Tyre pressure monitors
 

Does anyone have any experience with the use of tyre pressure monitors? I’m planning a trip RTW and was thinking of using them (waterproof ones are top of my list). How do they handle off- road conditions? Taking a ‘16 Africa twin with 21 front and 18 rear tyres. Any brands recommended or for that matter, not recommended? Thanks folks.

I sell them for a living.

If you go for one, you want sensors inside the tyre not waving about on the valve stem.

After that pick a brand you've heard of, Chinese dross is cheap for a reason.

Why do you want one? On a vehicle with 15 tyres and two agency drivers, that can make an annual loss if there is a blow out, they make sense (and are a legal requirement from next year). With two tyres, all the time in the world and other stuff (chain etc.) that needs inspecting, I'd buy a ten quid digital gauge.

Andy

Tyre pressure monitors
 

Threewheelbonnie, I’ll take your advice and do without them. Thanks. Sometimes the ideas I think up at 2 o’clock in the morning are not as sound as the ones I have at 8 o’clock in the a.m.!

Now that is one of the best bits of advice I think I've ever read here! :rofl:

Most of the internal ones have an aluminium valve stork which snap off if you look at them in a funny way. Let alone try to fit a fuelstation inflator onto them through your spokes. Then you're stranded. BMW ones are the WORST for this.

The cheap ones are wildly inaccurate.

Anything cheap from China is probably going to blow out on the highway and kill you.

They address a problem that doesn't need fixing. Just gimmicks and toys for the armchair adventure rider.

Check your tyre pressures the old fashioned way. And that way you give your wheels and tyres a visual inspection at the same time. Hey, you might as well oil your chain while you're at it :)

Just had a quick Google and based on 10 minutes the only sensors I will say are actually automotive standard are from Harley-Davidson. I might change my mind if I had them on my desk, but most look poor.

The reasoning behind TPMS doesn't fit Motorcycles well. If you monitor temperature you can spot other problems like braking issues. A motorcyclists will feel that instantly. Tyres at the wrong pressure waste fuel and other resources. Motorcycle tyres are awful on this regardless. Car drivers can be clueless, truck drivers feckless. Regarding a tyre that might kill you, you'd hope motorcyclists are neither. A truck blowout will often take out a car alongside and close the motorway, there are thousands of trucks. A crashed motorcycle will close the road but there are many fewer.

Bikes will have TPMS mandated for two reasons. First, the industry wants the extra 0.5% sales increase. Two, riders will be expected to forget how to use a gauge and a few will set their lawyers on the bike manufacturers when it turns out bikes aren't cars and they were sold something thats potentially lethal.

A dispatch company or the plod might gain from TPMS. Maybe they aren't that out of place on a Goldwing doing 30000 motorway miles a year. Roughly, you need to use one less tyre per axle over the life of each sensor to get your money back.

The big mess when it is mandated will be tube tyres. A sensor on a rubber stem will be like an earthquake at the Zebedee fan club annual meet. The resulting rapid deflation might be lethal.

Andy

Original on Kawasaki GTR 1400
 

My Kawasaki GTR 1400 had Sensors mounted from factory.
They included a battery. Batteries did not last very long. The design was done so that the battery should not be changed. You are supposed to change the whole sensor. There are tricks, to sold external batteries to the sensors....
But no no....
So when it was time to change Tires, I throw those sensors away. And I have newer missed them



I have a small instrument in the tool box (Never use) and a mini compressor. To be used to fill the tire after repair of puncture.
It happens that I in a middle of along trip, use that to check the pressure.

But electronic sensor reporting to the instrument panel.... No No

Just one more thing that can fail. Require maintenance and generate cost.

For the past 4 years, I have used the Garmin TPMS Sensors that connect to my Garmin GPS and display pressure (and, when appropriate, notifications) on the GPS screen.

I'm quite happy with these and recommend them to others. They have always notified me when I have low pressure in a tire, and on one occasion when I picked up a nail on a motorway, they gave me enough warning to enable me to slow down and get off the motorway before the tire went completely flat about a minute after I stopped.

It is recommended that you use metal (not flexible rubber) valve stems if you use these sensors. I personally recommend that the sensor be in place when the tire and wheel are balanced following a tire change, even though the sensor is very tiny.

The batteries last about 8 months - roughly one riding season. They use an uncommon battery, so it's best to carry spares.

But, all in all, I am very happy with the performance of this system and I think it is a worthwhile safety feature.

Michael

8 months battery life is pretty poor. The ones legislation requires on cars and is about to require on trucks are guaranteed for two years and I know of ones that are working at 5.

You don't need the Baud rate maxed out, tyres go down much slower than electronics react. Cut the repeat rate and the battery lasts longer.

I expect bike technology will get up to speed once the hobbyists are out of the market. Most tyre manufacturers intend to mount car and truck sensors in the tyre wall to corner the market. The instrument makers will take the receiver end on light vehicles. At the moment there is chaos because the market is full of wannabes and amateurs trying to sell complete bolt on systems. I'm sure bikes will follow.

Sealed is better BTW, the air in the tyre is pretty wet because workshop compressors generally lack any form of dryer.

Andy

Hi Andy:

The big difference between the Garmin TPMS sensors and OEM-installed TPMS sensors on cars and trucks is that the user can change the battery on the Garmin sensors in about 30 seconds without any tools at all, whereas the batteries in automobile & truck sensors are generally not changeable at all (they are embedded in the sensor) and if the sensor is mounted within the wheel, the bead has to be broken to get at the sensor.

To change the button battery in a Garmin sensor, you just screw the cap off the top of the sensor and slide in a new battery. You don't even need to take the sensor off the top of the valve stem.

Although it would be nice if the battery lasted longer than 8 months, I have not found the need to change the battery each year to be a problem. It is a very quick and simple task to carry out.

Michael