600GTL

I did a search and got over 40 pages of stuff and can't read all of it.

The manual says 42.1 psi for both front and rear. Right after delivery of my new GTL, the pressure sensor says 38 front and 39 rear. It warmed up to about 1 pound more. Is this OK? Did the dealer not "top off" the tires before delivery. I read that keeping the tires at max can increase central wear, but I don't know what is best.

And while I have you here, will my engine wear out twice as fast if I use dino oil instead of synthetic which costs almost twice as much? Is it really worth the difference?

Mine is very consistent but reads 39/40 when my tire pressure is set @43 psi. Fwiw

As far as Dino vs. syn that's a personal choice. Change it regularly and you won't have any problems. ( I use syn but that's a personal bias going back to ownership of turbo diesel vehicles)

Thanks. I appreciate the info.

dmftoy1 said:

Mine is very consistent but reads 39/40 when my tire pressure is set @43 psi. Fwiw

Click to expand...

Just to clarify:
You use the same tire pressure gauge each time you check and or adjust your pressure and it indicates 43 psi both front and rear but the bike computer reads 39/40?

Thanks

Tire Pressure

My tire pressure sensors reads 2.8 bar (40.6 psi) front and 2.6 (37.7 psi) bar rear. I have a digital tire pressure gauge that is accurate +/- 1 psi. My tires are 42 psi even though the sensors are reading lower. Can I reset the sensors to match the real pressure? Or is that a dealer fix?

Remember to factor in ambient temp. 42 indicated on the ride to Sedalua a couple of years ago in 109f weather was 53psi on my wunderlich gauge. Ymmv

The thing is synthetic oil holds up to heat better then dino oil. I don't know what the oil temps gets to in the K1600 but most high performance engines generally run high oil temps. In my neck of the woods, summers are blistering hot with many days over 100* and 110* + days are common. Dino oil starts to break down at about 225*. Most off the shelf dino oils don't have a high temp additive package.

The tire pressure monitoring on the bike is great for telling you that you are getting a flat. To rely on it as true tire pressure, no way. I've experimented with it a little and it doesn't register over pressure well at all. Under pressure is better but still inaccurate.

My TPM tends to read low, and fluctuates a little too. One day it'll say 39F/40R, the next day 40/40, a couple days later 38/41. In all cases my gage says 40/42. I figure it's useful for detecting a leak but doesn't replace a gage.

BMW says it's temperature compensated to 15C/68F so shouldn't be sensitive to ambient temperatures. It should always tell you what the pressure is (subject to system inaccuracies) if the temperature was 68 degrees. I guess this makes sense because they always say to measure the pressure "cold" and don't adjust it after riding even a mile.

You should plan on checking your pressures before every ride and expect to adjust them at least weekly.